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ihe rooting and gi’owth of the runners, both before and after 
they are separated from the old plants. Various means may 
be employed to effect this, such as hooking down the runners 
at the first joint, or placing stones on them ; but of all methods 
which we have tried, and which comes near to Mr. Darke’s, 
that of sinking small pots in the sides of old beds and then 
fixing the joint of a runner in each, is the most efficient; be- 
cause the plants may be turned out of the pots, as soon as well 
rooted, with their balls of earth entire, without the least check 
being given to their growth. 
New beds should be prepared by double digging, and well 
pulverizing the earth ; and whatever manure is applied should 
be thoroughly broken and mixed with it. The width of the 
beds is matter of fancy. We prefer beds having two rows of 
plants only, and these rows only from a foot to eighteen inches 
asunder, with intervals of three or four feet between each dou- 
ble row. In the rows, we put the plants but from four to six 
inches apart, according to the sort. When the plants remain 
but one year in the bed, close planting does not impoverish 
them, therefore it increases the produce, and assists in keeping 
it clean. As the fruit of the double row s can be conveniently 
gathered from one side only, the alternate spaces between them 
should be left untrodden, for the runners to spread over in the 
following spring. Even if these be to be cut off, agreeably to 
Mr. Darke’s method, they are less interfered with than when 
walks are made on both sides the beds. Draining tiles placed 
along the outsides of the double rows of plants make a neat 
support for the fruit from the earth, at the same time as they 
assist in retaining moisture. The leading consideration for the 
horticulturist who renews his beds annually should be to plant 
them as early as is possible. Attention to this point cannot be 
too forcibly insisted on. The best means of effecting it is to 
prepare the new beds as soon as a few of the first runners 
have struck root, and continue to transfer the young plants to 
them, (or to Mr. Darke’s nursery beds) as they are found 
sufficiently rooted for removal. We never have, willingly, de- 
ferred the latest planting past the month of July; having seen 
the loss of a week or two in planting, with subsequent hot and 
dry weather, most materially retard the growth of the young 
plants, and consequently reduce the crop of fruit. 
