THE STRAWBERRY. 



the soil of the beds on each side. Surface irrigation, however, appears pre- 

 ferable, because the soil being warmest there, the water will carry down 

 heat to the interior of the soil. 



1249. Culture of particular kinds. The strawberries from which it is 

 most difficult to procure good crops are the Old Pine and Myatt's Pine. The 

 Old Pine will not fruit at all unless the situation be open, and it succeeds 

 best in strong loam, though the late Mr. Keens found it thrive best 

 on a light soil. The j)lants should be kept from August to Mal'ch in 

 a nursery, at a foot apart every way, and after being j)lanted out 

 they will bear well for three years, but not longer, unless well supplied with 

 top dressing. Myatt's Pine requires a rich loam, and the plants should be 

 placed in rows, on a sloping surface to the S. or S.E., four feet apart, in order 

 that the intervals may be trenched down as soon as the plants have fruited ; 

 the runners are permitted to establish themselves on the fresh ground, and 

 remain there to fruit, while the preceding year's plants are destroyed. This 

 process, like that of growing strawberries on annual beds, must be repeated 

 every year. The Scai-let Strawhej'ry^ when only to be grown for three 

 years, may be planted in rows twenty-one inches apart, and each plant eigh- 

 teen inches distant in the row. The Hautbois, grows naturally on a clayey 

 loam or chalk, but it also, like the pine, thrives in light soil, which may be 

 well supplied with manure, which does not produce excess of foliage in this 

 variety, as it does in the old pine and some others. The rows may be two 

 feet apart, and the distance between the plants eighteen inches. In all 

 plantations of this variety a number of sterile plants will be found, which 

 as soon as they are discovered ought to be taken up and destroyed. Many 

 gardeners suppose that it is necessary to retain a number of what are termed, 

 improperly, male plants, that is, those in which the stamens are perfect, but 

 the receptacle and pistils imperfect, yet as the rudiments of all the parts 

 are evident, the plants cannot be said to be dioecious ; but it is better 

 to propagate only from hermaphrodite plants, for though some of the 

 runners of these may prove sterile, yet the greater part will be pro- 

 lific. This variety forces remarkably well and preserves its musky 

 flavour. The Alpine strawberry may be raised from seed on a bed of 

 light rich earth early in spring ; the plants will be ready to plant out in 

 beds, at a foot distance every way, in July, and they w^ill come into 

 bearing in two or three weeks afterwards. The plantation will last three 

 j^ears. A better mode than raising the Alpine strawberry from seed, is to 

 select runners from stools which have borne the largest, handsomest, and 

 best-flavoured fruit. This is the mode practised in the neighbourhood of 

 Paris (G. M., 1841, p. 266), where this strawberry is brought to a much 

 higher degree of perfection than it is in England. Late in autumn all the 

 runners and some of the lower leaves should be removed, to prevent the fruit 

 from damping off. The whitfe Alpine is generally considered as having a 

 more delicate flavour than the red. Both varieties are much weakened by 

 runners. Both force readily, and in France, two or three year old stools 

 are used for this purpose, and they are taken up and potted the autumn 

 previously to forcing them. The Green strawberry, and Wood strawberry, 

 should be treated exactly like the Alpine. 



1250. Retarding a crop.— This may be done to a certain extent by plant- 

 ing on the north side of an east and west wall, or in any situation shaded 

 from the sun, or exposed to the north ; but the most effective mode of pro- 



p p 2 



