382 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, September 27, 1859. 
exceptions. Cherries are partial to light and free soils, 
and, therefore, enjoy a moderate amount of manure, 
especially such as the May Dulce class, and the Morello. 
Apricots enjoy a moderate amount of manure in addition 
to a generous soil. 
But, after all, how much better a command have we 
over fruit trees by surface dressing. Here we can do as 
we like ; but put plenty of manure in the soil that fruit 
trees are planted in, and they will do as they like. This 
latter position is not always consistent with profit. Besides, 
young trees in general do not need much manure, they 
have "little work to do: give them, in general, a free 
loamy soil, and they will manage the rest themselves. 
It is rather the older and hard-cropped trees that need 
extra assistance, and here it can scarcely be misplaced. 
It is not only a question of manuring, but, in addition, a 
medium for the encouraging of surface fibres. It needs 
little argument at this period to prove the immense ad¬ 
vantage of this as a regular system. 
These are times in which the. manure question has 
become one of the most important in the kingdom. What 
between the guano importation, which concerns thousands, 
and the great sewage affair, we may plainly see the im¬ 
portance of using manures with discretion. 
In these parts, the centre of Cheshire cheese making, 
scarcely a farmer of any importance but buys guano or 
some newfangled artificial manure ; and this, on farms 
where from twenty to eighty milking cows are constantly 
kept, besides young stock, horses, &c. They, moreover, 
buy immense quantities of bone-manure, it being found 
the best renovator of dairy pasture. So that we may see 
that this manure question is a serious affair. 
The management of manures in the dung-yard is. a 
question still deserving serious attention, for it is still 
capable of much improvement. I much fear that we may 
fairly say that, what between evaporation and water- 
waste, the country loses on the average nearly twenty per 
cent. It. Eeeington. 
CULTIVATION OF THE STEAWBEEBY. 
Theee are few fruits which repay the cultivator more largely 
than this for any amount of pains bestowed upon it. In olden 
times the cultivation it received was poor and scanty; hut we 
horticulturalists seem to have awakened from ourlethargy in this 
matter, and our fruit shows are crowded with mammoth-like 
specimens of most exquisite flavour and colour. 
The soil is of much importance in this branch of culture. It 
should be a good sound loam, and if rather unctuous so much 
the better. 
My soil is a light gravelly loam ; and, being very dry, we 
trench it a yard deep, and give it three layers of muck in each 
trench, picking up the bottom, which is brought to the surface at 
the next operation. In planting we draw drills two feet six 
inches apart, and put the plants the same distance plant from 
plant in the row. 
The selection of the runners has always appeared to me to be 
an important process. In the Hautbois the males overgrow the 
females, and a fertile bed soon becomes an unfertile one. By 
rejecting the runners of such plants, and tracing each runner to a 
good fruiting plant, you may continue to get good crops for many 
years. I have long practised this with this Strawberry, and 
would apply the principle generally to all the family rather than 
take plants at random. 
I find it advantageous to lay every runner into a small pot 
before planting out, performing always this operation before the 
pot becomes matted with roots. Such plants in dry weather 
succeed much better than bits of runners without roots ; com¬ 
mencing to grow at once instead of drying up. 
The distance at which I place my plants may, perhaps, be 
thought great; but it is a first principle of mine to give my crops 
ample space for their development, and I seldom find any plant 
ungrateful for such liberality. When we plant Strawberries we 
place a row of Coleworts between each two rows of fruiting plants, 
and pull them up by the roots in early spring, leaving the whole 
space then to the Strawberries. 
I never allow Strawberries to stand more than two years upon 
a piece of ground; and the second year after bearing their full 
and principal crop they are knocked up and burnt, carefully 
spreading the ashes over the land, and thus restoring much of the 
mineral matters absorbed by the plants to the soil. 
The Alpine I plant aud destroy annually every spring, and we 
get a fine handsome crop of them when other Strawberries cease. 
