STRAWBERRIES 17 
mulching, and the removal of runners must be practised 
as in the case of established varieties. 
- Some of the seedlings are almost sure to be worthless, 
and these with the second-raters had best be rooted up 
and burned as soon as their rank has been determined. 
Promising plants should be retained and well-treated, 
and it is a good plan to layer a couple of runners of 
each, planting these out early to give them every chance 
of distinguishing themselves the next year. Only first- 
raters should be kept for trial side by side with well- 
known and standard sorts. A good seedling inay not 
always be quite good enough for distribution, but it 
may well serve as one parent for another generation of 
cross-breds, or possibly, if the grower has patience 
enough, it may be improved by selection. ‘This consists 
in selecting the finest fruits from self-fertilised flowers, 
and sowing only the best seeds, subsequently making a 
rigid selection of the resulting seedlings. 
PLANTING 
No matter what the nature of the soil, it is a matter 
of the greatest importance that planting should be done 
as early as possible. If the runners are strong enough, 
and are well rooted by the end of July, then plant them 
out at once, but in any case get the work done before 
August is over, or the yield the following summer will 
be either nil or very poor. Planted in July or August, 
-and supplied with water as necessary, strawberries give 
a very fair crop the next year, and on good land the 
fruits will be of high quality, practically all of them 
being suitable for dessert. 
Considering all that has been written anent strawberry 
culture in the horticultural press and in fruit manuals, it 
would seem at first sight a mere waste of words to give 
- B 
