VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 91 



STRAWBERRY GROWING. 



By George H. Terrill, Morrisville. 



No market garden could be called complete without the 

 growing of strawberries, and no home garden surely would be 

 complete unless it had its bed of strawberries, sufficient to 

 furnish the family with all the berries they could eat for from 

 three to six weeks. People who never tried to grow berries 

 would be surprised to find how easily they can add this lux- 

 ury to their tables. I believe there is nothing can be grown 

 upon the farm that will furnish so much for the labor and 

 money spent as this one fruit which has justly been called 

 the queen of fruits. Who is there in all the world more de- 

 serving of luxuries of this kind than the farmer, who owns 

 the land and bestows the labor many times for others to en- 

 joy. Shall we let the merchants, lawyers and manufacturers 

 have these things and we go without? Think of these things 

 and see if you had not better try a small bed another year, 

 and I shall feel sure that when you have grown them once 

 you will continue. 



How shall we grow them for home or market ? First go 

 to some grower near by and learn all you can about what 

 kinds do best with him, then if you can, get some plants of 

 him; if not look in the paper for fruit growers and send for 

 catalogues, and look them over and select the kinds your neigh- 

 bor advised you. Buy your plants and set in the spring of the 

 year on good, well prepared ground. Now, whether you 

 grow them for home or market you want good ground, well 

 fitted, and good care, for there is and always will be a good 

 market for large, clean, nice fruit, and it costs less to raise 

 them than the poor, small, dirty fruit of which we see so 

 much in the market. Costs less because you can get so much 

 more and so much better fruit on the same ground, and so 

 much better price. So I would say, take any good corn 

 ground and fertilize as heavy as you feel you can, though it 

 is not necessary for a good crop to put on large amounts of 

 manure. Still, like almost everything else, the better you 

 feed them the better they will feed you in return. 



Old land is preferable when it has been well hoed so the 

 weeds will be kept in check more easily, and the white grub, 

 which is one of the worst enemies, will work less than on 

 sward land. Plow the land deep and make mellow and fine 

 before the plants are put out. 



