March 27.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
395 
decaying leaves, which are a protection as good as litter, 
until the spring? We again advert to this matter on 
- account of seeing some plots last autumn trimmed so 
sprucely for the sake of neatness, that there was scarcely 
anything to be seen but bare crowns left to the tender 
mercies of the blast. 
| Doubtless the best practice in strawberry culture is a 
very frequent renewal of the stock. We dare hardly 
recommend, without hesitation, what is termed the 
runner system, that is, depending on runners annually 
planted for the main crops. Such, in well practised 
1 liands and with the necessary appliances, may certainly 
prove very successful; but for general culture, it is by 
far the best to be guided by the condition of the plants. 
Sometimes a plantation will carry an exhausted appear¬ 
ance betimes; and not unfrequently, if the plants should 
partially miss a crop, and the ground is highly manured, 
they will grow with an invincible amount of coarseness, 
( which is not unfrequently the precursor of barrenness. 
The grub, also, sometimes commits sad havoc in a planta¬ 
tion ; and under any, or all of these circumstances, it 
I becomes a matter for consideration, whether to break up 
a plantation after the first, second, or third year. We 
I dare not advise a continuance beyond the third crop, 
; 1'or the plants generally carry an exhausted aspect by 
that time; and, indeed, it is probable that their duration 
in a state of nature is not often extended beyond that 
time. The young runners must soon establish them- 
I selves, to the prejudice of their progenitors, on the 
very vegetable remains which performed the office of 
! swaddling clothes for them; and the old stock must, at 
no very long period, vanish by means of what may be 
termed vegetable suffocation. The old stocks under 
culture in our kitchen gardens, being annually freed 
from superfluous runners, are of course unable to obtain 
a lengthened existence. 
As to spring dressing, our practice is to cut closely 
down all decayed or decaying foliage in the second 
week of March. Some of the older stock, such as 
the Keans, which scarcely form a green leaf, we at 
once cut dose over. And now we run the hand through 
all the crowns, in order to see if any more runners have 
become wedged in amongst the stocks than we have 
occasion for. The operator carries an old knife in his 
hand, and removes all that he deems superfluous. This 
done, we mulch through them, generally using a half- 
decayed material from the linings of frames or pits, 
i composed of tree leaves and manure which has gene- 
j rally been reserved in breaking up old beds during 
the frost, for the express purpose of manuring various 
culinary crops. This material is chopped to pieces 
with the spade, and forms an admirable dressing; 
and those who can procure plenty of soot, will do well 
to strew a considerable amount over the heap of mulch 
before applying it; the soot, of course, tumbling down 
i and blending with the manure in the act of filling the 
barrows or baskets. This we spread between the rows, 
from two to three inches in thickness, placing it by hand 
amongst all bare portions of the divisions of the crown 
or parent stock. 
We ought, however, to have observed in another 
place, that when plantations are two or three years old, 
i some clearing away of runners becomes necessary 
between the rows, and such may be done (of course 
previous to applying the mulch) by deep hoeing and 
raking, taking care to extirpate every runner between 
the rows. Thus treated, the plants speedily become 
covered with new foliage, which can expand freely with¬ 
out hindrance; and about the commencement of the 
blossoming period, we place straw, clean new straw, on 
each side of every row. This straw is drawn out of the 
bundle quite straight, and divested of all chaffy material, 
and is laid in bundles lengthways. Each bundle 
straightened in the hand thus constitutes a kind of 
cushion, propping the blossoms several inches above 
the soil, and, indeed, through the intervention of the 
straw, our berries do not touch the soil at all. Thus 
enjoying a free circulation of air, they attain a high 
amount of flavour, and are at all times gathered with 
facility and perfectly clean. 
Here we must offer a caution. The common mouse, 
it is well known, is a great pest to the strawberry grower 
in many places; here particularly so. As soon as our 
straw is applied, this little rogue is sure to take up his 
residence on the strawberry plot, no doubt in anticipa¬ 
tion of many a luxurious repast, coupled with comfortable 
lodgings. And, indeed, from the amount of assurance 
the little rogues suddenly seem invested with, we are 
not quite sure that these marauders do not get possessed 
with the idea that the strawing is specially directed to 
their comforts. Now for twenty-three years we have 
received an annual visitation of the kind, and we 
therefore call our traps into requisition the moment the 
straw is placed. The miscliief these animals are 
capable of occasioning is enormous. Before using traps 
we have had at least seventy-five per cent, of our fruit 
rendered worthless, the mice having founded a strong 
colony in the neighbourhood, devouring the seeds from 
the surface of the beny as soon as they possessed a 
kernel; and, indeed, nipping off' thousands of berries by 
the stock, as handily as one of our market-women could 
do it. The ground, indeed, beneath lias been at times 
covered with the berries in this state. 
The next point of good practice is to see that the 
plantation is thoroughly freed from weeds. If not at¬ 
tended to betimes, such fast growers as the groundsel, 
will spring up and produce seed unperceived amongst 
the crowns, and the offspring from which is a source of 
constant annoyance. They should, therefore, be care¬ 
fully looked over in the early part of April; and finally, 
more particularly just before the runners extend, which 
will be about the end of May. 
Watering is another great essential in strawberry cul¬ 
ture ; but with the practice here suggested of careful 
middling, much labour will be spared in this respect. 
Our practice is, providing the weather is dry, to apply one 
thorough watering when the earliest fruits are swelling off'. 
Now this is no mere sprinkling affair; it is the next thing 
to irrigation. Our soil, however, is a light, though deep, 
sandy loam, resting on clean red sand, and constitutes 
what practical men term a hungry soil. This watering 
will carry them through nearly a fortnight in the driest 
of weather; by which time they will require more, if 
drought continue; and such being the case, we repeat a 
similar application; after which, we seldom give any 
more. We are no admirers of the sprinkling plan, which 
with many crops only “ flatters to betray.” 
Enough for the present of ordinary strawberry culture. 
Turn we now our attention to the Alpine, or, as our 
French neighbours have it, the quatre saisons. Many 
persons raise these from seed, as a tender annual; and 
such practice, doubtless, produces the finest berries, and 
possibly the greatest crop, provided the seeds are sown 
early, and receive the highest of culture. Our im¬ 
mediate business, however, is with the runners, by which 
mode we have known most excellent crops produced; for 
as it is now long past the sowing period, those who desire 
late strawberries must betake themselves to summer cul¬ 
ture, for which the present period is admirably suited 
as to a commencement. The first point is situation; 
and another, scarcely secondary, is soil. 
Now this strawberry belongs to the thin-leaved section, 
of which, indeed, it—or with, perhaps, more probability, 
our common wild wood strawberry—forms the type. 
This section is somewhat liable to the attacks of the red 
spider. In order to combat this pest successfully, it is 
necessary that the soil in which they are planted should 
have a capacity for retaining some moisture during dry 
