554 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. {1 Dec., 1901. 
In field culture move the ground between the rows with a horse hoe, care 
being taken not to throw the soil over the plants. For hoeing the ground 
between the plants, a Dutch hoe is best. The weeds should never be allowed to 
get a start. After the plants are established they should be mulched sufficiently 
to keep the fruit clean, and this is best done by laying some grass round the 
plants and about 1 foot wide, leaving 2 feet clear between the rows to be 
cultivated with the horse hoe’ all through the season, so that the air may 
permeate the soil freely, carrying with it the elements of water and allowing 
every shower of rain to soak into the earth. By keeping the surface soil moved, 
it acts as a mulch by preventing evaporation. 
The strawberry is as much a poor man’s fruit as the rich man’s. It will 
grow as well on a small allotment as in a 10-acre field. Few allotments are so 
small but that a perch or two could be spared for a bed, and so nearly every 
working man—no matter whether he Saealh 
pen, or a bodkin—could grow a few strawberries for his home use. I saw a 
arden of this kind a few days ago; it was in a 16-perch allotment. The owner 
trenched, manured, and planted about 2 perches at the lower end, and the 
plants were carrying a crop of fine fruit. At the end between each row one 
stock had been planted, and these were just in their prime. The man and his 
wife showed me their little garden with pardonable pride ; the good wife said she 
had more fruit than she could use, and so had been able to send some to a 
neighbour’s sick child. I felt like the old Yankee and ‘“‘ thanked Providence 
that there was at least one spot not devoted to the almighty dollar.” 
For garden culture, the plants could be put closer than in the field; 1 foot 
by 18 inches would be sufficient, and they should be allowed to remain only one 
season. When one crop of fruit is done, the plants should be dug in, the 
ground well manured and got ready for planting the following March. This 
may go on for years on the same piece of ground, provided the old plants are 
dug in and a little manure added each year. The strawberry crop is not an 
exhausting one to land. 
RHUBARB WINE. 
Ingredients for 1 gallon of wine :—6 lb. of rhubarb stalks; cut it is 
lengths of 2 inches, add to this quantity 1 gallon of cold water, place it in a 
_tub or vessel where it can remain six days, stir it up well two or three timen 
each day, then strain it off into another tub or vessel, and add 1 lemon, sliced 
very thinly, and 4 Ib. of loaf sugar. Stir the mixture altogether until the sugar 
is quite dissolved. Allow it to remain undisturbed for ten days. 
Do not disturb the sediment; strain off the liquor through a piece of 
muslin doubled. Pour all into a clean cask, and add +z. of isinglass—not 
gelatine—which has been previously dissolved in a tablespoonful of boiling 
water. , 
When it has been kept six months, pour the liquor gently from the cask 
through a wine funnel—an ordinary funnel, however, will do—place a piece 
of muslin over the mouth of the funnel to prevent any substance passing, 
Draw off into bottles, in which a lump of sugar has previously been placed. 
After allowing the wine to keep for twelve months, it will be found quite 
equal to many of the imported wines. 
If by choice it is required the wine should sparkle, lay the bottles down, 
and when drawn the wine will pour out like champagne; if placed upright, the 
wine will be still. 
Great care must be taken when bottling off the wine that there shall be 
no isinglass or any other sediment from the cask. 
is living with a pick and shovel, a ° 