Keens’ Seedling all the world knows is excellent—in fact, it is 
unsurpassed. We generally turn out a lot of forced plants on a 
south border, which bring line fruit. 
Eliza is very delicious and a good bearer; but between it and 
Omar Pacha I could never detect any difference. 
British Queen, like that sovereign lady, is the very best of its 
class, but it is delicate in constitution. The past summer has 
ripened it beautifully. It is subject to a disease in which the 
whole plant dies suddenly off, as from coup de soleil. 
Nimrod, a large and late Strawberry, identical, certainly, with 
Eleanor. 
Large Flat Hautbois, Prolific, both excellent kinds. It is 
not, perhaps, generally known that they force well. 
Grove End Scarlet, a most early and prolific scarlet, beautiful 
colour, far superior for use to Cutliill’s Black Prince. 
Filbert Pine. This is, perhaps, the most prolific and the best 
flavoured Strawberry ever raised. It is said to be rather tender 
in the north of England by Mr. Nicholson, but does extremely 
well in the southern and midland counties. 
Mammoth is the worst of all Strawberries, but its fruit is 
splendid in appearance. We grow a few of them to put in mixed 
dishes, where they are very telling. 
Sir David Dundas is a fine large Strawberry of tolerable 
flavour : it is magnificent in size. 
Surprise is a large, coarse, and almost worthless kind. 
Cinquefolia (Myatt’s), is a large and fine Strawberry; but it 
is difficult to get it well ripened up to the point. 
Globe is a Strawberry cf the British Queen class ; but there 
are few preferable to it for piquant flavour. It ought to be 
grown in every collection. 
Sir Charles Napier, a beautiful Strawberry of fine size and 
colour, and a very good forcer. 
Trollope’s Victoria, a large and prolific fruit, very good for 
forcing, rather acid. 
Prince of Wales (Ingram’s), a useful Strawberry, I have 
seen it forced in great perfection at Windsor. 
The above kinds, with the Elton Pine and about twelve of Mr. 
Nicholson’s new kinds, are what we Bliall grow this year; and 
from them I anticipate a fine succession of fruit. 
Eor the purpose of keeping the fruit clean wo use fresh straw 
under the leaves, which, if it does not meet the economical views 
of market-gardeners, preserves the fruit in a clean and wholesome 
state for a gentleman’s table. 
On all dry soils little good can be done with Strawberries in a 
hot season without plenty of water. This is the life and soul of 
them. With plenty of hot sun and abundance of this fluid the 
fruit attains to great perfection; without them it languishes. 
Therefore a good Strawberry garden should be close to a good 
supply of water: and it should be applied with an unsparing 
hand as soon as the fruit is set, giving two or three good water¬ 
ings ; the evaporation from which is prevented by the covering of 
straw, and further attention in tliis way is not necessary. 
It used to be fashionable with old gardeners to allot a particular 
piece of ground for the growth of certain crops ; and I would 
here particularly advise the abandonment of any such practice. 
We had in those days no Sollys to point out the errors of such 
practices, nr to explain the principles upon which the laws of 
fertilisation are founded ; but now that we have these advantages 
let us make use of them, by introducing for successional crops 
those vegetables which differ from their predecessors as much as 
possible. 
The Strawberry is one of our most valuable fruits for forcing 
purposes, and deserves all attention. For this purpose the very 
earliest runners should be chosen and laid into small 60-sized 
pots. Before those pots get quite full of roots they should be 
shifted into six-inch pots, into which they should be potted 
firmly in a compost of rich, unctuous loam and rotten dung, 
mixed with a little mortar rubbish. They should be well drained; 
and if a small handful of soot is dropped into the bottom of each 
pot it will prevent the entry of worms. When potted, they 
should be set upon some impervious bottom thinly, and fully 
exposed to the sun and air, and kept well supplied with water till 
the autumn—say the end of October, when they may go pretty 
dry, and be housed in any temporary glass-case, keeping them there 
