July 2, 1885. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
1 
2 
Th 
Reigate. Hitchin, Bath, and Shepperton Show3. 
S 
F 
Tunbridge Wells. 
4 
S 
Crystal Palace Rose Show ; Eltham. 
5 
SUN 
Fifth Sunday after Trinity. 
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M 
7 
TU 
National Rose Society’s Show, Kensington. 
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Wimb’edon; Sutton. 
THE ROYAL STRAWBERRY GARDENS. 
HE above is the heading of a circular that fell 
into my hands a week ago; it was adorned with 
the Royal Arms, and contained the following 
announcement:—“Thomas Sharpe begs to in¬ 
form his patrons and the public that his Straw¬ 
berries are now ripe. An early inspection is 
solicited. The public are admitted to the beds 
and allowed to gather and eat the fruit at 9d. 
each person.” As I was informed on good 
authority that the method of culture adopted by Mr. Sharpe 
is as remarkable as the manner of disposing of some of the 
produce is novel, I was impelled to inspect the plants that 
had produced the splendid dishes to which I had seen first- 
prize cards attached at more than one exhibition. 
The Royal Strawberry Gardens, then, are situated at 
Ivnowle Hill, Chertsey, but the nearest station is Virginia 
Water, a mile distant. As many persons know, the district 
is delightful and salubrious, and on that account was selected 
by the late Mr. Holloway for those princely gifts—the Hollo¬ 
way College for women, and Sanatorium for the mentally 
afflicted, on which have been expended about a million 
pounds sterling. The latter is close to the station, and is a 
magnificent pile, approached through extensive and beautiful 
grounds in which the choicest of trees, shrubs, and Conifers 
have been planted unstintinglv yet effectively. This splendid 
establishment is worthy of more than a passing glance, but 
as the Strawberries are tempting we pass to the “ gardens,” 
and find a field—of sand. 
Some twelve years ago Mr. Sharpe, who is a practical 
gardener, took this field, not for growing Strawberries, but 
to make the best he could of in growing crops generally. 
Amongst other things Strawberries were tried, and the results 
were surprising. There are now three acres of them, about 
two in bearing, and from 400 to 500 lbs. of the finest dessert 
Strawberries to be found in London have been gathered 
daily for the last ten days—so fine and also early that the 
first week’s consignments realised 2s. a pound. That is 
something for outdoor Strawberries on land that resembles 
a sandy beach from which the tide has receded. It is quite 
astonishing to see such prodigious crops of fine fruit in such 
apparently miserable soil, and the more so to learn that no 
manure in any form whatever is used in their production. 
Mr. Sharpe is not an enthusiast nursing a fad, but a quiet, 
thoughtful, industrious gardener, animated with only one 
desire—namely, cultivating his land the most profitably; and 
he would trench and manure in the orthodox manner if he 
found it advisable to do, but he does not. He trenches in 
his old beds periodically, and has tried the effects of 
manuring, but it only gave him a finer crop of leaves, adding 
nothing to the weight of the fruit, and certainly nothing to 
its quality, while the shade afforded by the stronger foliage 
impaired its colour—an important factor in produce for sale. 
It is very extraordinary, too, that in this bed of sand the 
plants last so long. One bed is seven years old, and the 
plants are laden with fruit—so much so that they will pro¬ 
bably be left another year. It is small in comparison with 
that on three-year and four-year-old plants, but ripens 
earlier, which is important, while the quality is very superior. 
Some of the beds have been trenched in, and the ground at 
once planted again without a particle of manure; and although 
this has been done twice—that is, the present is the third 
plantation on the same site—there is not the slightest 
deterioration in the crops either as regards the quantity or 
the size of the fruit. 
The plants generally are characterised by a compact 
sturdy growth and small thick leaves, the trusses rising 
above them and falling in a whorl on the ground quite 
beyond the foliage. It is a sight to see the huge fruit of 
Marguerite piled one on the other in a thick ring round the 
plants, some of them apparently bearing 2 or 3 lbs.—probably 
more. There is no need to search for them, for they posi¬ 
tively lie in heaps, not a truss and hardly a fruit being 
shaded by the foliage. 
The method of culture is briefly this : Runners, which are 
sparsely produced, are taken when they can be had after the 
fruit has been gathered, and inserted in nursery beds, where 
they remain till March, when they are put out about 2^ feet 
apart. The flower trusses that soon after appear are picked 
off, the cultivator not finding it prudent to crop the plants in 
a Rmall state, as he loses more in the end by weakening them 
than he gains at the beginning in allowing the first trusses 
to develope. They are never mulched and never watered 
artificially, for there is no well or water store in the field. 
The ground is made firm, indeed as hard as possible, and is 
then hoed systematically, so as to have an inch of loose sand 
on the surface. This really acts as a mulch, for scarcely any 
moisture can pass through it by evaporation in hot weather. 
Mr. Sharpe has been a reader of this Journal for years, and 
was impressed by the writings of the late Mr. Fish on that 
subject, and the information he has turned to practical and 
profitable account. The ground is covered with long grass 
for keeping the fruit clean, and when the season is over the 
runners are cut off, but no leaves, the litter is cleared away, 
and the hoe set to work again. That is the simple routine. 
The ground is not trenched except when turning in old beds, 
and the sand is about 20 feet deep before water is reached. 
The first quality fruit is gathered from daylight till seven 
o’clock in the morning, every fruit being without blemish, 
carefully packed in leaves in flat pound punnets, and reaches 
London by train in time for the breakfast tables of the 
affluent and first-class hotels. The “ seconds,” or smaller 
yet very good fruit, is gathered from five o’clock till dusk, 
and packed without leaves in “ deep pounds.” These punnets 
being a little wider at the bottom than the top, can be packed 
one on the other without crushing the fruit, and they are so 
arranged in large boxes. The flat pounds of prime fruit are 
arranged in shelved boxes, one side being hinged at the 
bottom, so that the door thus formed falls down, and the 
series of shelves, about 3 or 4 inches apart, are accessible 
and quickly filled, each box holding five dozen punnets. No 
doubt the porters at each end receive a little present of fruit, 
and are thus induced to take a personal interest in the 
delivery of the market consignments in good condition—a 
point of the greatest possible moment in the transmission 
of soft fruit, as 3d. or more a pound is easily rubbed off 
choice Strawberries, and much more off Grapes, by rough 
handling and faulty packing. The small fruit is sold for 
preserving in the surrounding district, and a great deal large 
and small disposed of in the “ ninepenny feasts.” 
After trying many varieties, the following are mainly 
relied on for giving a full supply of fruit for a month:— 
Marguerite and Princess Alice Maud, early; then Sir Joseph 
Paxton, Empress Eugenie, British Queen, and Comte de 
Paris following closely in the order named. Neither Black 
Prince nor Yicomtesse Hericart de Thury is of any use in 
the sand at Knowle Hill, as the fruit is too small, while 
Marguerite is as early as the Yicomtesse, with fruit of thrice 
No. 262. —Yol. XI., Third Series. 
No. 1918. —Vol. LXXIII., Old Series. 
