176 THE FRUIT GARDEN 



too many on another occasion. Whatever the number, the layers, as we 

 may now call them, must never be allowed to suffer from drought. To 

 facilitate watering, tubs fixed on two wheels and a framework, with handles 

 to enable them to be pushed along easily, are in use in many gardens, and prove 

 most convenient. 



Other Methods of Layering. — At the commencement of this chapter 

 it was mentioned that there were other methods of rooting strawberry layers 

 besides the one here detailed at length. The two principal are those whereby 

 the runners are immediately layered into their fruiting pots, or are pre- 

 viously (instead of being placed in small pots) layered into turves, and when 

 rooted in these are eventually transferred to larger pots. Those who practise 

 the first mentioned of these two methods claim that much labour is dispensed 

 with, the strawberry plant being at once placed in the pot where it will 

 remain until it bears fruit. The medium of the small pot is thus altogether 

 done away with in this case. Where the plants grown in pots are few this 

 plan may, and, indeed, does answer, but where thousands of strawberry 

 plants are forced, and the finest possible fruit is desired, we do not advocate 

 it. In dealing with large numbers of plants, say from five to ten thousand, 

 one can imagine that the labour of transporting such a number of 6-inch 

 pots filled with soil to the strawberry plantation, and then removing when 

 rooted to the quarters assigned them for the autumn and winter, would be 

 immense. Runners so rooted also have this disadvantage, the soil in which 

 they are first placed has to serve them always, except for the very small amount 

 of fresh compost that may be given as a top dressing. And exposed, as it is, 

 to the baking heat of the summer sun (for the pots are so large and unwieldy 

 that they cannot be plunged in the ground like small ones), and, what is 

 more injurious still, to the force of the summer and autumn rains, it may 

 quickly be rendered unsuitable as a rooting medium. 



A serious drawback to layering the runners in turves instead of small 

 pots, lies in the danger incurred when removing them to the fruiting pots of 

 breaking, or otherwise damaging the roots. No doubt the layers will root 

 as freely into the turves as they do in the small pots filled with soil, but the 

 advantages of this method are so doubtful that we do not recommend it. In 

 the first place, it may be almost as expensive to obtain a sufficient number 

 of turves as it is to purchase the small pots, while the convenience of the other 

 method, and, if ordinary care is taken, the almost entire absence of risk in 

 transferring the plants to their fruiting pots make it preferable. Plants in 

 small pots can be moved about in barrows, trucks, &c., with the greatest ease, 

 and without the possibility of damaging the roots, but the same cannot be 

 said for plants rooted in turves. 



Providing the Runners. — Where strawberries are grown in large 

 quantities, and the finest quality fruits are a sine qui non, a plantation should 

 be made with the object, not of obtaining fruits from the plants, but of 

 getting runners from them ; in fact, they should be restricted to this use only. 

 It is not difBcult to believe that runners obtained from plants not allowed to 

 bear fruits, will be superior to some extent to those taken from plants which 



