Mar.] 



THE FRUIT GARDEN. 



379 



them, it is necessary that it should be trenched or deeply dug, 

 the roots of these plants penetrating to a great depth, and at 

 the same time well manured. They may be planted in rows 

 at from eighteen inches to two feet apart, according to their 

 kinds, or in beds, each containing three rows, with alleys 

 of three feet between the beds, and the rows eighteen inches 

 apart in the beds, and the plants twelve or fifteen inches apart 

 in the line, according to their sort. Choose the young plants 

 from the runners of the preceding season well rooted, and be 

 careful not to mix the sorts, while collecting the plants. In- 

 deed, every sort of strawberry, where it can conveniently be 

 done, should be grown in separate beds, and at such a dis- 

 tance, as will prevent their running into one another. Never 

 plant old plants by any means, but have the runners of the pre- 

 ceding season taken off' when well rooted, and put into nursing- 

 beds, to gain strength, they will be in good condition to plant 

 in spring. The duration of strawberry-beds depends on a 

 variety of circumstances, sometimes they will last for ten, 

 twelve, or more years, and often only for two or three crops; 

 and some cultivators only allow them to remain on the 

 ground one year. The Rev. Thos. Garnier, of Stoke, near 

 Southampton, a successful cultivator of this fruit, destroys all 

 his beds early in August, as soon as the gatherings are over, 

 and then proceeds to form new ones by trenching and ma- 

 nuring them ; he selects his plants from the strongest runners 

 of the old rejected plants. If the weather should be parti- 

 cularly hot, and the surface of the ground much parched, he 

 defers the operation of preparing and planting his beds till the 

 ground be moistened with rain. Such is the simple mode of 

 treatment whicli he has adopted for several successive years, 

 and such is his success, that he produces a greater quantity of 

 excellent fruit on a given piece of ground than that of any 

 other gardener in the county. Depth of soil, he observes, is 

 absolutely necessary, and in his opinion, it is needless to plant 

 many of the better kinds of strawbemes, where it is not of a 

 considerable depth. In this we perfectly agree with Mr. 

 Garnier, and nuist observe, that the finest and greatest crops 

 of this fruit we ever saw, were in his garden. It is not gene- 

 rally known, but it is an ascertained fact, that most straw- 



