MANURE FOR STRAWBERRIES. 217 



But the growing of small fruit, of every description, is 

 another thing. Take the strawberry. Every man who has 

 help or has a family, can find leisure moments when his help or 

 his children can be profitably engaged in cleaning up a straw- 

 berry bed, taking care of it, and gathering the fruit for the 

 market. So the suggestions of Mr. Moore, in regard to the 

 cultivation of strawberries struck my ear very favorably, and I 

 was exceedingly interested in them. I can add only one thing. 

 He spoke about the manures for strawberries. I have never 

 seen anything in my life that would make strawberry vines 

 fruit so rapidly as ashes. If there is any gentleman in the 

 room who has tried them and found any objection to them, I 

 wish he would say so. 



Question. What time of the year would you apply them ? 



Dr. Loring. Early in the spring, on the surface. I never 

 would put ashes underneath for any purpose. 



Question. Leached or unleached ? 



Dr. Loring. Either. 



Question. Upon what kind of soil ? 



Dr. Loring. I have never seen any soil which was good 

 strawberrj soil, upon which ashes would not have a good effect. 

 I mean oy good strawberry soil, a warm, not too heavy loam, 

 for I do not believe in raising strawberries upon a piece of 

 heary clay land ; they will not do well there, but they will do 

 well upon a somewhat light and warm loam, and on such soil 

 as that, I am sure that ashes applied to the surface will always 

 work well. I do not believe at all in burying them beneath the 

 surface of the earth. I think they need the influence of the 

 atmosphere in order to bring out their fertilizing properties, 

 and that they are dissolved by the influence of the air and the 

 rain in such a way that their fertilizing properties are carried 

 down to the rootlets of the plants with great activity. 



Now another thing. All small plants require warmth, and 

 that is the secret of what Mr. Moore said about the amount of 

 fertilization that grape-vines require. I noticed he said, that 

 if grape-vines bore well, made wood enough, and fruit enough 

 without manure, it was best not to manure them. That is 

 true enough ; but still, the old-fashioned mode of burying bones 

 and manure four or five feet deep for the supply of grape-vines 

 was entirely erroneous, and for this reason : the roots of the 



28 



