358 TRANSACTIONS OF THE HORTICULTURAL 



Mr. Miuier — I consider our wild plums the best for fertilizing. 

 I have found that mine do much better when fertilized by them. 



Prof. Budd — Rogers Hybrid grape, when planted with Con- 

 cords, bore full crops with us. The pollen of the Rogers grape is 

 worthless, and has to be fertilized with some other variety. 



THE STRAWBERRY. 



BY D. J. PIPER. 



In growing strawberries the preparation of the soil is one of the 

 first things to be taken into consideration. Choose any well-drained 

 piece of land on our western prairies. It will be all the better if it 

 has been in clover and pastured down. Then cover it well with com- 

 post from the hog-pen. This compost should be put on in August, 

 so as to cover the ground, and plow it four to six inches deep; then 

 pulverize with a harrow. By the latter part of September plow 

 again eight or ten inches deep, and leave the ground rough, as the 

 plow leaves it, until spring. When the frost is all out, as soon as 

 the soil is in condition to work, give it a good harrowing, pulverize 

 fine, then throw in beds or ridges three feet wide; harrow again and 

 use a roller to crush the lumps. 



Ashes and lime spread over the ground in the fall with the com- 

 post from the hog-pen make a good fertilizer for the soil. If plants 

 are received before planting time, they may be kept in layers in the 

 ground in some shady place. I have found damp moss the best 

 thing to revive wilted and drooping plants. It is much better than 

 to heel them. I always treat my plants in the manner described, 

 with moss, and never have any trouble with them since I have prac- 

 ticed this method of keeping them. I have kept strawberry plants a 

 month in damp moss, apparently as fresh as when first taken from 

 the ground. In planting I use a hoe to make the holes with. I 

 slope one side of the cut at an angle of about forty-five degrees. I 

 always make the slope from south to north, with the bottom toward 

 the north, making the cut as wide as the hoe, which gives me a good 

 chance to spread the roots out fan-shaped with one hand and draw 

 the soil onto them with the other. If it is very dry give each plant 

 about half a pint of water, and as soon as the water disappears fill 

 up with the top soil. This only need be done with plants that 

 come from a distance and are somewhat wilted. When I grow my 

 own plants I always leave some soil adhering to the roots. In a 

 good season they scarcely stop growing. In planting I stretch lines 

 three and a half or four feet apart. When I want my plants to 

 make matted rows I set them about two feet apart in the row, and 

 train the runners along the line of the row. 



