3G0 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



When the fruit season arrived I inquired about thehi. "Well," ho said, "I 

 don't get a great many berries." I asked if he had cultivated them and kept 

 out the weeds, etc. "Well, no," he replied, " they are pretty weedy." Yet 



he evidently felt disappointed that there was not more and larger fruit. 



I have mentioned these two cases to prove my statement that the varieties 

 that yield berries of superior size and flavor, under suitable treatment, will not 

 respond to neglect, and that even when the neglector has no reason to expect 

 different results from those he gets, he will feel disappointed. 



I have already indirectly indicated some of the finer varieties and hinted at 

 the way they should be grown. I wish now to state what fertilizers I have 

 found, by actual trial, to be most suitable, and what is meant by thorough 

 preparation and cultivation. It has become customary when the question is 

 asked, what is the best fertilizer for any particular crop, to answer, nothing is 

 better than well-rotted stable manure. As far as the strawberry is concerned, 

 I dissent from this answer. Not that it is not a good fertilizer for the straw- 

 berry, but that it is not the best. The strawberry, both fruit and plant, is 

 composed largely of potash and phosphoric acid : these and nitrogen are what 

 are required to be supplied. All its other elements are found in sufficient 

 quantities in most soils. Its demands in this direction are best met, so far as 

 my experience goes, by wood ashes and a compost made of equal parts of hen 

 manure and common field soil. This compost should be worked over until 

 fine enough to be taken in a basket and scattered by hand. If commenced to 

 be made this spring and thoroughly worked during the summer it will be fit 

 for use in the fall or any time thereafter. I use about ten barrels of this and 

 six barrels of unleached wood ashes to an acre. 



Now as to the preparation of the ground. If it is clayey with a clay subsoil, 

 it ought to be underdrained and subsoiled in order to provide, as far as pos- 

 sible, against drought that so frequently comes in fruiting time. But if the 

 facilities for doing this are wanting, then the top soil must be plowed or 

 spaded to its full depth, being careful not to bring the subsoil to tbe surface. 

 On this should be spread half the compost and half the ashes intended for the 

 whole plat, and well worked in with the cultivator and the drag, or the hoe and 

 the rake. Then it should be re-plowed, the balance of the manure put on, and 

 recultivated and dragged, always bearing in mind that the soil cannot be too 

 thoroughly pulverized or the fertilizer too thoroughly incorporated therewith. 

 The surface should than be made smooth by either a roller or a plank-drag. 



The plat is now ready for the plants. These may be set according to one's 

 taste and facilities for cultivating. If in a small garden, where hand cultiva- 

 tion must be used, I should set them 12 by 16 inches, in beds four feet wide; 

 where a horse could be used, one foot by three, being careful to get my rows as 

 nearly straight as possible, so that in the beginning the cultivator may be run 

 close to the plants. Some of the better varieties — such as Jucunda, President 

 Wilder, and Triomphe de Gaud — must be kept in hills in order to get profitable 

 returns. If you want large and first quality berries, all of the high class vari- 

 eties should be so kept. That is they should not be allowed to form new plants. 

 To prevent this the runners will need to be cut off about once in 10 or 1'Z days 

 during the growing season. If this is done the plants will form large stools 

 that will meet each other in the rows. A very good implement for cutting off 

 the runners is a knife shaped something like a kitchen chopping-knife fastened 

 in a long handle. "With this you can walk rapidly down the rows, cutting off 

 the runners without stopping. 



