July 18 .] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
235 
To sum up tlie whole, there is no doubt with medical 
men that health is promoted by employing—and that 
for invalids one great aid to recovery is by the use of— 
“the softest, lightest, and purest of water.” Every one 
has heard of the sick and the weakly resorting to Mal¬ 
vern to drink its renovating waters, and our readers will 
be startled, and feel more forcibly what has been said, 
I when we add, from the report before us, that “ at Mal¬ 
vern the spring water in the highest reputation for 
medicinal quality, is a water only remarkable for its 
purity.” 
Next week we shall show the consequences of using 
water for household purposes. 
THE FRUIT-GARDEN. 
Strawberry Planting. —Although much was said 
about this useful fruit at page 157, yet something more 
; may be added as advice to those who are about to make 
| more plantations, for doing which the present period is, 
| perhaps, superior to all others, as a matter of prin- 
j ciple. The pricking-out runners on reserve beds is 
an expedient generally resorted to from necessity; the 
ground in such cases being occupied with summer 
crops. We do not wish to be understood as advising the 
cottage gardener, or the amateur to aim at planting 
now, to the exclusion of other and useful objects, 
merely because planting them in July in permanent 
situations is considered the best practice. We would, 
as general advice, recommend the reserve beds, and for 
two reasons: first, in order that the owners of small 
plots may be enabled to make the most of what ground 
they have; and secondly, because if “ pricked-out ” in 
reserve beds, as we shall recommend shortly, they may 
(if spring business should press unusually severe) re¬ 
main in the reserve beds, and produce a most satisfac¬ 
tory crop. 
As, however, practice differs much in strawberry cul¬ 
ture, and also in order to give the question a full con¬ 
sideration, it may be observed, that market gardeners 
and others, who cultivate them extensively, generally 
make a point of taking a good crop of some other kind 
from between each pair of rows, during the autumn of 
the season in which they are planted; whilst at the 
same time, in nine cases out of ten, a fidl spring crop 
of some kind has preceded them. Now all this points 
at once to the propriety of determining a year, or nearly 
so, beforehand, where the succeeding plot of straw¬ 
berries shall be; in order that the manuring and work¬ 
ing necessary for the preceding crop shall leave the 
ground almost ready to receive the plants without fur- 
i ther trouble. This view of the subject, based on the 
recognition of a proper rotation of crops, is a most 
t important one, as all good gardeners and agriculturists 
are perfectly aware ; and we hope in some future paper 
to go fully into the subject, as bearing on the whole 
garden; such remarks will well befit our autumn la¬ 
bours, when we shall be better able to spare a few 
columns for the purpose; for we must soon haste to the 
pine-apple affair, and some other most pressing matters. 
Having thus opened a few of the leading considera¬ 
tions of this subject, we must proceed to advise about 
planting, and the subsequent autumn culture. 
The mode of obtaining good and early runners was 
explained in our previous paper; we will now suppose, 
that such having been carried out, plenty of all the 
necessary kinds are available. Before describing the 
mode of planting, a few remarks on kinds will be neces¬ 
sary; for as they differ so much in habit of growth it is 
necessary that this—which must in the main influence 
the distance at which they are to be planted—be taken 
into consideration. 
In former days, those kinds which were the types or 
progenitors of the present numerous kinds were not only 
few in number but much more decided in habit, and dis¬ 
tinct in character; their culture was, consequently, more 
simple. Notwithstanding this, much more abundant 
crops are produced in these days by the intermixture of 
races, although we doubt whether any decided advance 
in point of flavour has been made beyond the old Pine 
and the Hautbois. 
Varieties. —Many of the kinds introduced within the 
last few years doubtless owe their parentage to a cross 
of the two latter kinds; for the Hautbois character may 
be clearly traced both in the flavour and in the foliage. 
However to proceed, it may be observed, that most of 
the gross growing kinds, producing heavy foliage with 
long leaf-stalks, should by all means be cultivated in 
single rows; whilst those the reverse in habit may, if 
circumstances require it, be grown in beds; although 
there can be little doubt that all are the better for single 
row culture. 
The Keens seedling we cultivate with the greatest of 
success, both in beds and in rows; the British Queen 
does not succeed in beds at all; the Elton succeeds 
admirably in beds; in rows we have not succeeded 
equally well. Indeed we feel satisfied, that the latter 
invaluable strawberry, for late purposes, answers best 
by far, if allowed to spread its runners unmolested on 
the sides of the plot, the ground having received a slight 
top-dressing, without digging, previous to the runners 
starting in the spring. By this mode of culture, the 
old plants in the centre may be dug down, thus forming 
an alley between two plots of young runners, right and 
left. 
Such was the habit of that celebrated strawberry of 
some half score years since, and which was one of the 
first which bore the impress of a Hautbois cross; the 
name we forget—probably Myatt's Pine. This was a 
magnificent strawberry, but few could grow it. 
Mr. Robert Reid, late of Noblethorpe, suggested the 
above mode of culture, or nearly so; and he has re¬ 
peatedly affirmed, that by this mode he obtained supe¬ 
rior crops to any other. 
It is a common practice to grow the Alpines in beds, 
and to let them produce their runners unmolested. 
Much superior, however, are they in both size and 
quality when grown singly, or, as we prefer, in threes : 
each three forming a distinct and separate hillock or 
little bush. 
Planting. —We come now to remark on the distance 
apart, both of the rows and of the plants in the row ; 
and in doing so may be permitted to quote our present 
practice, the result of many years’ observation, and 
adopted after trying many plans in order to combine all 
the best modes of culture in one; or, in other words, to 
simplify matters as much as possible. Let us suppose 
that a plantation has to he made of the larger kinds, 
that is to say, those which ought to be grown in rows; 
and that the kinds are the Keen’s seedling and the 
British Queen. We will also take the case of a plot of 
ground exhausted by a previous crop recently removed ; 
supposing, however, that the staple or mechanical con¬ 
dition of the soil is pretty good, for we have in a previous 
paper disposed, for the present, of that portion of the 
subject. It may also be premised, that the plantation 
when made is to remain for three or four years. The 
ground should be deeply dug or trenched, and some new 
or undecomposed manure should be dug with the first 
“spit” into the bottom. Before removing the second 
spit, some manure or vegetable soil of a more decom¬ 
posed character should be introduced : placing it on the 
sui-face and digging it and the soil together. By these 
means there will be an admixture of organic materials 
