STRAWBERRY. 379 



reception of the plants. Along* the ridge a channel 

 is left, into which water is occasionally poured, and 

 which percolating down the sides keeps the soil be- 

 neath the bricks in a proper state of dampness, so 

 necessary to their growth and prolificacy. 



In the management of strawberry beds, or quar- 

 ters, in the open ground, some advise digging be- 

 tween the plants in the autumn every year ; others 

 condemn this practice, and say the hoe only should 

 be used ; perhaps both are wrong ; neither is deep 

 digging necessary, nor is the action of the hoe suffi- 

 cient ; pointing-in the surface with the remains 

 of the litter that was round plants, is certainly re- 

 quisite for the fresh roots to strike into, as well as 

 to bury weeds. 



Strawberry plants may be made to produce their 

 fruit out of season. This is done by picking off 

 all the first jiowers ; by which means the flowers 

 which would not otherwise have come forth till the 

 spring of the next year, come forth in the autumn 

 of this. By this manoeuvre, late fruit are had at a 

 time when they are highly valued, though perhaps of 

 not so high a flavour. 



The gathering and carriage of strawberries in the 

 season, gives employment to great numbers of 

 young women about London. The carriers are 

 chiefly Welch girls, who bear on their heads large 

 baskets filled with pottle-chip measures, in which 

 the fruit are gathered, and sold to the buyers. 



