STEAWBEERIES AT THE SOUTH. 409 



of the soil. Fresli cleared lands are best and most easily ke^^t free from weeds. Dig 

 the ground two spades deep, the better to enable the plants to withstand drouth. A 

 soil rich in nitrogenous matter is not desirable. Decayed vegetable substances are 

 the best applications in order to produce fruit, animal manures increasing the growth 

 of vine and leaf without much increase of fruit. A thick coat of swamp muck or leaf 

 mold decomposed by the action of leached or unleached ashes, and well incorporated 

 with the soil, is decidedly the best application in order to ensure a crop. 



When the soil is prepared and levelled, make your rows two feet apart. Set the 

 plants fifteen or eighteen inches apart in the row. Select stout healthy runners, 

 rejecting old roots, and plant first three rows of pistillates, then a row of some good 

 hermophrodite variety, then six rows of pistillates, then another of hermaphrodites, 

 and so on until the ground is planted. Choose damp weather for the operation. 

 They may be planted, howevei*, at any time in freshly dug soil in the following man- 

 ner ; — Make holes at the proper distances in the rows ; lay the plants carefully therein, 

 spreading out the roots just as they grev/ ; pour on them a half pint or so of water 

 from the spout of a watering-pot, working the earth in about the roots, and finishing by 

 covering them fully with the moistened soil, and over this place some of the dry 

 earth pressing it firmly about the plants. Choose the evening for planting, and keep 

 the roots from exposure to the sun until replanted. Remove the larger leaves to 

 diminish evaporation. Cover the earth between the j^lants, but not the plants 

 themselves, with a mulching of straw, decayed leaves, or old tanners' bark. They 

 may be transplanted at any time, but the last of September will give them time 

 to estabhsh themselves, so as to produce well the ensuing season. Newly planted 

 beds are more easily kept in a bearing state through the entire season. As soon as 

 the blossoms begin to appear the ensuing spring the great necessity is water, which 

 should be given liberally, both to swell the fruit and to force the plant to throw up 

 new fruit stems. If three days pass without a shower, sprinkle the foliage every eve- 

 ning. Mr. Peabody is thus able to produce abundant crops from March until frost. 

 Keep the ground always free from weeds and clip off the runners before they omit 

 roots, until late in the season, when they may be allowed to root in order to form 

 new beds and also new stools for the next year's crop. Every winter the plants should 

 be thinned to their original distance, selecting new stools. Dig the bed deeply between 

 the plants and mulch as before. If the crowns of the plants are covered they will 

 generally die out. Do not allow the hermaphrodite plants to overrun and crowd out 

 the more productive pistillate varieties. 



For a spring crop, the system of culture by alternate strips is the most convenient. 

 Indeed, when peaches and other fruits become abundant, one at last gi'ows wearv of 

 even strawberries. To condense the whole subject of strawberry culture into a few 

 words, plentij of water and keeping the plants at suitable distances, in well cultivated 

 and mulched soil, will extend the strawberry season almost indefinitely. 



The following varieties have been cultivated in our gardens, some of them, however, 

 but for a single season, and among the varieties lately obtained, there have been none 

 which have given us much encouragement to increase the list beyond the first four: 



