52 



SMALL FRUIT CULTURIST. 



the grower's soil or location than any that coulJ be j»ro 

 duced elsewhere. 



PROPAGATION BY RUNNERS. 



The varieties mainly cultivated in tliis country are 

 propagated from the runners. The first produced are 

 usually the strongest and best for early planting, but 

 those that are formed later in the season are equally as good 

 when they arrive at the same age or size. A few theorists 

 have maintained that the first plants formed near the 

 parent stool were the only ones that should be used, and 

 that they were far superior to the others, and would al- 

 ways be more prolific. This assertion is not supported by 

 facts ; consequently is not worthy of a moment's thought. 

 To insure the rooting of runners, the surface of the soil 

 should be kept loose and open, and if the weather is very 

 dry at the time they are forming, it is well to go over the 

 beds and cover the new roots as they are produced. 

 When only a few very large and strong [)lants are wanted, 

 it is well to pinch off the runner just beyond the first 

 plant, that this may become strong and vigorous. 



POT PLANTS. 



In the first edition of this work I stated that it was a 

 good plan, in order to insure the safe removal of the run- 

 ners, to plunge pots filled with rich coil in the beds, and 

 let the roots strike into them, then, when well rooted, the 

 young plants could be taken up and removed with perfect 

 safety. This hint seems to have led our strawberry grow- 

 ers to introduce the pot-grown or layered plants, as a 

 distinct feature in their business, and for the past few 

 years the merits of plants thus propagated have been 

 highly extolled m nurserymen's catalogues. To propagate 

 plants in this manner is certainly far more expensive than 

 to allow the runners to take root m the ordinary way, and 

 Tfithout assistance on the part of the cultivator, and they 



