204 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



missions. There was a profit of 1400 to cover merely the labor 

 of picking and sending to market. That is pretty heavy 

 manuring with manure at ten dollars a cord ; but I believe in 

 heavy manuring, as you can judge when I tell you that I put 

 on my garden, where I raise potatoes and market stuff, twenty- 

 five cords of stable manure to the acre. Some of my neighbors 

 object to this heavy manuring. One man was cultivating 

 three or four acres of strawberries and getting about half a 

 crop. I said to him " Why don't you cultivate one acre and 

 do it well ? " He said, " What do you mean ? " I replied, 

 " Go to Belmont, where they get eight hundred, ten hundred, 

 twelve hundred dollars from an acre, and they will tell you 

 how to raise strawberries." He went there and became con- 

 vinced that his shilly-shally mode did not pay. 



In order to raise strawberries to a profit they should be 

 highly manured. It is almost impossible to manure too highly 

 for strawberries. That is, I would put in about all the manure 

 I could, and mix it sufficiently with the soil, to have my plants 

 thrive. It won't answer to put your plant into clear manure, 

 of course, but you want to put as much into the ground as it 

 will hold. Farmers understand how that is. I have had good 

 success with wood ashes, but they are very difficult to get. I 

 have used guano lately. 



Question. How would you apply wood ashes ? 



Mr. Hyde. I would work them into the soil as I would 

 horse-manure, and the next spring spread them on the surface, 

 just as we apply guano. We use guano in the spring, — spread 

 it over the beds; and it gives a healthy, dark appearance to the 

 leaves, and I have no doubt it is a good thing to use. I have 

 never been able to get unleached ashes enough to use in sufficient 

 quantity to determine the best quantity per acre, but I can say 

 as to guano. I apply a liberal dressing : I should think four 

 or five hundred pounds to the acre. I do not rely upon that, 

 but use it as an auxiliary. Having used my stable manure I 

 use that to help start up my strawberries in the spring. 



I have not found the best results from superphosphates, for 

 the reason that I have not a great deal of confidence in com- 

 mercial superphosphates. I think a great many of them are 

 frauds. Right here let me say that I have used the superphos- 

 phate that Dr. Nichols spoke of yesterday. I don't want to 



