HARDY FRUITS FOR SMALL GARDENS. 



141 



firmly pressed down among them. Strawberries should always 

 be firmly planted, and, unless the season be wet, will probably 

 need frequent waterings. A new bed made in this way in the 

 middle of August, and kept thoroughly watered, will bear a very 

 fair crop of fruit the first season. Strawberries are far better 

 planted in rows than in groups of threes. 



Raspberries, again, are much better in rows. In planting be 

 very careful to spread out the roots on all sides, and make the 

 soil firm. The canes should at once be shortened to a height 

 of 18 inches or 2 feet. They will not, of course, bear fruit 

 in this way the first summer, but they will throw up fine 

 fruiting canes for the year after. If allowed to remain -their full 

 length, and to bear fruit the first year, the roots will receive a 

 check which they will be years in outgrowing. Many growers 

 bend the canes over in a " bow " ; this form of training is very 

 pretty, and exposes the eyes more to the sun, and so the fruit is 

 more freely produced. 



The subject of Pruning is a very difficult one to treat of in a 

 small space. Standards and half- standards, and bush -trees planted 

 on the lawn and therefore presumably intended for extension, 

 will need very little pruning at all. The year of planting, unless 

 you have some knowledge of the subject yourself, or can get the 

 help and advice of some thoroughly reliable gardener, I am 

 strongly of opinion that you will do less harm to your trees 

 by leaving them all quite unpruned than to allow ignorant 

 experiments to be made upon them. Bush-trees intended to 

 be restricted in growth should, however, have the side shoots of 

 the branches well shortened back to three or four eyes every 

 year, and the leading shoots to eight or ten eyes. After the 

 first year's growth has been made, standards and other un- 

 restricted trees will only need the removal of shoots that 

 cross one another and a few inches cut off the points of strong 

 shoots. I should, however, like to repeat what I have said 

 elsewhere, that with fruit-trees on the lawn the less pruning 

 they have the more ornamental will they become. The side 

 shoots, where the foliage is dense, should be cut right back 

 to an eye in August, but the leaders of all the branches should 

 be allowed almost, if not quite, free course. 



When not wanted for fresh beds, the "runners" of Straw- 

 berries should be cut off as they appear, so as to throw all 



