38 The Strawberry Book. 
CHAPTER VII. 
ON FORCING STRAWBERRIES. 
With the proper appliances forced strawberries can be 
raised with less trouble than any other forced fruit. If 
proper care and precaution are used, if the plants are of 
a suitable variety, well grown, and well ripened, and if 
the gardener, in forcing, makes haste slowly, failure is not 
far from impossible. The strawberry is one of the earliest. 
out-door fruits, and therefore it requires less time for per- 
fection under glass than any other; and it often happens 
that a good crop of strawberries can be grown on an un- 
occupied shelf or some other place in a green-house that 
would otherwise be useless. 
A grape vine under glass must be three years old to 
bear a good crop; a peach tree requires considerable care 
before coming into bearing; and if trees or vines under 
glass are killed, the loss is quite serious ; while, on the other 
hand, strawberry vines can be grown and got ready for for- 
cing in three months ; and even if they are not set out in the 
open ground after bearing their spring crop, the loss of the 
plants is nothing compared with the loss of a row of three- 
year-old vines. Again, forced strawberries — if the plants 
are started at the usual season — come into the market in 
advance of other hot-house fruit, and generally command 
a good price, and sometimes are sold at rates that seem 
really extravagant. 
‘With houses adapted especially for strawberry culture 
-it is extremely probable that forced strawberries can be 
raised and sold to the public at lower prices and in much 
