176 MISSOUET STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



what, I don't pretend to say, but such has been the case. The idea 

 has suggested itself to me that perhaps if we had theground where the 

 row is a little elevated, and the furrow between deeply mulched 

 whether it would not be well. Another matter I observed, that around 

 a place where my dog dug after a mouse in the fall, and to all appear- 

 ances had demoralized a square yard or two, when leveled off in the 

 spring the plants looked well, and they were the finest berries also. 



One thing is certain, that if the crown of a strawberry plant is a 

 little too deep it will be smothered, and little or no fruit will be pro- 

 duced, and if the crowns are too high and a severe winter follows, un- 

 less verv well mulched, the result will not be satisfactory. One time 

 I trenched the ground eighteen inches deep, manured freely, planted 

 a specimen bed of some dozen varieties. Kept all the runners off dur- 

 ing the summer, except the Windsor Chief, which I had but a dozen 

 plants, which were left to run. 



The following spring the plants all looked grand, and a big crop 

 was looked for. With one exception, the thing was as near a failure 

 as I ever saw. 



There were twelve plants of each and none gave fruit worth look- 

 ing at except the Capt. Jack and Cumberland, and even these had not 

 a fourth of a crop. Crescent was not among them as it was not in my 

 collection then. 



The exception alluded to was the Windsor Chief, which produced, 

 the biggest crop of big berries I ever saw. A friend who measured 

 the space the plants covered, and measured the fruit carefully, takgn 

 into calculation, showed that it was at the rate of 14,000 quarts to the 

 acre. 



It will be a long time before we can tell exactly how to treat the 

 different varieties to the best adv^antage. 



Easpberries were a fine crop. Hopkins pleased me well. Marl- 

 boro disappointed me, but may do better next season. 



There are two ways of doing most things, a right and a wrong one, 

 but I do not know a fruit that will vary more than this according to 

 treatment. 



Take the same variety of Black Cap, plant one lot in good soil, 

 keep clean, and pinch the young canes at the proper time, two or three 

 feet high is the proper time, trim properly in the spring, mulch and 

 keep clean and you will see fruit that will gladden the eyes of even a 

 connoisseur. Plant the other in poor soil, omit pinching, let the weeds 

 take a share in the operation, and the crop of fruit will not be worth, 

 picking. 



