584 



FRUIT GARDEN. 



just as the blossom is beginning to appear, and 

 on these the trusses of fruit will lie quite dry, 

 secured from the splashing of mud during heavy 

 rains, the moisture will be retained at the roots 

 at the time it is most required for the plants, 

 and all the advantages of increased heat will be 

 secured to the fruit which more cumbrous and 

 expensive means can afford. As soon as the crop 

 is gathered, these tiles or slates should be 

 removed, as being no longer useful. A refine- 

 ment on this mode of preserving the fruit was 

 proposed a few years ago by Mr Roberts, who 

 described his principle in a pamphlet. Of the 

 utility of his plan there can be little doubt, were 

 the expense of tiles employed not considerably 

 greater than the value of ten crops of fruit. 

 Fig. 243 represents Mr Roberts' plan : a a bed 



Fig. 243. 



ROBERTS' MODE OF GROWING STRAWBERRIES. 



of young strawberry plants, with the tiles placed 

 around them; b shows a bed with tiles placed 

 down without the plants, c shows the end of a 

 strawberry bed, with the fruit and foliage upon the 

 tiles. In this latter circumstance, the utility, in 

 our estimation, of Mr Roberts' principle only con- 

 sists. To place them around the young plants 

 must be obviously injurious, as they would de- 

 prive the roots of a considerable quantity of rain 

 during their growing season. But to place them 

 around the established plants, just as the blossom 

 is appearing, is as obviously an advantage, as the 

 fruit would lie dry and clean on their upper sur- 

 faces. These tiles, as shown at b, have a semicir- 

 cular hole cut out of their inner sides respec- 

 tively, so that in placing them around the plant, 

 the leaves being carefully held up, one tile is 

 placed on one side, and another on the other. 

 Another advantage these tiles have over paving 

 tiles or slates, as noticed above, is, that they 

 stand on flange-like edges, thus allowing a cir- 

 culation of air to act under them, and prevent- 

 ing the cold and damp from affecting them, 

 as to some extent would be the case were they 

 laid flat on the ground. Glass tiles have also 

 been recommended, but their expense precludes 

 them from general use, as reflectors of heat 

 only. They might be employed, as well as cir- 

 cular earthenware tiles, with great advantage, if 

 made the base on which to set large bell-glasses 

 (fig. 36), now dignified with the French designa- 

 tion of Cloches, and within these few months 

 brought into notice by the greatest horticultu- 

 ral oracle of the age as a new and excellent im- 

 provement, forgetting, or probably not knowing, 

 that similar glasses were in use amongst the 



London market-gardeners by the hundred more 

 than a century ago. Were each strawberry-plant 

 provided with either an earthenware or glass 

 tile, constructed as shown above by Mr Roberts, 

 and covered with a cloche, if we must call it so, 

 the advantage of accelerating the ripening of the 

 fruit, as well as securing its preservation, and, 

 no doubt, adding both to its size and flavour, 

 must be apparent. "We do not, however, mean 

 to recommend the whole strawberry plantation 

 to be covered in this way, but only such sorts, 

 or such number of plants, as may be wished to 

 ripen earlier. There are some of the finest new 

 sorts that will not prosper unless in the warm- 

 est and most favourable localities. With such 

 means, we believe, even these would ripen to 

 perfection in the coldest parts of Britain. 

 Cloches are offered, suitable for this purpose, at 

 £10 per 100. Nor is it only for this purpose 

 that they are useful ; it is by means of them, in 

 a great measure, that the Parisian gardeners are 

 enabled to produce such fine lettuces, &c, both 

 late in autumn and early in spring. 



The main crops of strawberries should be plant- 

 ed in the open quarters of the garden, where they 

 may be fully exposed to the sun, and apart from 

 the shade of trees or walls, unless in the case of 

 a plantation of the Ellon pine, Comte de Paris, 

 Myatt's Eleanor, or other late sorts, as also the 

 Alpines, plantations of which should be formed 

 in northern borders, or in as cool and some- 

 what shaded situations as the garden affords. 

 The great advantage of forming the plantation 

 in the open quarters is the rotation the change 

 of site offers, the convenience of covering the 

 crop with nets, and also the appearance of order 

 and system in the arrangement. There are 

 other modes recommended for securing late 

 crops — that of Williams is to cut off all the 

 blossoms of the Alpines early in May. This is 

 again repeated at the end of the month. To- 

 wards the end of June more blossoms appear, 

 and continue to be produced, yielding fruit until 

 cut off by the autumnal frosts. Others have 

 recommended late planting, say during the 

 month of May, and at the same time choosing 

 late-ripening sorts. Flavour is, however, greatly 

 sacrificed by all these means, if we except the 

 Alpines and Wood strawberries, which maintain 

 their flavour little impaired until killed by the 

 frost. These we have more control over than 

 any other sorts ; for, being reared from seed 

 annually, the process of sowing may be deferred 

 to a later period than we have stated above. It 

 is also a good and simple way of prolonging the 

 season of this fruit, particularly with the Alpines 

 and Woods, to plant them in 6-inch pots when 

 removed from the seed-bed, and to plunge them 

 in a cold north border, taking them up in Sep- 

 tember, and placing them in pits or frames 

 covered with glass. In this way we have 

 gathered Alpines nearly up to Christmas. 



Further, in regard to the preservation of the 

 fruit diiring its growth and ripening, some have 

 recommended laying tiles painted black around 

 the plants ; this, however, can have little effect 

 in increasing heat, as the foliage will cover the 

 tiles and prevent the direct rays of the sun from 

 falling on them. Many lay straw between the 



