July 81.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
277 
welcome-to-me, and generally, I should conceive, useful peri¬ 
odical, will, I hope, be atoned for, notwithstanding the great 
deal of matter already known which it may contain. The site 
I choose for my strawberry ground is that on which either 
my early peas, potatoes, or cauliflowers are grown; these come 
off about this time, July 12th, and allow me two months to 
well trench, manure, and pulverize the soil. I invariably, in 
trenching (two feet deep for strawberries), keep the bottom 
spit down, and if I can get it, I use a barrow-load of manure 
to each square yard of ground, mixing it equally through 
the whole body of the soil. I allow the soil to lay as rough 
as possible, after the first trenching, for a month; I then 
trench it again, hut this time add no manure, leaving the 
surface, as I proceed, quite rough, in order that the sun and 
air may act upon it as much as possible. It will settle down 
nicely by the middle of September, at which time, on the 
first favourable rain, but not till then, I place out the young 
plants for good. 
I keep a few plants of each kind of strawberry I cultivate 
in a distinct part of the garden, these I term my breeders, 
from which every runner that appears is carefully pegged 
down the moment it shews a leaf, and so on till such time 
as the required quantity is provided; those which appear 
after this on the mother plants I cut off without mercy, and 
they accompany the refuse to the dung-pit, as well as every 
fresh runner that attempts to shew itself from those previously 
pegged-down. I have now an abundance of healthy runners 
rooting, they will be ready to prick out in about 10 days; 
and I intend them to occupy a site now taken up with a row 
of Bishop’s dwarf peas, which will be off the ground by 
that time. 
So soon as these peas have done bearing, the ground will 
be well forked,—a tolerable sprinkling of rotted manure 
added, and the young plants pricked out thereon, nine 
inches apart. I take them up carefully from the ground on 
which they are pegged down with a garden trowel, allowing 
as much soil as will cling to them to do so, though in this 
operation I like to cut off the points of the young roots in 
moderation, as this induces them to send out fresh roots 
nearer home. 
After they are pricked out (in which operation I am care¬ 
ful not to bury the crowns), I keep them well watered until 
they have taken good root, I do not let them produce a 
single runner; and, of course, all weeds are eradicated from 
amongst them as they appear. I keep the ground repeat¬ 
edly scarified. 
This brings us, we will say, to the middle of September, 
when, on the first wet day, even if a thorough drenching 
should be the result, I plant out the strawberry. 
The kinds of strawberry I cultivate are Keene's Seedling, 
the British Queen, and Elton. I allow them to bear two 
years and then invariably dig them down, at least, this was 
my practice when I lived in the vicinity of Ludlow. I was 
not acquainted with the British Queen until I came here 
(Woodstock), and I find, after three years’ familiarity with 
this sort, and on this soil (a gravelly loam), I must propa¬ 
gate new plants yearly, as I find the two-year plants are apt 
to die away just before they arrive at them blooming state; 
and so far as my knowledge of them goes, I cannot prevent 
their doing so, nor can I find out any assignable cause for 
their decay. The yearling plants with which I filled up the 
rows last year are healthy, therefore, it cannot be supposed 
that the severity of winter has, in this particular case, 
anything to do with it; with the latter and former kinds I 
shall pursue my old two-year system of cultivation. 
My distances of planting-out are, for Keen’s seedling, 1 ft. 
C in. between the rows, and the same distance between the 
plants; British Queen and Elton, 2 ft. between rows, and 
1 ft. G in. between the plants. I allow an alley extra of one 
foot between every two rows of plants. 
At planting-out time, I take up the young plants from the 
ground on which they were pricked out, with tolerable balls 
of soil adhering to the roots ; in this point I am very parti¬ 
cular, and, of a necessity, the roots in taking up the plants 
become circumscribed a little by the action of the trowel or 
small spade (the latter instrument I generally use at this 
stage of the process), this mild mutilation still causes an 
increase of roots nearer the plants, and more useful members 
of them. 
