August 5. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
289 
in removal, a nice little ball adheres to them, of eminent 
service in giving the young plant a start. 
It is the practice, with many, to go over the runners 
betimes, and to place a stone on each required for new 
plantations; and a very good plan it is; some, however, 
go farther, and plunge small pots with prepared compost 
in them, laying one runner on the surface of each, and 
placing a stone on the runner to load it. This is, in¬ 
deed, the highest practice of all, hut we fear few find 
time to carry it out. The plants may thus he planted 
with nice halls free from all checks. Persons possessing 
small gardens, and who attend to such minutiae them -, 
selves, having little else to engage their time, may carry 
out such objects in high style; hut with gardeners in 
the country the case is far otherwise. There is so much 
mowing, sweeping, cropping, kitchen - serving, fruit¬ 
gathering, flower-tying, potting, watering, blight-doctor¬ 
ing, slug-hunting, Ac., that the gardener is obliged to 
adopt what are vulgularly termed, “ cut-and-run” plans; 
and, on the old maxim, “set a thief to catch a thief,” a 
man who has passed his lifetime amid such turmoils is 
pretty well qualified to advise concerning economy of 
labour. 
It may here be observed, with regard to the special 
bed plan, first described, that, as soon as the runners 
have extended some three to four feet, tire points may 
be chopped off with the spade; this, by preventing 
farther extension, strengthens the reserved runners, 
and enables the planters to get at them without tramp¬ 
ling. 
Modes of Planting. —Everybody knows that it is very 
common to hear the exclamation—“ My strawberries 
run too much to leaf.” Now, it sounds very well, and 
looks pretty on paper, to meet with slashing details 
about plenty of manure, Ac.; but those things require 
some cool discretion in their application. Resides the 
possible waste of manurial matters, there may come 
the disappointment—expensive disappointment! We 
hear talk of market gardeners using so much manure, 
that, fancying all circumstances alike, folks are hut 
too apt to cause a “run” upon the muck heap, thereby 
endangering its credit, totally regardless of the sayings 
of our latter-day politicians, that “ the cost of production 
must he lessened.” Let it not be supposed that we re¬ 
pudiate the benefit of manure; far from it. We set as 
high a value on our ordinary manure as anybody, not 
only for its enriching properties, but for the great value 
of the organic materials it is capable of imparting to 
hard-tilled and exhausted soils. It so happens, that 
very little of the power of selection as to soil is left to 
small gardeners, or we could at once suggest what are 
the best of all soils for the strawberry. It is well known 
that it prefers a loamy soil—a deep, sound, yet mellow 
upland loam, The majority of soils, however, where 
the strawberry must he planted, are such as belong to 
our ordinary kitchen-gardens—a friable, loose, darkish 
material, which has long since forgotten its origin. 
A slight amount of adhesiveness we hold to he a 
benefit to the strawberry, or, to speak guardedly, that 
character, which in gardening language is termed 
“sound,” in contradiction to a loose, friable, hlow-a-way 
earth. Where soils are of the latter character, means 
should he taken to alter the staple itself, independent of 
manurial application. Marl, where it is near, is a 
capital application for loose and hot soils, and as our 
Cottage Gardener travels in all directions, and has to 
advise under almost every existing condition of soil and 
circumstance, it requires something in the way of advice 
to carry out its duties and its objects. 
We have known loose, black soils, on which strawberry 
culture had signally failed, made to produce them in 
abundance by the application of clay marl. It is very 
probable that chalk, where obtainable, would be bene¬ 
ficial as part dressing; strong loam, also, may be libe¬ 
rally employed; or even clay, if the others cannot he ob¬ 
tained. This advice, of course, applies simply to the 
correction of the staple for permanent plantations ; hut , 
what is termed “ the frequent runner system” is the best | 
policy. We heartily pity those who witness the decline 
of old plantations, year by year, without an effort to 
renew their stock. This is a sad waste of land; and i 
when it is taken into consideration how very desirable 
it is to change the site for crops frequently, in further- j 
ance of a proper rotation, the omission becomes doubly 
pernicious as to its effects on a gardening system. Of 
course, in making what is termed a new plantation, to 
remain three or four years, some manurial matters are 
necessary, and, above all, deep digging. The soil 
should be half-a-yard in depth, if possible. Our practice 
has been to work fresh manures in the lower portion of 
the trench, for durability, and to introduce a more de¬ 
cayed material within a foot of the surface. This “ sets 
the plant on its legs” betimes, and in a twelvemonth’s 
time, the manure becoming somewhat exhausted, the 
plant is prevented becoming gross at the period it is 
most inclined to do so. The amount of manure must, 
of course, he regulated by the condition of the soil. It 
is almost needless to observe, that if the staple of the 
soil is too adhesive, opposite means must he taken to 
correct its tenacity. Here, sandy materials, old lime 
rubbish, cinder-ashes, or other burnt materials, sandy 
heath soil, Ac., with the addition of lime, may be called 
to the aid of the planter. The larger sorts, as the 
British Queen, Goliali, Keen's Seedling, Ac., should be 
allowed nearly three feet between the rows, and the 
plants placed one foot apart, with the design of cutting 
away alternate plants in the second season. 
Thus much for the old practice of permanent planta¬ 
tions : we come now to what we consider a superior 
practice. When we take into consideration the length 
of time that must elapse from the founding a new planta¬ 
tion in July, to the fruiting of the plants, and the extent 
of ground occupied, it becomes a question, whether the 
plants could not he encouraged as mere nursery subjects 
for a portion of the time, thus enabling the cultivator 
to work other crops for awhile. Market gardeners may 
spare their acres for standard plantations, but most 
small private gardens are of so limited a character, and 
the demands on them so multifarious, that the occupying 
even a pole or two of ground from strawberry planting 
time to November, or February, with young straw¬ 
berry plants, becomes a serious encroachment on the 
vegetable cropping. That strawberry-runners, pricked 
out in the early part of July, on rich soil, in an ex¬ 
posed situation, and removed to their fruiting quarters 
in the end of October, or even in the early part of the 
ensuing February, will produce a first-rate crop, we are 
well assured, having long practised it; and this is the 
course we recommend to the readers of this work. If 
the old plantation mode he adopted, every one is 
tempted to introduce other crops between the rows, “ to 
make the most of the ground,” as it is termed; and the 
mischief that occurs through trampling, Ac., is always 
considerable. Select, then, we say. a sunny plot; if a 
wall-border, so much the better. Make the surface, for six 
inches in depth, rich with old manurial matters; and 
prick the young plants out here as a nursery, at aboirt 
eight or nine inches apart. They must be liberally 
watered until thoroughly established, and growing 
strong, and, of course, ail weeds kept under; and by 
the end of October they will be found to he stout, com¬ 
pact plants, with firm buds. 
In this practice, we lay much stress on the ground 
being shallow, rich, and fully exposed to the whole day’s 
sun. The shallowness recommended may astonish 
some; hut, in such cases, we must banish preposses¬ 
sions, and see whether, having chalked out a defi¬ 
nite object, the means are really adapted to the end 
