1 Fes., 1898. ] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 169 
Budding can be continued during the month, and the nursery will require 
constant care to keep it free from weeds, to see that all ties are cut, and, where 
necessary, that the buds are properly started and tied up, as, unless the young 
tree is properly started and trained to a single straight stem in the nursery, 
the grower has a difficult job to get it to grow into a decent tree when it is 
permanently planted out. 
First plantings of strawberries for the production of early frait can be 
made during the month. The land should be a rich loam, deeply worked and 
carefully prepared, and, where the same is available, should receive a good 
dressing ot well-rotten farmyard manure, or, if tbis is not obtainable, then a 
dressing of 6 to 8 ewt. per acre of a mixture of Thomas’ phosphate 
or superphosphate of lime or bones and sulphate of potash, in the 
proportion of 5 ewt. of phosphate to 1 cwt. of sulphate of potash. If 
possible, choose a piece of land that can be watered, and that is as free 
from frost as possible, as, if the winter and spring are dry, a supply of 
water for irrigation will be of the greatest assistance ; and freedom from frost 
will secure early fruit. Obtain healthy runners, not old plants split up; and 
where the strawberry leaf blight is prevalent, remove and burn all old leaves 
on the runner, and dip the crown and remaining leaves, but not the roots, 
into Bordeaux Mixture to destroy the spores of the fungus causing this 
disease ; and thus obtain healthy young plants to start with. Set the plants 
out in rows 8 feet apart and 1 foot apart in the row where the plot is to be 
worked by horse power, but where the labour is by hand 2 feet between the 
rows is sufficient. If the strawberries are to be irrigated, then the land 
must be graded level, and should be laid off in double rows, there being 
4. feet between each double row, and 2 feet between the rows forming the 
double row. 
The plants should be set on a slight ridge formed from the centre of the 
double row, which is thus lower than the plants, and forms a channel along 
which the water runs, and irrigates the plants on both sides of it. 
The following are some of the best varieties of strawberries to plant :— 
Marguerite, Trollope’s Victoria, and Pink’s Prolific. Marguerite is early, 
and does well in fairly light loams, but is very subject to the leaf blight; still 
on account of its size and productiveness it pays to grow it, and keep it free 
from disease. Pink’s Prolific is a very healthy high-coloured showy fruit—good 
bearer in rich volcanic loams. ‘Trollope’s Victoria requires a rich heavy loam 
to produce the best fruit, and when grown in such a soil it is a good bearer of 
large showy fruit. There are other varieties, such as the Captain, Edith, and 
Sharpless, that are worth testing, and some varieties of local origin that may 
turn out to be of considerable value for our climate, but until such are fully 
tested it is better to stick to the three first-named sorts when planting on a 
large or fairly large scale.* 
* We recommend intending strawberry-growers to read the suggestions by Mr. Benson in his 
Orchard Notes for the month. Strawberries have proved so successful in the Blackall Range 
that it should prove an inducement to farmers to plant a fruit which is always saleable at good 
rices. Mr. Cunning, of Eudlo, has grown strawberries of phenomenal size, and states that the 
Howey finds a most congenial home in the range, no disease having yet appeared.—Ed. Q.A.J. 
