-TI'.AWIIKIMMKS. 



chief difficulty lies in attempting too much. This, we think, is the prime error of 

 American cultivators in every department, includinj^ botli tlic faiiii and the garden. 

 "A little ground well tilled " is not their maxim ; they reverse this as nearly as possi- 

 ble. We do not wish to be understood as reoomincnding people to throw away their 

 time in frivolous attempts to bring a certain object or number of objects to a fancied 

 state of perfection. We are well aware that in this c(juntry, where labor is costly and 

 land cheap, there is a strong temptation to cultivate largely and poorly ; but every 

 where it pays to cultivate ivcll. The men who have grown rich in this couiitrv by 

 farming and gardening are not those who have had the most ground; quite the reverse. 

 One man embarks in the culture of the strawberry for market ; he i)lants an acre or 

 two, or more. To prepare so much ground as it should be prepared, would involve 

 a considerable expense ; but the land is simply plowed as it would be for corn or 

 potatoes. The plants are set, and from that time until the fruit is ready for market, 

 an occasional scratch with a cultivator or horse-hoe is all the attention they receive. 

 Dry weather sets in just as this fruit begins to ripen and no means have been provided 

 to render watering possible — they must take the weather as it comes. No measures 

 have been taken to keep the fruit clean, either ; they are allowed to draggle in the 

 dust, so that three-fourths of the crop has to be taken to the pump and washed before 

 they can appear on the huckster's table. Now the cost of picking this crop of small 

 fruit is three or four times what it would be to gather a crop of good well grown fruit, 

 and when gathered and carried to market, they must be sold at half price. Small, 

 dirty, or washed and bruised, what is to be done with them but sell them for what 

 they will bring? Thus an acre or two will not yield to the cultivator as much net 

 profit as so many rods well managed, and the buying community are left to wonder 

 where all the fine strawberries go that they read about. 



Coming home for an illustration, a few years ago several persons about this city 

 embarked with considerable spirit in the culture of strawberries for market. Some 

 pains were taken to prepare the ground and get good varieties, and the first two or 

 three years some approaches were made to reasonably good culture. The consequence 

 was our markets were filled with excellent fruit, people paid cheerfully liberal prices, 

 and the growers themselves reaped a rich harvest. The zeal of the new cultivators, 

 however, waxed cool ; their plantations became old ; they failed to renew them in 

 season, they were abandoned to themselves, and a small crop of miserable fruit was the 

 consequence, yielding not enough to pay for picking and selling. 



Such is precisely the course pursued by a majority of the market growers that we are 

 acquainted with, and a large majority of private growers follow suit. A crop or two of 

 fine fruits are produced while the novelty of the thing and the zeal of the beginner lasts, 

 and then all go to ruin. People who embark in strawberry culture must understand 

 that a strawberry plant is difterent from the apple tree, which when once planted can 

 take care of itself pretty well if in a good soil. The strawberry plant wants continual 

 care — a multitude of little attentions. It must have deep and rich soil to begin with ; 

 strawberries should never be planted upon a soil, however good, unless it has been ^ 

 deepened by subsoil plowing, or trenching, at least eighteen inches, and two feet is ^ 



