162 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



C03t them as much as 100 or 200 plants and the care of them would cost. Take 

 a family with four or Ave children : how many times during the berry season do 

 you think they enjoy the luxury, when the berries have to be bought? Perhaps 

 not at all when they are scarce and high. How different this would be if from a 

 bed in the garden three to four gallons could be picked daily during the season, 

 and a small one it would need to be to furnish this amount. We remember picking 

 130 quarts one day from a row 400 feet long; one-half of such a row would have 

 produced enough for a large family to eat daily during the berry season, besides 

 enough to can and preserve, and the berries would not have to be divided up into 

 so many saucers to make them "go round," as the case often is when they are 

 purchased. Let no one with even 200 square feet of ground fail to plant and culti- 

 vate a few strawberries. An old saying reads, "God undoubtedly could have 

 made a better fruit than the strawberry, but He never did." 



SOIL. 



The strawberry will grow in most any kind of soil.' Most any kind of land 

 that will grow good potatoes will grow good strawberries. While they need an 

 abundance of moisture, especially during fruiting time, they will not flourish in a^ 

 wet soil where water will stand. They require a well-drained soil, either natur- 

 ally or artificially. Too much rain with little or no sunshine is often very disas- 

 trous to the crop. We had this experience the past season. Continuous rains 

 caused them to rust or blight, and a half crop was the result. 



PLANTING. 



This should be done as early in the spring as the ground can be put in good 

 shape, but never plow your grouad until it is dry enough to pulverize. We usually 

 plant from 10th to 20fch of April. The ground is plowed deep and harrowed thor- 

 oughly. We plant by a line in rows four feet apart, and plants 15 inches to two feet 

 apart in rows. We plant with a spade, which is thrust into the ground and the 

 handle pushed forward and backward to make an opening; a boy place? the plant 

 (dripping wet ) into the hole, being careful to have the bud of the plant even with 

 the surface. Then the soil is pressed against the plant by inserting the spade about 

 two inches from the opening made to receive the plant. After the soil is pressed 

 against it with the spade, we press the soil again with the foot on both sides, firm- 

 ing it well, and scarcely ever lose a plant. In even dry weather. Never plant wilted 

 plants ; keep them fresh, or set in water until they recover. We never plant on 

 freshly manured land ; usually let them bring two crops and then plow under. As 

 soon as the last berries are picked, we burn the old mulch and put on from 40 to 

 60 two-horse loads of stable manure per acre. Plow at once and grow a crop of 

 late cabbage, celery, pickles, etc. As fine early Ohio potatoes as we ever grew were 

 grown this year on an old bed treated as above and planted July 8th. The follow- 

 ing season we grow another ciop of vegetables, and the next spring we are ready 

 for strawberries again. 



CULTIVATION. 



Shallow and often is our advice here. We use Planet Jr. horse-hoe with 

 sweeps attached ; never use the narrow steelp unless the ground becomes very 

 hard from excessive rains, and then only for the first and second cultivations; 

 use eight hoes, and aim to cultivate and hoe as soon after every hard rain as 

 the ground is dry enough to work and before it forms a crust ; after a crust forms 

 the plants are often injured by being loosened, unless done by a careful hand. We 



