244 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ Maroh 81,1887. 
is aston'shing how rapidly they progress in the genial 
weather of April and May. I am not inclined to find 
fault with the backward state of Strawberries in March, 
as they are well rested, and it argues in favour of their 
starting freely and strongly into growth as soon as favour¬ 
able weather occurs. Late growth also enables those 
who have been neglecting their plantations to put them 
in good order before the season is too far advanced. 
If the beds or rows are old, and have occupied the 
same ground for many years, annual dressings of manure 
should be applied to them, and these may be put on now 
w.tli as much benefit as at any other time. If the plants 
are growing close together in beds or wide rows manure, 
it forked in at the outer edge, would not benefit the plants 
generally ; but in such cases, if the manure is not dug in 
but simply spread amongst the plants as a surface dress¬ 
ing, it will improve them greatly. Short manure is the 
best for the purpose, as it soon settles down in the vacan¬ 
cies amongst the plants, and any which remains is by 
fruiting time washed so clean that it acts as a mulching 
and keeps the fruit from the soil Where the plants are 
growing singly a small quantity of good manure should be 
placed round each plant. Where they are in narrow 
rows the manure may be forked in just under the sur¬ 
face and as close to the roots as possible. 
I many cases Strawberry plants are allowed to grow 
until all trace of a row or bed has been lost, and such 
plants soon produce fruit of a very inferior kind, but they 
may be improved wondt rfully by cutting the plants well 
in with a spade, clearing the detached part away and 
manuring heavily along the sides of the plants which 
remain. This is an operation which should also have 
immediate attention. Some of our Strawberries which 
are growing in rows have extended until the rows be¬ 
came too close, and one day this week we ro >ted up 
ever} alternate row, cleared them away, and manured 
and forked the ground. Now the remaining rows have 
plenty of space, and this and the manure will cause them 
to improve so much as almost to become young plants of 
the best quality, while the crop this year will be a full one. 
I do not believe in the system of renewing Strawberry 
plantations every three or four years. Some of the most 
profitable plantations we possess have occupied their pre¬ 
sent quarters for fourteen years, and now that we have 
been dressing them as above indicated the crop this year 
will, I am sure, be as good as ever. I daresay s une of 
y ur readers who intend forming a new Strawberry bed 
last season may have allowed the time to pass until it was 
too late to do so. This is a common occurrence with 
many garden crops, but in the case of Strawberries they 
need not wait until the autumn again before planting, as 
this operation may be carried out in spring as well as in 
autumn, and much better now than in late autumn. By 
planting at once the young plants will soon grow and 
make much progress in the early summer months. They 
may not fruit much this season, but they will be in good 
cond tion for bearing full crops next year. In large 
gardens where ground is plentiful cultivators may plant at a 
distance of 18 inches or more apart in rows, but in small 
gardens where every inch of ground is valuable I would 
not follow this jdan, but I would plant them ahoul G inches 
apart in the form of beds 4 or 5 feet wide, and a much 
heavier crop would be obtained from a given space in this 
way than by wide planting.— A Kitchen Gardener. 
DAMPING HOUSES. 
Ik regard to “ G. L. B.’s ” question on this subject opinions differ, 
but a bouse tbat is beated with flues will require more damping in order 
to maintain a sufficient supply of moisture than a house heated with 
hot-water pipes, for a hot dry heat is most injurious to the majority of 
plants. No harm can be done in syringing Vines, especially where flues 
are the only means of supplying the heat, as it will assist growth and 
prevent the well known enemy the red spider becoming too abundant. 
Your correspondent syringes Ferns at night; but in this I do not agree, 
for by damping them so late it will be impossible for them to become 
dry before it is dark, and consequently the fronds would suffer from 
damp. In cases like this I recommend damping the stages and floors 
once or twice in the evening when going round. 
I have learned from experience that syringing Chrysanthemums is 
very beneficial in assisting their growth. In conclusion, I hope some 
of your able correspondents will take this matter up and give us their 
opinions, by which we may be able to profit.—R. Kirby, Hammerrvood. 
ROSE-GROWING FOR BEGINNERS. 
C Continued from page 227.) 
STOCKS. 
The question of stocks and their varieties is one that must 
interest the beginner before he advances very far in Rose-growing. 
With a knowledge of them he will be able to select the kind which 
will be most suitable for his land and his requirements, at the same 
time avoiding those which would be useless. The various kinds of 
stocks are standards, dwarfs, cuttings and seedlings—all these are 
Dog Roses—and Manetti and Grefferie stocks. These latter two 
are always, as far as I know, dwarfs. 
Standards are only suitable for sheltered situations. In windy 
or exposed places it is difficult to keep them on their legs, and even 
Fig. 43.—A standard Rose tree. 
if securely staked and tied the branches are always getting broken 
off during heavy gales, disfiguring the plant, and leading to dis¬ 
appointment and annoyance. The reader will have gathered from 
my article on pruning that it is much more difficult for a beginner 
to prune a standard than a dwarf plant. If the plain truth be told, 
it really is a fact, that if exhibition blooms are desired, the proper 
way to prune a standard is to cut the head off every spring, leaving 
about three buds on each shoot. When standards came into fashion 
it became necessary for the nurseryman *o bud all the varieties on 
these stocks, the result being, in most cases, the production of a lot 
of plants which resembled nothing in this woill so much as mops 
on sticks. Strictly speaking, only such varieties as are of long 
branching habit are suitable for growing in this way. When well 
done, and planted in their proper position, there is no doubt that 
standard Rose trees are beautiful objects, but we see the mop-stick 
style of growth twenty times as often as we see the other. Fig. 43 
gives my idea of what a standard Rose tree should be. With all 
its disadvantages, and they are many, the standard has one solitary 
advantage—the points where the buds are inserted, being so far 
from the ground, and in such a convenient position for the operation, 
the business of budding standards is really budding made easy. It 
is when we get down on our knees in the endeavour to insert the 
buds into a lot of seedling Briars or Manettis, that we begin to 
find out what a very painful operation budding is, especially if the 
operator is at all stout, or is troubled with a determination of blood 
to the head. 
If we want a lot of standard stocks for our own budding, the 
best way to go about the matter of procuring them is to commission 
