STRAWBERRIES.—Preparations should now be in progress for securing plants for early forcing next spring. Various methods are adopted to get strong plants, such as filling small pots with rich soil and plunging them in the strawberry patch, introducing a young plant on the pot, and removing into larger ones when rooted. Others again prepare full sized pots at once and place them in this manner, securing the young plant in both cases with a small stone laid on the surface. When close attention is paid in watering, these plans are good. An equally successful and less troublesome method is to prepare a few square yards of ground in a somewhat sheltered situation, manuring it well and digging deeply, and filling it thickly with young plants. They should be partially shaded for a few days, and duly watered. In the course of three or four weeks they will lift with good balls of earth and are potted at once in fruiting pots. Pistilo-staminate or hermaphrodite varieties are found to produce better when forced early than pistillate sorts. Root pruning of fruit trees is sometimes commendable, and the present is the proper season for its more immediate beneficial effects. It is mostly performed on young vigorous trees that show no disposition to fruit. By cutting away some of the strongest roots at this time the supply of sap will be lessened and the wood ripening process accelerated. No fruit need be expected from badly ripened wood. In nine cases out of ten the non-appearance of fruit on healthy trees arises from this cause. Mild autumn weather induces growth to a late period and sudden frosts arrive before the wood is sufficiently matured. This is more particularly noticeable on soils inclined to be wet, and here again we perceive the necessity of underground drains, in order to remove surplus water. It is an exceedingly erroneous idea that drains are worse than useless in localities where long droughts are of frequent occurrence. The truth is that draining enhances humidity during hot weather, since it enables the soil to exercise its absorbing properties to the fullest extent, there being more air in the soil water is retained in its pores, constituting a reservoir holding a lasting supply when other sources fail.