208 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
August 
Keeping in mind tliat plants of an approved sort 
are what is wanted for forcing, I shall advert to several 
methods, all of which will answer if properly con¬ 
ducted, leaving to the intelligent reader the option 
of suiting his operations to his circumstances. All 
of these methods I have practised successfully, and 
therefore I may he supposed to hold the balance with 
an even hand, being prejudiced to no system what¬ 
ever, hut merely loving that the most which com¬ 
mands success and involves least trouble and time in 
the preparation. 
The first method, then, to which I would allude is 
the taking up, not the largest, hut the middle-sized 
and smaller runners now, planting them out in beds 
three or four inches asunder, depriving them of all 
runners as they grow, encouraging their growth by 
watering, surface-stirring, nipping oft’ the flowers if 
any appear the following summer, lifting them with 
good balls in July or August of the following year 
for potting, encouraging them to root freely, sup¬ 
plying them with liquid manure, getting the buds 
ripened early in autumn, and then placing them in 
a state of rest, defended from wet and frost, until you 
wish to excite them into growth. The reason why 
the smaller and not the larger, the second and not 
the first, produced runners are chosen for this pur¬ 
pose is that the first would get too large under good 
cultivation, and in the circumstances would not he 
so apt to flower well as the second. So far as I have 
been able to determine this appears a matter of some 
importance, It will be seen that this method is 
merely an improvement upon the original system of 
going to the strawberry quarter and lifting what 
plants you consider most suitable. In either case, 
if you have plenty of choice, choose those plants 
possessed of one strong bud or centre in preference 
to those having two or three prominent buds: the 
latter seldom spur well in early forcing; for late work, 
that is, starting them in March or April, they will do 
very well. The great thing is to get the pots full of 
roots, and the buds first ripened and then rested, be¬ 
fore you proceed to force them. Although involving 
more time and labour, I have not found the system 
preferable to that detailed under method third. 
As an instance of what may be done in unfavour¬ 
able circumstances I may mention that once in the 
end of October I ascertained that it would be desirable 
to have strawberries in the following March and April, 
but no preparations whatever had been made, and a 
motley mixed lot of old plants were all that existed 
to choose from. Those possessing the boldest well- 
ripened buds were chosen, taken up, and potted, and 
immediately plunged to the rims in a slight hotbed 
made of leaves, sweepings of the lawn, &c., in order 
that new roots should be formed in the pots, care 
being taken to leave the tops of the plants completely 
exposed, unless in heavy rains and severe frosts. 
Here you will observe two principles were attended 
to :—first, as the buds were already ripened, the ob¬ 
ject was to obtain roots that would supply the means 
for the expansion of those buds when the pots were 
placed in a house with a higher temperature ; and, 
secondly, the plunging in the bed, while the top of 
the plant was exposed, brought the roots rather in 
advance of the top, a principle not sufficiently at¬ 
tended to in early forcing. The pots when examined 
were crammed with fine healthy roots at Christmas, 
and produced a very fair crop in March. 
The second method I would refer to, and highly 1 
recommended by some, is using the plants forced this ' 
year for forcing again the next; watering them 
during summer, keeping them clear of runners and j 
weeds, removing part at least of the old soil, and 
shifting them into the same sized, or larger sized, 
pots in July or August, watering, shading for a few 
days, and then exposing them on a hard surface to 
the full influence of the sun, for accelerating the 
ripening of the buds. Reasoning from analogy, I 
once had high hopes of this system ; I found that in 
the case of other plants, the longer they were forced 
the easier they were to be excited. As one of the 
first to plant out largely forced plants for the forming 
of the general plantations of strawberries, which not 
only may give you a fair return of fruit in the 
autumn, but a produce next summer so extraordinary 
as not to be equalled by any other system of plant¬ 
ing, I thought I might as well secure some of that 
vast abundance in the forcing houses. Now, though 
from following out this method I have had fair suc¬ 
cess, yet that success did not come nearly up to the 
high expectations I had formed. 
For general purposes, I therefore approve of the 
third method, such as has already been referred to in 
these pages, namely, layering the runners of the 
present year’s growth, in July and August, into small 
pots, to be shifted into larger; or placing one or 
more runners into a six-inch pot, in which it will pro¬ 
duce its fruit. One plant in a four or five-inch pot, 
commonly called 48s, will produce plentifully for the 
first crop. Many prefer having three plants in a 
six or eight-inch pot. When convenient, I prefer 
layering in small pots of from three to three and 
a half inches, usually termed (10s ; cutting the run¬ 
ner, and shifting into larger pots when the first is 
crammed with roots, because there is a tendency 
with the strawberry to send its roots to the outside 
of the pot, while the repotting method secures the 
filling of the pot with feeding mouths from the centre 
to the circumference. If you can obtain runners 
from forced plants they will be best. In layering, 
all you have to do is to bring your pots, drained and 
filled with soil, to the strawberry ground, lifting the 
young plant as soon as you can hold it conveniently, 
and fastening it in the earth in the pot with the 
thumb and a couple of fingers, and then placing a 
small stone on the layer in the pot, to juevent its 
being blown out by winds. The use of retaining 
the string or runner is to support the young plant 
until it forms roots for itself. If at this advanced 
period your young plants are rooting in the garden 
soil, save the roots carefully, and pursue a similar 
method, at least so far as your early crop is con¬ 
cerned. Allow no runners to come from your young 
plants in the pots, and as soon as possible give them 
their final shift, and set them fully exposed to the 
sun until you remove them to their winter quarters, 
choosing and placing by themselves, then, the for- 
wardest and ripest plants for the first crop. Where 
you wish to have a regular succession, have no end 
of pots, and can command glass or other material 
to keep the plants dry in winter, you may consider 
yourself fortunate, and should pot as many as you 
think you will want. As I seldom possess either of 
these conditions, and as pots not protected from wet 
are apt to become water-logged in the spring, in 
addition to those in pots I prick out a great many 
in beds as soon as the roots of the runner begin 
to peep, shade them from bright sun for a short 
time, and then, for all but the first crop, commenced 
in December, they are ready to be taken up and 
potted when wanted, requiring no protection in win¬ 
ter but sticking a few branches of spruce or laurel 
amongst them. The beds are previously well pre¬ 
pared with rotten dung. Before placing such plants 
