164. Sucker-shoots rising abundantly afford plenty of plants ; but they should always be taken from stools in full bearing. They are planted any time from October to Feb ruary. The distance is seldom less than three feet between the plants, and the quincunx order is generally adopted, five feet being left between the rows. If the larger varie ties be planted, the distances are increased. A raspberry plantation continues good for six or seven years ; but after the lapse of that petiod, it should be entirely renewed : it is generally in perfection the third year after planting ; so that a new raspberry quarter should be prepared two years before the old one be grubbed up.
165. During summer raspberry-plants receive little at tention. The ground is repeatedly hoed, and a few of the superfluous suckers are sometimes removed. Before win ter, the ground is commonly dug and left rough. In some places the stools are dressed at this season, (November ;) and a slight crop of coleworts is put between tue rows. If this be not done, the general priming is deferred till Feb ruary or March, when the decayed stems of the former year are cut out, and the new ones regulated and tied : for there is this peculiarity about raspberry-bushes, that the stems which bear fruit in one year die in the following winter ; leaving in their place a succession of new sterns, which have been produced during the summer. Where the stools are very strong, six or eight stems are allowed to re main ; but in young or weak plants, only half that number are suffered to carry fruit. At the same time, the tender tops, which have been injured by frost and hang down, are cut off. Plants pruned or dressed before winter, it may be observed, sustain most injury from frost ; the old stems, when left, affording a degree of protection to the young shoots. In exposed situations stakes are found necessary for supporting the stems ; but in general it is thought suffi cient to twist the shoots loosely together, and to tie them at top with a strand of bass•mat : Sometimes, the tips of half the shoots on one stool are tied to half the shoots of the next ; and in this way a series of festoons or arches is formed, producing a very agreeable appearance, and at the same time affording security against the highest winds.
The raspberry-bush grows freely in any good garden soil ; but it is the better for being slightly moist. Although the place be inclosed by trees, and even slightly shaded, the plant succeeds. In an inclosed and well sheltered quarter, with rather a damp soil, containing a proportion of peat-moss, we have seen very great crops of large and well-flavoured berries produced ; for example, at Melville House, the seat of the Earl of Leven in Fifeshire. Some
times a few plants are trained against a west wall, or a trel lis or rail, and the fruit here comes more early and of larger size. By training against a north wall, the crop is propor tionally retarded.
New varieties of raspberry are easily raised from the seed ; and they come to bear in the second year.
Strawberry.
166. The 'Strawberry (Fragaria of Linnaeus) belongs to the same class and order, and natural family, as the rasp berry ; the plant is called le Fraisier. and the fruit la Fraise, by the French ; and it is the Erdbeere of the Germans. Several species of strawberry are cultivated in our gardens, and many varieties ; indeed new hybrid productions are yearly appearing. We shall mention the kinds which are at present most esteemed.
167. The Scarlet Strawberry, (Fragaria Virginiana of the Hortus liewensis.) This is the only sort of small strawber vy cultivated for the Edinburgh market, a place distinguish ed for excelling all others in abundance and excellence of this kind of fruit. It is a native of Virginia, and very dif ferent in habit from our wood plant, the leaves being dark green, of a more even surface, the flowering stem shorter, and the fruit commonly concealed among the leaves. It is a hardy species, producing plenty of fruit on high and ra ther bleak situations, near Edinburgh, where the Chili strawberry does not prosper.
168. The ?11:ine (F. collina) is larger than our wood species, the stem higher, the leaves broader; the fruit red, (sometimes white,) tapering to a point, and of considerable size. The fruit is of excellent flavour ; and being produc ed from June to November, the plant is well deserving of culture. The summer shoots, it may be mentioned, must not be cut off; for they flowbr and yield fruit the same sea son, and it is on this property that the autumn crop depends. From observing this, Mr Knight was led to a new mode of treating the alpine strawberry. He„,Lows the seeds early in the spring, in pots which he plain a moderate hot bed in April. As soon as the plants have attained sufficient size, they are planted in the open ground, where they are to remain. They begin to blossom soon after midsummer, and continue to produce fruit till stopped by the frost. The powers of life in plants thus raised, Mr Knight re marks, being quite energetic, operate more powerfully than in plants raised from seeds even in the preceding year ; and he therefore concludes, that the alpine strawberry might with propriety be treated as an annual plant.