THE AMATEUR’S KITCHEN GARDEN. 255 
January in large pots, which were placed in a greenhouse 
facing south, the only protection from frost being a single 
flow and return pipe. On the 7th of March the crop was 
lifted. The tubers were of good size, the colour delicate 
white like wax, with a faint tinge of rose about the eye. 
When growing in pots they had a very pleasing appearance, 
owing to the naturally compact growth and beautiful colour 
of the haulm of this variety. 
A good bed of leaves is a great help in the production of 
early potatoes, because of the mild continuous heat and sweet • 
atmosphere they generate. Put on it six inches of a suitable 
mixture and plant out from pots when the plants are strong 
and the days are rapidly lengthening, and thenceforward the 
most important point in the cultivation is to water them care- 
fully, and always with water of the same temperature as the 
structure they are growing in. 
The Strawberry is a difficult subject to force, and yet 
like everything else very easy when you are used to it. 
When “ pushed ” on in a high temperature the berries have 
but little flavour, but slow forcing with plenty of light and 
air produces a crop equally rich in colour and flavour, and 
wonders may be done by the aid of shelter only, as in a ground 
vinery, a very freely ventilated frame, or on shelves near the 
glass in a cool orchard house. 
In any case, whether for early forcing or to be fruited late 
in a cool house, the business begins in the open ground in 
June. You must fill a lot of 60 sized pots with rich soil 
pressed in very firm, only one flat crock being put into each 
pot. Take these pots to your plantation with a lot of pegs 
cut from old birch brooms and fix in every pot a promising 
runner. This is a simple business, but it must be well done, 
for we want the earliest roots obtainable from the little 
crowns at the ends of the runners. They must be regularly 
watered and looked after, constancy being the quality most 
required in a forcer of strawberries. In from fourteen to 
twenty days after pegging down the runners they will be suffi- 
ciently rooted to be separated, but you must not separate 
them until they have made a good root hold, and in this 
business judgment is required. As soon as possible, however, 
cut them off and carry them away and pack them close to- 
gether in a sunny corner and keep well watered for about a 
week. Then let them become a little dry, and shift into 32 
