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VIII. On the Revival of an Obsolete Mode of Managing 

 Strawberries. Communicated by the Right Hon. Sir Joseph 

 Banks, Bart. K. B. P. R. S. $c. 



Read December 2, 1806. 



Th e custom of laying straw under Strawberry Plants, when 

 their fruit begins to swell, is probably very old in this coun- 

 try : the name of the fruit bears testimony in favour of this 

 conjecture, for the plant has no relation to straw in any other 

 way, and no other European language applies the idea of 

 straw in any shape to the name of the berry, or to the plant 

 that bears it. 



When Sir Joseph Banks came to Spring Grove, in 1779, 

 he found this practice in the garden; John Smith, the 

 gardener, well known among his brethren as a man of more 

 than ordinary abilities in the profession, had used it there 

 many years ; he learned it soon after he came to London 

 from Scotland ; probably at the Neat Houses, where he first 

 worked among the market gardeners ; it is therefore clearly 

 an old practice, though now almost obsolete. 



Its use in preserving a crop is very extensive ; it shades the 

 roots from the sun ; prevents the waste of moisture by eva- 

 poration, and consequently, in dry times, when watering is 

 necessary, makes a less quantity of water suffice than would 

 be used if the sun could act immediately on the surface of 

 the mould ; besides, it keeps the leaning fruit from resting 

 on the earth, and gives the whole an air of neatness as well 



