AUGUST. 
249 
vated, as the Strawberry. It is therefore fortunate that it can be 
grown in as great perfection in the small plot of land of the cottager, as 
in the largest and best walled garden. 
Strawberries are everywhere in this neighbourhood exceedingly fine, 
and most abundant this season. The wet weather of last autumn was 
favourable to the growth of the plants ; and the deep covering of snow, 
by which they were protected from the severe frosts of December and 
January last, saved them from sustaining the slightest injury. I never 
saw Strawberry plants look better in the month of March than they did 
this last season. Nor do I ever remember to have seen them push 
into growth with so much strength and vigour as they did this season. 
A good, deep, heavy loam is considered a soil suitable to the growth 
of the Strawberry; and with proper cultivation they will in general 
succeed well in it. But a suitable soil and proper cultivation will not 
always secure an abundant and fine crop of the British Queen, as I will 
presently show. 
I have always been a grower of the British Queen to a considerable 
extent, though I have not been always rewarded with a good crop for 
my labour. Six years ago I selected a piece of ground, which I con¬ 
sidered the best here for the British Queen. I had it planted with 
good strong runners, and gave them proper attention afterwards. They 
grew well, and some seasons bore some very fine fruit, and other 
seasons very few and very poor. They have borne more fruit this 
season, and much finer, than they bore the four previous seasons all put 
together. Last year they bore very little fruit; indeed, one-half the 
plants were killed the previous winter, and those that lived looked so 
yellow and sickly that I felt half inclined to dig them up. If a stranger 
had then seen them he would have pronounced the land unfit for 
their growth. 
I did not, however, dig them up ; but, instead, I had some good 
rotten manure put round the plants; as soon as there were runners fit 
for layering, I had them put into pots, and when rooted, I had all 
the rows made good with the best plants; I had the ground 
between the rows frequently hoed during the season, and had all 
the runners pinched off. In the autumn, I had a little rotten 
manure put around the plants, and the result has been this year the 
most abundant and the finest crop of British Queen Strawberries that I 
have ever seen. The British Queen is not an abundant bearer. 
Nevertheless, I never saw a more plentiful crop of fruit on any other 
kind of Strawberry. 
And not only were they abundant, but they were very fine—the 
admiration of every person who saw them. Many of the fruit weighed 
two ounces. I had pecks full of fruit which averaged an ounce and a 
half each ; and this, be it remembered, without any extra attention. 
During the very dry weather through the months of May and June, 
the plants never once had a single drop of water given them, neither 
was the fruit thinned. Had I thinned some of the fruit where finest, 
and given the plants good soakings of liquid manure whilst the fruits 
were swelling, I believe I could have obtained Strawberries of very 
great weight. 
