April 14. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER, 
23 
firm soil in the centre of a pot, the string of the runner 
being cut after the plant has rooted freely in the pot; or, 
the runners are first laid in small 60’s, and, when rooted, 
are cut off' and potted singly into 48’s or 32’s. I like 
a number of 48’s for early-forcing, just because I thus 
secure the earlier ripening of the buds in autumn. In 
potting, the chief thing is to keep the plant well-up in 
the centre of the pot, and to place the soil round it as 
firm as possible. If the nice, sweet, mellow soil is of 
medium quality as to dryness, you cannot squeeze it too 
firm. After potting, I set the plants in a shady place 
for a few days, and then, on a hard bottom, where they 
can receive the greatest possible amount of sunlight. 
Eight-tenths of the amateur’s plants I saw last season 
were injured by the shade of walls or hedges. One, 
who was very proud of his cabbage-like Strawberry 
foliage, last autumn, seemed shocked when it was hinted 
that his ladies would not eat leaves; and he says now, 
that almost every flower has proved barren. When thus 
set fully in the sun the plants must never suffer for 
want of water; and manure-water is generally given 
Towards the end of October they must be defended 
! from continued rains by laying the pots down. During 
winter they should be plunged, and the tops, as much as 
possible, defended from frost and wet. Covering them 
with glass-sashes is the best mode of protecting them. 
Some time ago, I saw a nice lot of plants standing on 
the open ground, pots and plants alike unsheltered. 
After the vicissitudes of such a spring, I can safely 
prophecy, that the owner will not make a fortune had 
I he a guinea per ounce for all that he will gather in 
April. 
In cold places, much north of London, plants rising 
two years old are generally used. Runners are pricked 
out one summer and potted the next; or the plants 
fruiting this March and April are placed on the north 
side of a wall or hedge when taken from the house, get 
rough treatment there, in the way of resting them—in 
fact, no treatment or attention at all; and then, in the 
end of June or beginning of July, and frequently to¬ 
wards the middle of it, they have all the soil shaken 
from them, are fresh potted, shaded a little at first, and 
then fully exposed as mentioned above. These generally 
produce very plentifully, but, unless thinned very freely, 
the individual fruit is not generally so fine as from 1 
young plants. I manage Keans Seedling the best for ; 
early use, very well from runners of the previous year; j 
but I find that I must adopt the two year old system j 
with British Queens , as I. cannot get runners early ; 
enough. Those who are satisfied with a middle-sized 
fruit will find Cuthill's Black Prince an easy grown 
and very fertile variety. 
2. Treatment in the House. —I say nothing now of 
forwarding in frames, farther than that the heat should 
never bo so much as to give a check to the plants when 
moved into the house; 45° is a good medium to begin 
with; from that, to 60° of night temperature, will be 
high enough during the whole stages of their growth 
and ripening. For our early fruit, the average night 
temperature has been 55°, with a rise of from 10° 
to 15° from sunshine. A very high temperature, after 
the fruit is swelling, will hasten the ripening, but at 
the expense of flavour. We like 50° when the plants 
are in bloom, with a good rise from sunshine. Our 
early fruiting plants, in severe nights, often were at 
45°, and even lower. 
Position. — The plants must stand near the glass. 
The nearness will have to be regulated by the flatness or 
steepness of the roof, and the season of the year. Under 
a fiat roof, with an angle of about 75°, I gathered fruit 
from a shelf early in March, but the bloom almost 
touched the glass, and the shelf was as near the apex as 
would permit of light playing all round the plants. In 
a house with an angle of 45°, or still more acute, if the 
shelf was placed favourably for light all round, the 
plants would set well at twelve or fifteen inches from 
the glass. The best place I have for setting Strawberries 
is a shelf in a peacli-house, at an angle of 45°, and when 
once the peach house is started, most of the Strawberries 
are set there, and then removed elsewhere to swell. The 
house is 10^- feet inside measure. There is a shelf sus¬ 
pended by iron brackets to the roof near the top. 
Another shelf is on the top of the fruit trellis, where 
lately there was a row of ripening fruit in boxes, which 
had been moved down from the shelf near the top, after 
being set, and which was filled by those started a little 
in a frame. A third shelf is close to the fruit-wall, where 
the fruit will set after the end of March, because the sun 
then has gained more power. In February, and first part 
of March, every plant on the front shelf, as it shows bloom, 
is, if possible, moved to the shelf near the top of the 
roof. The setting of the fruit freely on the front shelf, 
after the sun gains power, explains why Strawberry 
plants will do very well in pits and frames at an angle 
as flat as 80°, after this season. Were I required to 
have Strawberries at the new year, I would bargain for 
a steep roof at an angle nearer 30° than 40°. 
An amateur, to whom I had stated that his Straw¬ 
berries would do no good on his greenhouse vinery 
stage more than three feet from the glass, told me, 
some three weeks ago, that they were as near the glass 
as the trellis-shelf in my house, a row on which was 
then ripening finely, but he forgot that every one of 
these had been moved down from the shelf near the top. 
I may say, in conclusion here, that this house fur¬ 
nishes no bad example of the cramming-and-yet-attend- 
ing-to-every-thing system. With the Vine, Peaches on 
the fruit-trellis, and from top to bottom of the back wall, 
and these three shelves, the house seems full enough 
without the successions of under crops, which, in one 
shape or another, are pretty constantly present, with 
the exception of a few months in the summer. I shall 
shortly get rid of the plants from the trellis-shell, to let 
in more light to the back wall; and, at farthest, before 
the middle of May, I like to remove the shelf near tho 
roof-top for a similar purpose. 
Amateurs must not be discouraged by a little labour. 
Something like a similar course is what the generality 
of our best gardeners must adopt. 
Watering. —This is a matter of first importance. 
Plants exposed in winter, as detailed above, often have 
the fruit-bud destroyed. When looking at the plant 
nothing seems the matter. Just so from the want or 
the excess of water after the plants are moved into the 
house. In the first case, the latent fruit-bud will become 
mummy-dried; in the second, it will be as liable to go 
off by apoplexy as a certain alderman gorged with 
turtle. The medium path is the safest The soil should 
be neither wet nor dry, until the flower-stem appears. A 
little nicety is, therefore, required in using the water- 
pail. If the plant is well raised above the centre of the 
pot there is less danger; but in forcing early, the water 
should always be poured on the soil without touching 
the centre of tire plant. After the fruit is set and swell¬ 
ing fast less care is necessary. Before that time, if 
saucers are used, go round twenty minutes alter watering 
and empty out every drop contained in the saucer. At 
any time, but especially before the fruit is swelling, tho 
Strawberry will show its resentment at being treated 
as a marsh plant. On this account, unless on shelves 
hanging over a pathway, I have discarded flats or 
pans, and substituted, as better every way, long pieces 
of turf, laid on the shelf, with the grass side down¬ 
wards, with a groove cut on the upper side for the pots 
to stand on. The turf ranges from one to one-and-a- 
half-inch thick. With the pot well drained, it is no 
easy matter to make a morass of it by this means. The 
turf serves alike for nourishment, and as a retaining 
