June 27, 1S49. J 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
511 
I jURST, most luscious, and usually most productive of hardy 
fruits, the Strawberry is grown more extensively year by year 
to meet the enormous demand that exists in cities and towns for 
<the rich red berries. The culture on a large Scale is not confined 
to any particular district or specially rich soil ; but on the contrary, 
it is successfully practised from the extreme south of England to 
4he extreme north of Scotland. The popular notion which had 
become deep rooted in the minds of British gardeners, that ground 
trenched 2 or 3 feet deep and loaded with manure is essential for 
■the production of good crops of fine fruit has been somewhat 
• shaken by wide experience. There is no doubt that deep cultiva¬ 
tion is desirable for two reasons —first, the free passage of super¬ 
fluous water from the roots to the drains or subterranean reservoirs 
.in winter ; second, and not less important, the free transit upwards 
of moisture by capillary attraction under the influence of the sun 
in hot weather in summer. Given these conditions Strawberries 
grow and bear abundantly, producing the finest and best flavoured 
■of fruit in open fields, where by no stretch of the imagination can 
the land be regarded as rich in the sense in which that term is 
understood by gardeners. 
In some of the Kentish Strawberry fields the soil appears 
■half composed of gravel or shingle, of which a barrowful could 
•be raked off the surface in a length of 10 to 20 yards between the 
rows. The land is not ploughed in the ordinary way, leaving a 
hard sole, but the subsoil is well broken, provision being thus made 
for the escape of water when it might prove injurious, and for its 
presence in the form of vapour rising upwards to the roots when it 
'is most needed by the plants and crops during the season of growth. 
Strawberries in strong and even rich soil not deeply worked, or on 
dry subsoils, suffer from drought far more seriously than they do 
in sandy or gravelly soils where the water table is not far below 
the surface and the subsoil open so that the sun can and does draw 
up .supplies of moisture for the plants. It is that, with something 
else, in the poor gravelly soil in Hampshire and Mr. Sharpe’s sand 
field in Surrey which enables fine fruit and profitable crops to be 
gathered under, at first sight, such unpromising circumstances. In 
what was considered waste land in Hampshire, too poor to grow 
•agricultural crops, Strawberries are produced in abundance, twenty 
tons a day often being sent from one parish alone. Much of the 
.soil in which Strawberries are grown is reclaimed waste, the best 
•containing pebbles in abundance. Hundreds of tons of Straw¬ 
berries have been grown in Scotland on land which in its wild state 
mainly grew Broom and Heather, the soil consisting of gritty turf 
'G or 8 inches deep on a bed of rusty gravel. This “ rusty gravel ” 
was considered by the late Mr. Raitt, who was a grower of Straw¬ 
berries, to be in some way favourable to the crop, and he was 
-probably right, as the rustiness indicates the presence of iron, and 
so far as I know the Strawberry contains more of this mineral than 
any other fruit does, and also more silica. This perhaps explains 
the reason why Strawberries thrive so well in sandy and gravelly 
soils where the requisite moisture is also present when wanted. 
Mr. Sharpe’s Strawberry garden is simply a bed of sand such as 
builders rejoice in for mixing with lime for mortar, yet few persons 
grow finer fruit than he does, and for years he used no manure. 
Whether he has commenced manuring now I know not, but the fact 
remains that he his grown tons of Strawberries, planting the same 
No. 470.— Vol. XVIII., Third Series. 
ground over again year after year without using a pennyworth of 
manure of any kind ; but the sand, though as dry as powder on 
the surface, is when moved founddamp below ; its colour also suggests 
the presence of iron. It is not to be supposed the Strawberries 
obtained nothing but water ; there must be something in the poor¬ 
looking soil in which they succeed so well that is necessary for their 
sustenance. 
Poorness as applied to the soil i3 a relative term, and land that 
is deficient in the essentials for agricultural crops—hence “ poor ” 
for them—may contain the ingredient? that Strawberries need. 
What are they? For answer we must look to the constituents of 
the plants and fruit. First they contain about 90 per cent, of water ; 
of mineral substances soda predominates over potash, though that 
is considerable, as is phosphorus, a good amount of lime, and an 
unusual amount of silica and iron. Most of these ingredients are 
found in old sea beds, the result largely of marine deposits 
over, it may be, millions of years in remote age3. And as sand 
banks and gravel beds, no matter what their altitude now, have been 
formed by the washings and constitute the deposit of primordial 
seas, we may expect them to contain what Strawberries need, how¬ 
ever poor the drift may seem. Appearances in respect to soil are 
misleading, and if anyone desires ocular demonstration of this, and 
can pay a visit to the Isle of Wight, calling on Mr. C. Orchard 
at Bembridge, and inspect the tract reclaimed from the sea ar.d 
see the Peas, Potatoes, indeed almost everything that is planted,, 
luxuriating in what appears nothing but sand, he will be satisfied 
that the loose silt through which he ploughs his way is not half so 
poor as it looks, and will admit that it contains something good for 
plants, just as certainly as the seemingly poor gravel and sandy 
soil in which Strawberries thrive contains what is necessary for the 
development of fine, firm, highly coloured, and well flavoured fruit, 
for it is of better quality than that of the same varieties in enclosed 
and very highly manured gardens. Those gardens in which a large 
bulk of manure is required for Strawberries have usually a dry 
subsoil, and the added matter contribute? to the retention of 
moisture, and at the same time imparts ingredients which the soil 
lacks and which Strawberries need. In heavy and more or less 
damp soils in which Strawberries do not grow and bear satisfactorily 
a liberal addition of red gravel or sand, with supplementary dressings 
of kainite and superphosphate of lime, and in dry seasons a 
sprinkling of salt, would, in all probability, effect an improvement 
and have a more beneficial effect than would result from gorging 
the land with ordinary stable or farmyard manure that may or may 
not contain what the crop requires. This is a long preamble to 
“ Noble at home,” but it leads the way, if in a little roundabout 
manner, yet safely. And something appeared to be called for to 
account, if in a crude way, for the extraordinary growth of the 
plants and splendid fruit produced in what, to all appearance, is 
very poor and sandy soil with no manure added. 
Mr. Thomas Laxton, it may be remarked, resides at Bedford, 
and it is a mistake to address letters to him at Girtford, where the 
noblest of Strawberries was raised, and where it has this year prc- 
duced the finest fruit that has realised the highest price of any 
grown in the open air and sent to the London market. A ton had 
been sold up to the 21st inst., and 20 tons of such fruit would have 
sold equally well, for the best of whatever is in daily demand in London 
is bought with avidity at good prices, no matter how great the bulk 
may be. It is lower grade produce, and later, with which salesmen 
are overwhelmed that compels its disposal at prices that are equally 
unsatisfactory to the cultivator and consignee. Mr. Laxton obtains 
the best prices for his best fruit in London ; the smaller, which he 
sorts out, and of smaller varieties, he sends elsewhere, where he 
can do better with it than in London. There is, however, very 
little second grade produce in Noble, and this is equal to scores of 
tons of what is regarded as first grade produce of such varieties as 
the Yicomtesse, and even of not a few consignments of Sir Joseph 
Paxton and President. It is not, however, the size of Noble that 
No. 2126 .—Vol. LXXX., Old Series. 
