236 FRUIT CULTURE UNDER GLASS. 



the smaller pots, which dry most rapidly, it is well to 

 pack the space between them with half-decomposed 

 leaves or moss. In placing them, they should be quite 

 level, and have as much room as will allow each plant 

 to stand quite clear of its fellow. 



Watering must now be carefully attended to. The 

 pots being efficiently drained, and the soil firmly packed 

 in them, there is little fear of over- watering them so long 

 as they continue in active growth. In very hot weather 

 they may require watering morning and afternoon ; and 

 on the evenings of very warm days a syringing over- 

 head, just as the sun is leaving them, is very refresh- 

 ing to them. But the syringing must be discontinued 

 when the dews of autumn nights set in. As soon as 

 the roots reach the sides and bottoms of the pots, liquid 

 manure may be given every other day. Clear soot- 

 water, guano, sheep or deer's ma.nure water, are all ex- 

 cellent for strawberries. The principal point in applying 

 water is to make sure that the whole ball is thoroughly 

 soaked ; and in applying liquid manures, not to slop it 

 about the foliage, on which it leaves more or less of a 

 sediment. 



Do not allow a weed to appear in the pots ; remove 

 every attempt at runner-making ; and occasionally stir 

 the surface of the soil, adding a light sprinkling of fine 

 soil, in which is mixed a little bone-meal or soot, and 

 press all firmly down again. Under such treatment, it 

 will be found, on turning them out of their pots by the 

 end of September, that the balls appear literally roots, 

 and nothing else ; so much so, that they might be 

 thrown across the garden without the ball being broken. 

 The crowns wiU be firm, well developed, like the end of 



