now TO MAKE STRAWBERRY llEDS. 



came to see with their own eyes. In short, they boiif^ht and carried away the 



" Washiiifiton Ali)incs," at extravajrant jirices, with tlic full conviction that " see- 

 iii<; is l)clic'vin<r," and that such straw Ijcrrios wore never before <rrown, gazed on, 

 or lasted. "Well, j^reat was tlieir surprise to find, on planting; and cultivatinj^ the 

 " Washiiifrton Alpines," that there was nothinjj new or wonderful about llieni ; 

 and that, in fact, they all dwindled down to the old-f\ishioned Alpine Strawberry. 

 Mr. Stoddart, naturally enon<rh, now has as many hard nan)cs bestowed on him 

 for the fancied deception, as he had before had hard dollars for really (rrcat crops. 

 And yet, Mr. Stoddart sold his ])lants in good faith, and was probably as much 

 deluded as the buyers. The whole secret of his unheard-of crops, and the large 

 size of his fruit, lay in the depth and richness of Ids soil ; and as none of his 

 customers had, like him, a rich ten feet mould to grow giants in, they had no 

 "Washington Alpines." 



The "moral" your readers arc to draw out of this digression is, that they can- 

 not well make their soil too deep for the strawberry. Perhaps they cannot afford 

 to make it three feet deep, which is the right depth for an e.xtra fine crop; but, 

 at all events, they can make it two feet deep. And now, a word as to manuring it. 



It is all very well to talk aljout composts and " well rotted manure." The real 

 truth is. that in our careless country, not one gardener in a hundred has such things 

 ready for use at the moment he wants to prepare his strawberry patch. What 

 people have at hand, from one end of the country to the otiier, is fresh stable or 

 barnyard manure ; and the question is, how to use that to the best advantage. 



The true way to do this, is to throw out the soil where your beds are to be made 

 two feet deep. Fill up the bottom eight inches or a foot deep with fresh stable 

 manure, mixed with the litter, treading it down firmly. Then cover this with 

 two-thirds of the soil thrown out, rejecting the worst part of it. This will raise 

 the bed four inches above the surface ; and as it will settle about four inches, it 

 will be about level after it is settled. 



This is all the preparation which I give my soil, and it is all that any soil of fair 

 quality needs; only that I would much prefer to have it three feet deep tlian two 

 feet, and to have sixteen inches of stable manure and litter at the bottom than 

 eight, though the latter brings heavy crops in a good soil. 



You may put out your plants in August or April. The only difference is, that 

 if planted in August, you may lose half of them by the heat and drought, unless 

 'it is a rainy season ; while, in April, you are certain not to lose a single plant, 

 unless it is unsound wlicn you transplant it. 



To my mind, there is no way of growing strawberries so complete as in beds 

 three and a half feet wide, with three rows in each — the plants in the rows kept 

 clipped of their runners, and the ground between the rows nicely covered with 

 straw all the year round. The largest and finest fruit is obtained in this way, and 

 the beds themselves will last many years ; while, if they are allowed to cover the 

 bed, you can, at the most, expect only two crops, and, generally, the fruit is of 

 little or no value after the first crop. 



It is very idle and useless to attempt to make a new strawberry plantation on 

 old strawberry ground. You may add double the usual quantity of manure, but 

 the soil has been so roljbed of other needful elements, that you will fail in growing 

 a healthy crop. 



A word or two may also not be thrown away, respecting the choice of plants. Of 

 course, you will always put out young runners, and not old plants ; but something 

 more than this is needful. You must take care to see that they are not runners 

 an old and worn-out bed ; for nothing is more certain than that, while run- 

 from a fruitful bed will make fruitful plants, so, also, runners from an old and 



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