If all has gone on well, these will now be an interesting crop, and one that will be most acceptable at table, as a companion dish to late Grapes and early Pine-Apples.

Attend carefully to what was said in last month's Calendar about crops that are swelling off and colouring. After this season we have frequently removed crops out of the higher temperature into cooler houses, just as there were two or three perfectly-ripe fruit on each pot. The cooler and drier air very much improves their flavour; and if required to stand a few days after they are fully coloured, they keep better in cooler and drier quarters. Where they are coming into bloom, on the shelves of Pine - stoves or Cucumber - houses, where a high temperature and moist atmosphere are requisite for Pines and Cucumbers, it is a good plan to move the Strawberries into a Peach-house or Vinery, where the night heat does nob range above 55° to 60°. Strawberries set more certainly at that temperature than with 10° higher; and when set, they can be moved back into their warmer quarters. After they are set, put successional lots of plants into Peach-houses and Vineries that are being started with fire-heat. They are very subject to green-fly and red-spider in heat, and those enemies must never be allowed a footing.

Strawberry Forcing #1

Till the appearance of Mr Simpson's article on this somewhat important subject, I had felt satisfied that more than thirty years of success had firmly fixed the character of Keen's Seedling as one of our very best forcing varieties. I do not question Mr Simpson's statements; on the contrary, I feel confident that he has truthfully recorded his experience: but that this Strawberry will not submit to be forced is what I cannot admit; so it would be an act of injustice to stand patiently aside and witness its degradation, without taking the part of an old and faithful servant.

I believe when I visited Wortley in company with Mr Young of the gardens at Wentworth, we saw the Strawberry plants to which Mr Simpson refers, and it was our united opinion that they were the finest we had ever seen. No one, however keen-sighted, could ever have anticipated so fatal a result. Once I found myself in the same position, and can sympathise with Mr Simpson; but my mishap did not occur from any defect in the forcing property of Keen's Seedling, but owing entirely to a different cause, which I strongly suspect lay at the bottom of Mr Simpson's failure. When I came to Tortworth, more than eighteen years ago, our plantation of this kind was to all appearance true to name, and I believed there were few rogues among them. The summer crop was a light one - certainly not more than a fourth part showed flower - of which I took but little notice, acting on the supposition that the deficiency might be caused by improper treatment. Indeed there are seasons, as most of us know, when our very best varieties fail less or more. From these our pot-plants were propagated, the runners were earlier and stronger than usual, and at the end of the growing season the crowns were thoroughly matured, and, as in Mr Simpson's case, the pots were well filled with roots.

But what was the result? Not ten plants in a hundred showed a flower-truss, and any that appeared were weak and worthless.

The succeeding year I made a complete change. I purchased a pure stock, and ever since I have had no difficulty in forcing Keen's Seedling. Our first gathering is usually during the last week in March or the first in April. It would be absurd, I think - an interference with the laws of vegetable life - to affirm that species are inconstant in character; but the same cannot be said of mere varieties, as in process of time, unless renewed by propagation, they degenerate, and become absolutely barren, or nearly so. By age the constitution becomes feeble, vitality sinks, and cultivation, however skilfully managed, fails to effect a remedy. I do not know why, but it is nevertheless true, that none of our garden fruits are so guilty of running off from the original as the Strawberry. Propagation from unfruitful plants was the sole cause of my misadventure, and I think it highly probable that Mr Simpson's defeat originated from the same source. To prevent the repetition of such an occurrence, I have yearly, while the Strawberries are in flower, all the unfruitful plants removed, which enables me to depend upon the sound state of my pot-plants. The heaviest crop and the finest berries I ever grew were from runners of the preceding autumn, planted during April in a quarter of the kitchen-garden, lifted during the first week in August with moderately-sized balls, and potted into 7-inch pots.

However satisfactory such a plan may be, it requires too much labour - more than most of us can spare, where thousands of plants have to be prepared yearly.

For many years past I have had our runners laid in their fruiting-pots, about 5 inches in diameter, which I find to be quite large enough. The plan, I think, commends itself, as the roots are not subject to damage during subsequent potting, which certainly checks growth at least ten days. Alexander Cramb.

Strawberry Forcing #2

Immediately the fruit is all picked from the earliest plants, remove them into cold pits to be hardened properly before exposure. These plants are worthy of every care, as, planted out on well-prepared ground, they not only yield the earliest runners for forcing next year, but in some cases fruit again to a limited extent in August, and invariably yield fine crops the following year. Continue to put last month's directions in force in the case of those swelling their fruit, and in bloom, as well as in the case of those ripening their crop. Put the remainder of the stock of plants into cold frames, and into such structures as cold pits, late Peach-houses and orchard-houses, so as to keep up the supply of fruit till the earliest in the open ground ripen.