636 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



decorating our hats and homes with their dead bodies, and by so 

 dong causing the immense slaughter of those harmless creatures 

 for these purposes to cease. 



STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 



By MYKTA FIIANTZ, Millers Station. 



It is true that the success in growing strawberries depends greatly 

 upon the knowledge of the farmer or, in other words, fruit must be 

 known, its requirements in regard to both locality and soil. In 

 starting with the perfect plant, and as it regenerates, it becomes 

 more unlike the first or perfect plant. Therefore, in setting a bed 

 it is always best to take the plants from the centre of the row. It 

 has even been known when beds have been set from runners for 

 year after year, to go back so far as to appear in a form resembling 

 the dewberry or in a cranberry. 



In preparing for setting, the soil should be very mellow and quite 

 rich. If it is necessary to add fertilizer it should be plowed under, 

 or if used as a top-dressing, it should be well harrowed into the soil. 

 No fertilizer of any kind should be put directly on the plant. 



In setting, the rows should be about four feet apart, and the plants 

 in the row about eighteen inches apart. The roots of the plant 

 should be separated and placed in the mellow soil at full length, 

 bringing the dirt around the plant (leaving the crown above the 

 level of the ground,) great care should be taken that the crown is 

 not covered, for if it be, it will cause it to decay, therefore the plant 

 will die. 



The strawberry must have the attention that other plants should 

 have. Take the corn plant, for instance, should be studied and 

 assisted in its growth, but will allow and very often gets haphazard 

 cultivation, and yet produces somewhere near the crop desired. The 

 strawberry on the contrary will amount to nothing with such culti- 

 vation. 



Perhaps many of us have heard the illustration drawn between 

 the first and second tiddler. The first fiddler is the high priced 

 fellow, you know. He has won a reputation for furnishing fine 

 music and will not, or need not play for less than $25 per night, and 

 often very much more than this. He uses only the very best instru- 

 ment that can be obtained, and it is he who takes pride in his occu- 

 pation and his life is crowned with success. While the second 

 fiddler generally plays for his supper (and that often at the second 

 table) he uses some old worn out instrument which has been dis- 

 carded by the first for years and years and his life throughout is 

 traced by failure. I think these same rules (if we may call them 

 such) may be applied to the strawberry grower (and others) for the 

 fact is there are too many "second fiddlers." 



