STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 57 



forty dollars per ton for our cabbages and squashes, but have to sell 

 at one-half those prices. 



If you are located near a good railroad or steamboat line, there is 

 no difficulty in finding a market for all of the strawberries you can 

 raise. I would advise one to start in with a small piece at first, 

 setting one or two standard varieties, and after having one crop he 

 will learn how to take care of them. If the outlook is then encour- 

 aging, he can branch out to meet the demand. 



SOIL AND SITUATION. 



Any land that is clear from stones is suitable for growing straw- 

 berries. Rocky land will produce them as well as any soil, but where 

 the ground has to be hoed and cultivated man}- times during the 

 season the cultivator ploughs up the stones and throwing them over 

 and on the plants ver3' often breaks off the fruit stems, which, of 

 course, is ver3' injurious, and the stones constantly coming in contact 

 with the hoe keep it dull, making progress slow and the work harder. 

 If possible, good land should be secured, on which some crop has been 

 grown the year before. A sandy or clay-loam soil well drained, or 

 inclined so that no surface water will stand upon it, and 3'ou are 

 read}' for operations. Land on which grain was sown the season 

 before will do veiy well, but it will not work as well as a piece on 

 which a hoed crop has been grown. It is not advisable to set plants 

 on land on which a crop of potatoes has just been taken off. The 

 potato exhausts the potash in the soil more than an}^ other farm crop, 

 perhaps ; and this forms a large per cent of the composition of the 

 strawberry. True, it would be replaced largel}' when the land is 

 manured for the berries. But it would be better to take a piece on 

 which a crop of cabbages or corn had been raised the year before. 



IMPLElftNTS. 



No special tools or implements are required for this, anj^ more than 

 for any farm crop. The common square hoe will do for taking care 

 of the plants a large portion of the first year, and a cultivator made 

 with the teeth straight, like the old-fashioned harrow, is good enough 

 for the first season where the land is soft and works easy. TVe use 

 both this style and the Planet, Jr. , cultivator, with an iron frame, wliich 

 is one of the best in use. The second season we use pronged hoes 

 made especially for the business, about the same width as the common 

 flat hoe and consisting of four flat teeth or prongs. This hoe is the 

 only one employed after the first season. They save a large amount 



