JANUARY. 
13 
highly manured. Mr. Ingram, surgeon, of Blandford, a noble Straw¬ 
berry grower, says it likes strong ground, and new plants every year. 
Indeed, he pursues an annual cultivation with his numerous sorts. 
With such good soil, with such easy access to manure, and with a 
hot, walled garden, I think it is a good plan—not for “ quantity,” but 
“ quality.” He truly observed to me, that the British Queen, to be 
anything, must be ripe to the very “ nick.” 
The Strawberry which I admire most for shape, size, beauty, and 
sweetness is Trollope’s Victoria. Mr. May, banker, of Blandford—a 
most successful Strawberry-grower—agrees with me as to the noble 
qualities of this excellent and hardy Strawberry. It requires no sugar, 
and bears better as age increases—at least, I can speak for three years. 
It is very hardy and likes room, but it is not so prolific as the next 
two which I will speak of, viz., Sir Harry and Keens’ Seedling. These 
are both excellent, hardy, prolific, and, emphatically, family Straw¬ 
berries. 
Sir Harry is a “ miracle” in itself. I planted two feet apart each 
way, in the spring of 1856, twenty-five plants ; did not crop them 
“ that” year, but kept them for this ; I think many of these plants had 
from 200 to 300 berries. I sent one plant in a bushel pan to the 
Wimborne show, where its innumerable family excited wonder and 
admiration. I could not, however, drive any of the berries of these 
twenty-five plants to the size and quality’of the berries derived from 
their runners in the fall of 1856. If you can get July runners, Sir 
Harry will show r , as a plantling, a larger crop the first year than any 
other I know of, and it will bring its noble fruit to perfection in detail. 
It is of excellent flavour and an early ripener. I gathered a fine dish 
out of doors the 17th of June this year, from the runners of 1856. It 
should be almost purple before gathered. 
Keen’s Seedling, I need hardly say, is a Strawberry that must not 
be given up for new comers. It is hardy, and with me defies the 
severest frosts and snow. It is prolific to a miracle, like the last; 
and with runners kept off, and treated as stated hereafter, it will stand 
good for at least four crops. It is a good Strawberry for preserving, as 
it ripens its crop well and at once. It has one fault—it is a bad 
traveller. I have been honoured with visits from some of the gardeners 
of the great people in the neighbourhood, to see, and admire, and 
winder at the crops of the two last Strawberries ; and truly they did 
stare. Sir Harry, like Keens’ Seedling, will long hold its own. 
The Old Carolina (getting scarce) is a great favourite of mine, and 
in beds (not singly) is a wonderful bearer, and much like, in appear¬ 
ance and flavour, the British Queen ; but it is sharper. The best way 
to grow it is to plant a foot each way, and strike out every year the 
alternate ranks; and then, having manured and “ trod ” the ground, 
peg down runners from the remaining ranks in the line vacated. 
When I was at Bath I tasted Colonel Dundas, and wondered why it 
should be £1 per hundred, while the British Queen, Keens’ Seedling, 
Victoria, and Alice Maude were four shillings. 
I tasted, at the White Hart, Kitley’s Goliath ; I thought it good 
and handsome, but it required sugar. I saw also some of the plants ; 
