250 
THE FLORIST. 
From this it is manifest that a suitable soil will not always yield an 
abundant crop. Few persons ever had a worse crop of the British 
Queen Strawberry than I had last year, and very few ever had a 
better crop than I have had this season. High as was my opinion 
always of the British Queen, it stands still higher after what I have 
had this season. I purpose, in the autumn, after the plants have done 
growing, putting plenty of rotten manure round the crowns to save 
them, in the absence of snow, from the withering effects of frost. Ad¬ 
miral Dundas, Victoria, and many other kinds have also been very fine 
this season. 
Alice Maud is a very useful Strawberry; it keeps in bearing a long 
time. Sir Harry I have had very fine, but I don’t like it, as I con¬ 
sider the flavour very coarse. Eleanor is very prolific and useful; it 
is very fine at the present date, July 18, and will continue for some 
time. For late use we have nothing yet better than Elton, which is a 
most prolific bearer, is very showy, and is also good for preserving. 
Oscar I have not yet tried. A friend of mine, a large grower of Straw¬ 
berries for market, has the Wizard of the North, but he speaks very 
unfavourably of it. 
Six or eight first-class sorts will furnish sufficient variety for private 
growers. When a great number of sorts are grown, it is very difficult 
to keep them true, they run so into one another, and the stronger gene¬ 
rally overpower the weaker. I always grow a limited number of kinds, 
and when I have proved a new sort to be better than one I grow, I 
discard the inferior one and substitute the new sort. 
The sorts of Strawberries in cultivation are very numerous, and each 
year adds to the number ; still there is room for very great improve¬ 
ment. It is a strange fact that Keen’s Seedling, raised so long since, 
is still the sort in most general cultivation, both for forcing and open 
air. Let us hope something better will, ere long, be produced. 
M. Saul. 
Stourton, Yorkshire. 
CULTURE OF TOMATOES. 
About the end of the month of last February, I sowed some seeds of 
these in a pot, which was then placed in the frame of a hotbed. When 
two or three leaves had become developed, I transferred the plants 
singly into separate pots, and deposited them in a greenhouse. On the 
17th of May, by which time the whole had become fine strong plants, 
full of flower-buds, I took three of these out of the pots without dis¬ 
turbing the roots further than shortening the taps, and sunk them in a 
border of my garden against a close paling facing the south, at a distance 
of about three yards from each other. They were then well watered with 
weak liquid manure made from fresh cowdung that was allowed to 
remain a month or two in a large cask before being used. To this a 
small quantity of Peruvian guano was added, together with home- 
manufactured bi-phosphate of lime from bone-dust—I mean clear 
liquid manure a day or two after it is made, when the thick matter has 
fallen to the bottom. 
