THE STRAWBERRY 185 



have been gathered from them. Those, however, wrho appreciate strawberries 

 in the autumn should save some of the best. For several years we made a 

 practice of keeping some hundreds of forced plants of Royal Sovereign when 

 they were removed from the houses. These were carefully attended to during 

 the summer months, all runners and weeds removed, water given, &c. Old 

 soil to the depth of about i inch was removed, and replaced with new turfy 

 soil with which some artificial manure had been mixed. During August when 

 the flowers appeared, manure water was often given, and its use continued 

 during the development of the fruits. The plants were grown in a sunny 

 position, and placed sufliciently wide apart to allow a circulation of air all about 

 them ; morning and evening they were thoroughly well syringed : this is an 

 important item, for it greatly helps to keep that pest, red spider, in check. 

 By following this treatment, and thinning the fruits to six or eight on each 

 plant, we were able to gather strawberries throughout September and part of 

 October. 



VARIETIES 



The strawberry that market growers cultivate under glass in preference to 

 any other is Royal Sovereign. And it has been the experience of most that no 

 variety produces better early fruits than Royal Sovereign. Even for fruiting 

 very early in the year it is the best we have tried. Having grown several 

 varieties side by side in order to test their respective merits for early forcing, the 

 opinions formed of them and their characteristics may be of value. It is, 

 however, to early forcing alone that these remarks apply. Probably, if these 

 strawberry plants had been placed under glass in late March or early April, 

 there would not have been so great a difference in their qualities. It should be 

 mentioned that very dull weather prevailed during the greater portion of the 

 first few weeks after the plants mentioned below were placed under glass, thus 

 accounting for the apparently long time that elapsed before flowers were 

 produced. The varieties under trial were the following : Royal Sovereign, 

 La Grosse Sucree, President, British Queen, and Keen's Seedling. On the 

 26th January fifty plants of each (with the exception of Keen's Seedling, of 

 which there were but forty) were placed under glass in a temperature of 55 

 degs. Fahr., raised after a week to 60 degs. The first variety to come into 

 flower was British Queen. On i8th February there were two flowers open 

 upon a plant of this, though, strange to say, the number remained the same for 

 ten days afterwards. It was not until ist March that more flowers expanded : 

 six were then open. No less than eleven plants of British Queen were of no 

 value, either through being totally blind, or producing puny, badly-formed 

 blossoms. Of the remaining thirty-nine, twenty-seven were in flower by 6th 

 March, the other twelve opening shortly afterwards. Next jn order came 

 President, with one flower out on 20th February, and this was quickly followed 

 by many others ; thirty-eight were open on 27th February, and by 3rd March 

 forty-six were in flower, the remaining four being blind. 



La Grosse Sucrde first opened on 23rd February. On ist March forty-two 



