78 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
smaller high-flavoured varieties; and although they have a grand appearance, 
place a dish of each before a lady or gentleman of fine taste, and it will be 
invariably found that the preference is accorded to flavour, and when we 
consider that flavour is after all the first great criterion of the excellence of all 
fruits, I think it should not, even in this case, be kept so much in the back¬ 
ground. Let me not be misunderstood : I do not wish to deprecate the practice 
of growing for exhibition, I know that it affords a great amount of pleasureable 
excitement and healthy relaxation to many worthy men, and I can truly 
sympathise with them in their exertions, and I say, Go on and prosper; but, 
at the same time, I am of opinion, that if they will take something else besides 
size and ponderosity into their list of qualifications, and insist on high flavour 
before weight, they must go back to the high-flavoured small varieties for it, 
and as they have all the machinery of past experience to guide them in their 
operations, they will not only throw a new feature, and create more excitement 
and interest in their shows, but they may reasonably hope to succeed in pro¬ 
ducing some new varieties which may be of great use to the public at large. 
Some of our richest-flavoured varieties are too small for real utility, and some 
are very thick-skinned, yet their flavour when well grown is so rich and 
superior that they cannot well be discarded except for larger varieties possessed 
of those intrinsic merits which make them valuable. I should instance the 
old Red Warrington, when well grown, as a very good model of a desirable 
size for general use; and if the flavour of the Red Champagne, Yellow Cham¬ 
pagne, Green Gascoigne and others, could be transmitted to other varieties of 
a good medium size, they would be a great boon to the general cultivator. 
It would be useless to trust to chance for these improvements, as it would 
only entail a great loss of time and labour, and therefore careful hybridisation 
must be resorted to, and only the best kinds made use of for the purpose. 
There is also another, to my mind, very important consideration to be taken 
into account, in order to increase their general usefulness, and that is, the habit 
of growth. Some of the varieties are so much inclined to weep, and spread 
along the surface of the ground, as to entail a great amount of trouble to 
preserve the fruit clean, as during heavy rains the soil is often dashed over 
them so as to render the fruit useless; and although this may be counteracted 
in various ways, and very economically by covering the ground underneath 
with straw, or long litter, yet they are so much more manageable, and the fruit 
more easily gathered when the habit of growth is erect, that in hybridising 
for an improved size accompanied by flavour this object should not be lost 
sight of, and therefore only trees of a good erect habit should be made use of 
for the female parent. I am quite aware that it is much more difficult to 
influence the habit, [and flavour, than it is the size; but that should only 
increase the interest to be derived from the pursuit, and the value of such new 
varieties would certainly compensate for all the extra trouble. 
Redleaf . John Cox. 
FORCING STRAWBERRIES. 
If any apology is needed for introducing a topic so frequently discussed 
as that relating to forcing Strawberries, it must be in the fact that I have 
found my plan so far successful, that I can confidently recommend it to others. 
I have had no great experience in testing sorts, or trying various methods. 
When some years ago, I first tried my hand at producing Strawberries, earlier 
in the season than their natural time, I adopted the plan which seemed to 
me most natural—I simply took some of the earliest runners, and laid them 
in pots filled with plain loam, pressed in rather tight. The runners were 