I prick out my runners as near the planting ground as 
possible, in order that I may step a few paces, and deliver 
the plant directly off the small spade into the hole prepared 
for it; I need not explain the why and wherefore of this 
proceeding. I am particular in not burying the crowns of 
the plants, and in not mutilating a single leaf, if I can pos¬ 
sibly help it. Attend to watering the plants a short time, if 
necessary; eradicate all weeds, and keep the ground, but, 
mind only the surface, stirred about them; do not take a 
leaf off from them until next March, and not then, even, 
unless the leaf is withered. 
The beginning of next March;—many a cold, dreary day 
will have to be borne before that time arrives ; many a store 
of knowledge laid up in those long winter evenings; and 
many a bushel of soot saved from the winter sweeping of 
our - chimnies, for our strawberry grounds in the beginning 
of March. 
Soot, mixed with an old cucumber-bed, is a top-dressing 
I always prepare for my strawberries. I mix it at the rate 
of a peck of soot to each wheel-barrow load of the said cu¬ 
cumber-bed, and the manner I apply it is as follows :—I 
shovel, or cause to be shovelled off, about an incli-and-a-half 
of the surface-soil flanking the first row of plants; this is 
wheeled and laid in a parallel line with the last row; then 
comes the mixture of soot and manure, which is spread two 
inches thick on the surface from whence the soil was re¬ 
moved. Now step between the next two rows of plants; 
shovel the soil off in a similar manner, spreading it evenly 
over the two inches of manure, which it will slightly cover, 
and prevent the escape of the nutritious gases of the ma¬ 
nure, prevent its becoming dried by the sun and winds, and 
withal make a tidy appearance. Follow up this proceeding 
until the whole is finished; and the first soil that was re¬ 
moved will cover the last layer of manure. The rains will 
wash down the nurture of the manure just as the plants are 
coming into full life and activity, ready to take advantage of 
these good things. 
So far, so good, till the blooming period, at which time, if 
it should prove dry, I give the plants a thorough soaking 
with soap-suds and water, about half-and-half and warm, 
once a week. 
Our laundress, for years, has been in the habit of throw¬ 
ing her soap-suds away, I begged of her to allow it to be 
brought to me once a week, which she kindly acceded to. 
As Beau Brummel formerly said of starch, so I sing in 
praise of soap-suds, “ It is the man,” or, as we must say, “ It 
is the Strawberry.” It has an astonishing effect on fruit 
and vegetables, if given just as they are coming into pro¬ 
duction ; and against blight, I think, my trees can testify it 
is equally good. My odd man, when I first began to send 
him for it, I fancied thought me a little crazy, but now he 
tells me that the suds which his old woman makes he applies 
to his own garden. 
As the strawberries come into bloom, they will struggle 
to reproduce their kind in the shape of runners; these I 
treat as utter abominations ; I go over, or cause to be gone 
over, weekly, every plant with a pair of sheep-shears, and 
clip off every runner in its infancy. 
Now, in what manner to protect the fruit from becoming 
spoilt in its ripening process, is the subject on which Mr. 
Erringtdn craves facts. It is a fact, I have tried tiles, straw, 
slates, short-mown grass, and have left the fruit to take its 
chance, and I like neither way. The tiles harbour the slugs 
beneath them, preclude the air and light from the soil, and 
all become damp and stagnant about them ; slates are no 
better, but in addition become soon burning hot, or are in 
the extreme of cold ; straw encourages the mice, which not 
only nibble the wheat which remains in it, but nibble off 
numbers of the berries also; short grass, in a wet time, 
becomes mouldy, and sticks to the berries as badly as dirt; 
and leaving the fruit to be dashed and splashed on the 
ground by every pelting storm, I found the most disconsolate 
proceeding of all. The idea of this with me coincides 
exactly with Mr. Errington, when he remarks on those good 
people who go to the enormous expense of building a garden 
wall, plant choice trees, and then, in the nick of time, and 
just as they would-if-they-could, come into bearing, they allow 
the poor things to take their chance, and get no return for 
their money, or even the satisfaction of their garden looking 
decent. This is really allowing the “ feelings to go before 
the understanding.” 
