38 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. • [Jan., 



the crop. And in the preparation for planting, I would recom- 

 mend the use of a subsoil plow, whenever the nature of the soil 

 will admit of its use, for in my own experience I have always 

 noticed a marked improvement in the growth of plants wherever 

 it has been used, affecting as it does a more perfect drainage in a 

 wet soil or season, and allowing the plants to root much deeper, 

 and thus be able to withstand drouth should it occur. One-fourth 

 of an acre is little enough ground to devote to the small-fruit gar- 

 den, say ten rods of strawberries, eight of raspberries, five of 

 blackberries, four of currants, one of gooseberries, and twelve of 

 grapes. This will give say ten quarts of fresh berries per day for 

 nearly three months, besides a surplus for canning, and the grapes 

 would supply ten to fifteen pounds a day for at least three months 

 more. 



Strawberries. — Strawberries being the first fresh fruit of the 

 season, are usually eaten rather more freely, hence should have 

 more space devoted to their culture than any of the others, unless 

 it is the grape. So many strawberries have been grown in the 

 past under a careless, slipshod method, or rather no method at all, 

 that the mistake is made in supposing that profitable crops can be 

 thus grown, hence a failure is often made by planting on land that 

 has not been well prepared. To start with, the land should be 

 well plowed, subsoiled, and harrowed, two or three, yes, a dozen 

 times over, if need be to make it soft and mellow, so that the 

 plants may get a good start from tlie very first. Well-rotted sta- 

 ble manure is usually at hand on most farms, and if applied lib- 

 erally will give good returns. But from a somewhat careful study 

 of the manure question in the cultivation of large fields of straw- 

 berries for market, I think a better crop of fruit can usually be 

 had from the use of commercial manures, having but a small 

 amount of nitrogen, and the fruit be of better texture and flavor 

 than when stable manure or nitrogenous commercial fertilizers are 

 used. I may not be able to explain it to the satisfaction of the 

 scientific gentlemen here present, but the strawberry is a gross 

 feeder, and whenever well-rotted manure or fertilizer containing a 

 large amount of readily available plant food, of a nitrogenous 

 character, such as blood and bone, Peruvian guano or fish sci'aps, 

 is used, it will take it up greedily, and a very rank foliage 

 growth is the result the first year, and the plant seems to make its 



