104 On the Cultivation of Strawberries. 



such roots abundantly contain ; but the organs themselves, 

 which the plants must depend upon for supplies of new food 

 in the spring, must be, to a considerable extent, destroyed. 

 This mode of treating strawberry plants is much in use 

 amongst country gardeners, and I have amply tried it myself, 

 but always with injurious effects ; and I do not hesitate to 

 pronounce it decidedly bad. 



The wide intervals recommended by Mr. Keens certainly 

 permit the fruit to be gathered with much convenience, but 

 spaces, to receive the feet of the gatherers of the fruit may 

 be easily made; and it is much better that a small number of 

 Strawberries should be destroyed, than that a large quantity 

 should fail to be produced, owing to more than necessarily 

 wide, void spaces. 



Taking off the runners is not expedient in the mode of cul- 

 ture I recommend, and, under all circumstances, this must be 

 done with judgment and caution ; for every runner is, in its 

 incipient state of formation, capable of becoming a fruit stalk, 

 and if too great a number of the runners be taken off in the 

 summer, others will be emitted by the plants, which would, 

 under other circumstances, have been transmuted into fruit 

 stalks. The blossoms, consequently, will not be formed till 

 a later period of the season, and the fruit of the following 

 year will thence be defective alike in quantity and quality : 

 and, under the mode of culture recommended, a large part of 

 the runners, when these are taken off in the spring, will be 

 required to form the new beds. 



I have found the Alpine Strawberries to succeed best, when 

 seedling plants, raised very early in the spring, or those 

 obtained from runners of the preceding year, have been 



