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XXVIII. Upon the Culture of the Strawberry. By Thomas 

 Andrew Knight, Esq. F. R. S. President. 



Read May 2, 1837. 



So much has been written upon the culture of the Strawberry, 

 and the industry of the market gardener has been so much stimu- 

 lated by the high price of the fruit in the earlier part of its season, 

 that its culture may be reasonably supposed to be scarcely capable 

 of further improvement. The results of some experiments in 

 which I have been engaged during the last three years have how- 

 ever led me to think, that I am prepared to point out some no 

 very trivial improvements of management. 



The gardener of the present time, in opposition to the practice 

 of his predecessors, usually employs plants, which are afforded by 

 the runners of the preceding year ; and such practice is perfectly 

 successful in warm situations, and after warm and favourable 

 seasons ; but it is important in such situations, and still more so 

 in situations which are less favourable, to obtain plants as early 

 as practicable in the season preceding that in which they are to 

 produce fruit. 



Every gardener knows that plants of Keen's Seedling Straw- 

 berry, which have been forced early and properly in the spring, 

 will afford, if turned out of their pots into the soil, and properly 

 watered, a second crop in the autumn. These plants have 

 usually a good many runners attached to them, which readily 

 emit abundant roots if placed in close contact with the soil and 

 plentifully supplied with water; and the plants which may be 

 obtained from these runners are greatly preferable to those which 



