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1S71. ] 
HOW TO PROLONG THE STRAWBERRY CROP. 
223 
I also find many of the Adiantums very useful for the table, especially A. 
cuneatum, with its deep green and graceful fronds, for it contrasts well with the white 
table-cloth and the silver. A. tinctum , when well grown, looks very nice on the 
table, especially -when the fronds are well coloured. I also find A. tenerum looks 
well when thus employed, on account of its drooping habit. There are a great 
many others that I could name, but I will not fill up your valuable space now. If 
desirable at some time shortly, I will make out a list of winter-flowering plants 
that I find well adapted for the table, and send you. [Do.]—S. W. 
HOW TO PROLONG THE STRAWBERRY CROP. 
'ELECT the earliest forced plants which have been taken from the forcing- 
house in March ; place them in a cold frame, and keep them sufficiently 
dry and cool to prevent growth for a month or six weeks. This affords the 
plants a period of rest which enables them to push with renewed vigour 
when planted out, and is, I think, the true key to success. If planted imme¬ 
diately they are taken from the forcing-house, they will start into growth at once 
and perhaps produce a partial crop of fruit, but a very poor one compared with 
that from the rested plants. 
Before planting, the ground should be well prepared by deep digging, and a 
very liberal dressing of well-decomposed cool manure. In planting, the roots 
should not be disturbed, except so far as to carefully remove the crocks at the 
bottom of each ball, and if planted in lines, a trench may be taken out to the 
required depth, and a thin layer of dung placed at the bottom. Great care should 
be taken to make the soil quite firm round each ball, and when finished, a liberal 
top-dressing of manure will be found beneficial by keeping the roots cool and 
moist. When the plants are in full growth, and during the time they are 
swelling their fruit, they should be occasionally deluged with liquid manure. 
I have found by experience, that a partially-shaded position is best at this 
season of the year, for when fully exposed in hot summers, the plants do not 
continue to fruit so long. By adopting this method, and by planting at intervals 
of a month, I have been enabled from a couple of hundred plants to gather 
daily up to this time (August 2 G) a good dish of fruit, without intermission since 
the ordinary out-door crop failed, and I hope to continue to do so for some time, 
as there is still abundance of fruit in every stage of maturity. 
The sorts used are Keens’ 
President.— Thomas Challis, Wilton. 
Seedling, Sir C. Napier, Sir J. Paxton, and 
i NY system of cultivation that can be adopted to prolong and lengthen 
the season of a fruit so highly and deservedly esteemed as the Strawberry 
^ is worthy of the gardener’s best attention. There are none of the sorts 
which have come under my treatment, so well suited for late bearing, as 
the Bed and White Alpines. It is a common practice and a good one with this 
