20o Modern Strawberry Growing. [July, 



summer, and comparatively slack in autumn. They thus 

 do not trouble to take the early runners, but take late ones in 

 October or November. On this two comments may be offered : 

 The first, that one quick man (or woman) can take several 

 hundreds of runners in a few days ; the second, that the period 

 of three months thus gained has an immense effect in helping 

 on the development of fruiting crowns. 



Planting Early Runners.'— -Those who grow strawberries for 

 forcing invariably make a point of getting early runners, because 

 experience has taught them that only by this means can they 

 be sure of getting plants with plump, well-developed flowering 

 crowns within a few months. They like to get the first plant on 

 each runner. It is not the fact, as is sometimes asserted, that 

 if a runner, after forming its first plant, goes on to form a 

 second and a third, the latter are worthless, and likely to give 

 barren plants. If a parent plant be itself barren (in the sense, 

 that is, of not producing flowers when it has grown to a good 

 size) it is certainly likely — nay, almost certain — to give progeny 

 that is also barren. But what we may term secondary runners 

 are not necessarily barren if the parent is fertile. While stating 

 this, however, I still think that the man who wants quick-fruit- 

 ing plants should pounce down on the first plantlet which shows 

 and secure it. 



Runners may begin to push in May or June. They should 

 b>e allowed to remain if the plants are strong ones ; but they 

 should be removed if the plants are weak. A backward plant 

 under a year old, concentrating itself on the development, of its 

 first truss of flowers, should be denuded of its runners directly 

 they show. Ripening a small crop of fruit will put quite 

 sufficient work on the plant without subjecting it to any further 

 strain. But stronger, more forward plants, which have had 

 abundance of time in which to form their crown, will be quite 

 capable of developing a crop of fruit and forming sturdy young 

 plantlets at the same time. 



The plantlet forms on the runner at a distance of a foot, 

 more or less, from the parent. The end of the runner will 

 thicken, a mass of brownish roots will form round it, and little 

 green growths, soon recognisable as leaves, will begin to push 

 out. This is the embryo plant. If we neglect it, it will proceed 

 to push out roots in the soil, and, having established itself, to 



