72 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



nitrogen. Pure, fine-ground bone and wood ashes or muriate of 

 potash, have proved to be the cheapest and best forms in which we 

 could buy these manures, always applying them on the surface of 

 the ground after ploughing, and working them in with a harrow 

 before setting the plants, using from 1,500 to 2,500 pounds of the 

 bone, and from 500 to 800 pounds of the potash per acre, or its 

 equivalent in unleached wood ashes. 



Land that has been in cultivation for a year or two previous is 

 best. Plough this as deeply as possible early in the spring, then 

 harrow it over and over again till a perfect seed bed is formed. An 

 extra day or two spent by a man and team in a thorough prepara- 

 tion of the land will usually show itself in ease of cultivation later 

 in the season. I make it a rule on my own farm, where I work in 

 company with my brother, if it is so that neither he nor I can be 

 present to attend to the work, to tell the men to harrow it over and 

 over again, until they think they have done it thoroughly, and then 

 tell them to expend just as much more time. I have never had it 

 overdone ; I never knew a farm crop to be ruined by over-cultiva- 

 tion of the soil beforehand. When the ground is thoroughly pre- 

 pared, with a corn marker check off rows three feet apart, and set 

 the plants from twelve to twenty inches apart in the row, according 

 to the. vigor of the variety. 



Early spring is the best time in the whole year to plant ; yet 

 where one has valuable land that must produce two crops in one 

 season, early vegetables can be grown and cleared from the ground 

 by August first, and the ground planted with pot-grown plants that 

 will get well established before winter, and produce a full crop of 

 fruit the next June. These plants can be grown bv plunging two- 

 and-one-half-inch plant pots in the ground along the rows of spring- 

 set plants ; and so training the runners that the new plants will root in 

 them. Ordinarily this will take about three weeks, so if we begin the 

 first of July, we shall have a good stock of plants by August first. If 

 pistillate or imperfect flowering varieties are used, plant every third 

 row with some strong, perfect flowering variety, that blooms at the 

 same time. Too many make the mistake of planting a greater 

 number of rows of pistillates before adding the perfect bloomers to 

 fertilize them, and also make the selection of varieties without 

 regard to the time of blossoming. Cut ofl^ all blossoms or fruit 

 stalks as soon as they appear, and as soon as growth is well started, 

 begin the summer cultivation, which should be kept up once in two 



