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CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENING. 



SMALL AND BUSH FRUITS. 



By D. T. Fish, assisted by William Carmichael. 



THE STRAWBERRY. 



OUR present race of Strawberries are the cultured 

 products of the native and other species of 

 Frag aria. Few fruits have been more improved by- 

 cross-breeding, selection, and evolution ; and yet, so 

 long as those processes were confined to native species, 

 little was effected but an enlargement of size in 

 Wood and Alpine Strawberries, or Hautbois. So 

 early as the beginning of the sixteenth century we 

 read of the former being developed to the size of 

 Mulberries, a development unknown to modern cul- 

 tivators of the same species. It was not, however, 

 until the introduction of Frag aria Chiliensis, F. grandi- 

 Jlora, and F. Virginica, that our present families of Pine 

 and Scarlet Strawberries began to be moulded into 

 their present quality and form. Some of these can 

 now also claim a very respectable antiquity. The 

 Old Scarlet has been grown in its present form for 

 two centuries ; the Roseberry or Gravesend Scarlet 

 for at least a hundred years. Keen's Seedling was 

 raised in 1820, and thirty years later the Black 

 Prince, Elton Pine, and Myatt's Eleanor, and 

 man}'- others still in cultivation — the near progeni- 

 tors of such fine varieties as British Queen, President, 

 and a host of others. 



Considering that white varieties have existed from 

 the earliest times, it seems singular that so few have 

 been or are cultivated. A White Alpine and the 

 White Carolina were extensively grown, and have 

 been improved out of the garden by the Bicton Pine, 

 a delicious white variety, well worth cultivating. 

 Possibly some of these may have infused some of 

 their white blood into such delicately-tinted sorts 

 as British Queen, Dr. Hogg, &c. But good white 

 Strawberries are rare, and can hardly be said to be 

 popular. 



There is, probably, more money made in Straw- 

 berries than in any other hardy open-air fruit. As 

 much as twenty pounds profit per acre has frequently 

 been cleared from Strawberries, and it is no uncom- 

 mon thing to hear of an acre of Strawberries being 

 worth one hundred pounds. Though a perishable 

 crop, if picked and packed with care it travels 

 safely by rail, and the smaller fruit can be made into 

 jam on the spot, or transported in tubs to the large 

 preserving houses. Picked fruit gathered over- 

 night, and delivered in London or other large towns 

 by the milk trains, generally commands a price of 

 sixpence or more per pound. 



Thoroughly preparing the ground, manuring and 

 planting, costs about twenty pounds per acre ; but 

 the crop may remain three or more years on the 



ground without any great additional expense, and it 

 would be difficult to name any other fruit that will 

 yield larger gross returns, and such liberal profits. 



The forcing of Strawberries also opens out an 

 almost new and a profitable industry. Ripe fruit in 

 March commands prices varying from sixpence to 

 two shillings per ounce. In the Royal Gardens of 

 Frogmore about one hundred thousand pots of 

 Strawberries are forced annually, and some com- 

 mercial growers probably double or treble these 

 numbers. 



The Propagation of the Strawberry. — 



Practically, there is but one mode of propagation, by 

 runners ; but division and seeds are occasionally em- 

 ployed. The best time to propagate Strawberries by 

 division is August, or early in September ; the worst 

 is the late spring. Every one must have noticed 

 that each so-called Strawberry plant, after a year 

 or two's growth, is really a bunch or tuft of plants 

 consisting of several or many crowns. It follows 

 that if these are lifted the plant may generally, 

 with careful manipulation, be converted into as many 

 plants as there are crowns. The vital points in the 

 matter are to see that each crown has roots belonging 

 to it intact, and that the root-stocks, connecting 

 root and crown, are not seriously injured. Then 

 plant at once, only leaving the crown out of the 

 ground, and pressing the earth very firmly against 

 the roots and root-stock. This mode of propaga- 

 tion succeeds best in rather light and warm soils, 

 but it is not to be recommended unless the scarcity 

 or absence of runners compels its adoption, as the 

 plants are apt to perish or stand still under such 

 severe manipulations. 



Propagation by Seeds. — Some varieties, or 

 semi-species, such as the Old Wood or Alpine Straw- 

 berry, are said to thrive best, and fruit most freely, 

 raised from seeds. The writer cannot endorse this 

 view. Alpines are so prolific of runners, and the 

 plants are often so much crowded together, that the 

 runners are thus smothered into weakness, and take 

 a long while to grow into strength after removal 

 from the plants. Hence, thinly sown and carefully 

 fostered seedlings would, doubtless, prove better than 

 such starveling runners. By planting Alpines thinly, 

 and selecting the strongest runners, they will beat 

 seedlings in vigour of growth, and assuredly equal or 

 excel them in fertility. But many elect to raise 

 their Alpines from seeds, and there is no other mode 

 of obtaining new and improved varieties. 



Select the finest fruits, whether of Alpines or 

 others, cut them in half, and eat or remove as 

 much of the centre pulp as may be, without losing the 

 seeds, which are on the exterior surface. Then care- 



