234 FRUIT CULTURE UNDER GLASS. 



the heart of the young plant. A small stone is then 

 laid on the stem immediately behind the young plant, 

 to keep it firmly in its place. A peg of wood answers 

 the same purpose, but the placing of the stone is fully 

 more convenient, and it serves to conserve moisture 

 in dry weather. All the runners should be stopped 

 beyond the plant laid, and in dry weather they require 

 to be well watered every afternoon. Managed in this 

 way, they can be removed expeditiously, and without 

 the least check, when well rooted and ready to be put 

 into their fruiting -pots, which is generally in about 

 three or four weeks after they are laid. If they are 

 required for ripening fruit, say in the early part of 

 March, they are most satisfactory when shifted into 

 their fruiting -pots between the first and middle of 

 July — a few days either earlier or later are not of 

 much importance. The guiding-point should be the 

 condition of the young plants. They should be well 

 rooted, without being what gardeners called matted. 

 A safe criterion is to shift them just as soon as they 

 are sufficiently rooted to enable them to be potted 

 without the ball being broken. When laid in fine 

 soil without pots, they should be lifted and potted 

 when sufficiently rooted to make them easily lifted 

 with balls and without mutilating their roots. 



SOIL AND POTTING, ETC. 



The size of the fruiting-pots is of much importance: 

 5- and 6-inch pots I have always found most satisfac- 

 tory. In the case of all plants from which ripe fruit are 

 to be produced by the middle of March, 5 -inch pots are 

 to be preferred. For those to be forced later in the 

 season, pots 1 inch or at most 2 inches larger are to be 



