FEBRUARY. 
21 
flavour, nd causes premature decay in many of the berries. Commence re¬ 
moving the runners as soon as they appear, and persevere in keeping them 
removed all through the season, except such as are required for propagating- 
purposes. 
Late in September give the beds a thorough revision; take away the 
mulching, and remove all leaves which have performed their office and are 
decaying. Prick up the soil to the depth of 2 inches, and cover the whole sur¬ 
face with a good coating of rotten manure; this will strengthen the plants, and 
cause them to make a good foliage for the protection of the crowns during 
winter. The same process will have to be repeated through the three following 
seasons, and this brings me to my last, though not least, leading principle, 
that of Rotation. 
I hold that the utmost time that ought to be allowed for Strawberry-beds 
to stand on the ground is the fourth season from bearing, including that year; 
they may be maintained until that time in abundant productiveness, if only 
they are planted far enough apart, and liberally treated. One great reason 
why Strawberry-beds become so soon unproductive is that the plants are 
crowded too near together in the beds, and thus rob each other both of the 
necessary nourishment, and also of that most powerful agent for success, the 
light of the sun. As soon, therefore, as the bearing season of the fourth year 
is over, that bed should be destroyed, and the ground cropped with something 
else, and should not be occupied by Strawberries again for three years, at the least. 
In order to simplify this routine of management, I divide the ground neces¬ 
sary to keep a supply into four equal parts, one of which is destroyed every 
year, and a new one planted at the other end of the plot; and in order to 
secure a variety of sorts, and also for succession, I plant single rows of the most 
useful kinds every year, and of the others only in alternate years. For econo¬ 
mical reasons the ground occupied by Strawberries ought to be all in one piece, 
not in detached portions here and there; and it is worth while to make some 
sacrifices in order to effect this object. My reason is twofold; first, the 
economy of working, and next, that to secure good and perfect fruit netting 
must be used to keep away birds of all sorts, and when only one large piece is 
to be covered, one-third of the amount of netting will be saved by following 
out a plan which I have adopted with very great success, and at no great cost 
in the long run, because netting, with care, will last four years at least. I 
drive in stakes at about 10 feet apart all over the beds, which should stand 
from 3 to 4 feet out of the ground; to the top of these stakes I tie, with 
rope yarn, long slender rods of ash or hazel in all directions, and the netting 
is stretched over all, which makes it cover so much more space than it would 
if merely laid over the plants. I use the four-yards-wide herring net, one-inch 
mesh, and fasten them together with long slender twigs of hazel or birch; they 
are thus easily fastened or separated, and the plan altogether is one which 
every gardener who is obliged to use netting will find it most advantageous to 
adopt. 
Redleaf John Cox. 
THE CULTURE OF THE FIG TREE. 
The Fig tree, it is well-known, produces one of our most wholesome 
fruits, and those who relish it, I find, are generally sanguine in the appreciation 
of its merits, although it is not relished by some. I consider it is a great 
acquisition in the dessert, and it can be successfully forced even to more advan¬ 
tage than most fruits, for two crops can easily be obtained in the same season 
from the same tree. 
