SMALL AND BUSH FRUITS. 



249 



periods ft may be needful to water the plants three 

 times in the course of the day. 



Light and Air. — It is impossible to exaggerate 

 the importance of these to success in forcing the 

 Strawberries. They are the very life of the plants 

 and of the fruit, as well as their flavour. So soon as 

 the fruit begins to colour air must be admitted freely, 

 even should it necessitate a fall of temperature to 

 60° or so. That is, in fact, a good ripening mean for 

 the filling of the fruit with flavour. 



Other minutiae of successful forcing consist in the 

 tying up of the fruit- spathes, the thinning of the 

 same to from three to six of the finest fruit on each, 

 by the removal of all the smaller ones ; the introduc- 

 tion of fresh batches of plants in succession every 

 three weeks or so to keep up the supply ; the careful 

 gathering of the ripe fruit with husks attached in 

 the early morning, or some hours before it is wanted ; 

 and the storing of it in a cool place ; the withholding 

 of manure- water so soon as the fruit changes colour ; 

 the removal of all runners so soon as they reveal 

 their presence, the removal of weeds, the prevention 

 and destruction of all insect pests, and the immediate 

 removal of the plants to the open air directly the 

 chief crops are gathered. Several sorts of Straw- 

 berries, and some few among all varieties, occasion- 

 ally reveal a tendency to continuous fruiting. But 

 such fruits are seldom worth the space occupied, and 

 the better rule is boldly to clear out the plants, as 

 already indicated, and fill the space at once with 

 advancing crops. 



Diseases and Insects.— Under favourable con- 

 ditions the Strawberry may be said to be disease-proof. 

 Occasionally, however, mildew, a species of rust, or 

 fungous pest, appears. Overhead dressings of equal 

 portions of lime, soot, and sulphur are the most effec- 

 tive palliatives. But an entire change of site and 

 soil, and a fresh start with young, clean, vigorous 

 plants, are the only cures or preventatives. All ex- 

 tremes of drought or moisture should be avoided. 

 A good deal may also be done towards insuring 

 success by selecting varieties suitable to localities. 

 For example, in many portions of East Anglia the 

 British Queen proves a bad grower and poor cropper, 

 though the self- same variety thrives well within view 

 of perpetual snow in Inverness and Aberdeenshire. 

 Other varieties have their thriving and failing 

 localities, which should be carefully noted before at- 

 tempting culture on a large scale. 



In certain places sterility prevails to such an ex- 

 tent as to assume the form of a disease ; the plants 

 grow freely, bloom profusely, but fail to set or swell 

 their fruit. Such failures have been attributed to 

 sexual and other causes, but they are mostly climatal, 



or cultural. The frost blackens the flowers, or the 

 heat and drought wither them up, or the plants are 

 badly mated to special localities, and the crops fail. 

 Very frequently a thorough soaking with water just 

 before blooming will cure sterility. A starving 

 rather than a forcing regimen is not seldom an 

 equally effective remedy for the same fault or 

 disease. 



Insects and other pests in great numbers and 

 force prey upon the plants and ripe fruits. Slugs 

 and snails of all sorts and sizes, red spider, thrip, 

 aphides, ants, beetles, grubs, mice, rats, squirrels, 

 birds, abound on the plants, or devour the fruit. The 

 third, fourth, and fifth of these pests are seldom very 

 destructive out of doors, unless in poor thin soils, 

 and hot dry seasons, but indoors they are frequently 

 troublesome. The usual remedies of fumigation, 

 over-head syringing with tobacco, soot, or sulphide 

 of potassium, in solution, will mostly clear the plants 

 of such pests. Lime and soot are the sure destroyers 

 of slugs and snails, while heavy top-dressings of 

 spent tan, barley chaff, &c, are very serviceable. 

 These and similar applications are also useful anti- 

 dotes to the attack of the grubs of the spotted garden 

 gnat, Tipula maculosa, that frequently gnaw off the 

 flower- stems level with the ground, and other larvae 

 that prey upon the roots. When such appear, how- 

 ever, the safest means of vanquishing them is to find 

 a fresh site for the Strawberries, and start with fresh 

 plants, trenching the old beds down deeply, thus 

 making an end of plants and larvae. 



As for rodents and birds, they must be trapped or 

 netted out, or otherwise they make short work of ripe 

 Strawberries, not only through what they consume, 

 but by the far greater quantities they destroy. 



Varieties. — These are very numerous, and are 

 constantly being added to. Such varieties as the 

 Hautbois partake of the character of a new fruit 

 rather than a different variety, the flavour being per- 

 fectly distinct from that of all the other sorts. In 

 securing these it is needful to stipulate that the plants 

 are from fruitful strains, as it has been held that 

 some are mostly male-flowering and fruitless, and 

 others female. But the difference lies very much in 

 the culture. 



The Black Strawberry, or Downton, is one of the 

 darkest of all Strawberries, and is useful alike for 

 dessert and preserving. 



A new autumn-fruiting species has been intro- 

 duced, Frag aria tardissima, possessing the valuable 

 property of ripening through August and September. 

 The fruit is of fair size and quality. But possibly if 

 intercrossed with existing varieties the result may 

 originate a race of autumnal-ripening Strawberries, 

 that will prove equally or more valuable than those 



