524 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
forty to fifty years ago, two or three now forgotten kinds supplied the 
market, and a man who picked fifty boxes a day was considered a large 
strawberry-grower, while now hundreds of varieties are cuitivated, and 
single commission houses frequently sell ten to twelve thousand boxes 
a’day, shows the immensely increased estimation of this delicious fruit. 
While the wild native strawberry ripens its small berries on the forest 
soil, and many kinds do well though poorly fed, there is scarcely one 
that will not do better on well-manured land; and it may be said 
generally, as in the case of other crops, that the more manure the more 
strawberries. Almost any fertilizer can be used to advantage, either 
in preparing the soil for a plantation of this fruit or for a top-dressing, 
as stable manure, compost, unleached ashes, superphosphate of lime, 
guano, fish manure, and hen-droppings. Some consider lime injurious, 
when used alone, but superphosphate of lime is certainly beneficial. 
Guano alone scattered. broadcast half a dozen times through the sum- 
mer, before a rain if possible, at the rate of one thousand pounds to 
the acre, produces wonderful results, and may take the place of all other 
manures. Where it is desired to produce new runners in propagating 
new varieties unleached ashes are a good fertilizer, but should, of course, 
never be used with guano. Market-gardeners who plow in stable manure 
liberally, even spading it in between the rows, are rewarded with large 
crops of superior berries. The finer the manure the better. A fall 
top-dressing of horse manure is excellent, acting both as a fertilizer and 
protection, but it should be light and strawy. <A top-dressing of heavy 
green manure applied in the fail is ruinous to this plant. 
The soil for strawberries can hardly be too fine or too deep, as the 
roots extend farther than is generally imagined. Corn, potatoes, and any 
vegetable that requires clean culture, are good crops to precede this 
fruit. An old strawberry bed that is done bearing can be plowed under 
and followed by potatoes, with excelient results. 
Pasture or grass land selected for strawberries must be cultivated for 
at least one year, with some clean-hoed crops, as such lands are apt to 
be filled with the larve ofthe May-beetle, or dor-bug, (Phyllophaga quercina.) 
The ravages of these larve or grubs are sometimes disheartening. They 
abound in old grass land and pastures, and live chiefly upon grass roots. 
When only a few show signs of their presence in well-established beds 
of strawberries they should be at once dug out and killed. They can 
be found in the morning close under the plantthey have killed. Skunks 
are very fond of them, and dig them out and eat them with avidity. 
The well known rose-bug sometimes destroys the foliage of the plants, 
for which there seems to be no remedy but hand-picking and burning 
or scalding. Ants occasionally swarm upon the berries, but may be 
disposed of by pouring boiling water into their hills. A sudden cold 
rain sometimes causes the blossoms to blight, and overripe fruit will 
mold on the vines in damp weather; but, after all, strawberries are 
subject to as few fatal contingencies as any plant. 
With proper appliances the strawberry can be forced with less trouble 
than almost any other fruit. The vines should be of the previous season’s 
growth, with full crowns, plump, well ripened, and mature. The Triomphe 
de Gand and La Constant are excellent varieties for forcing, and often 
produce splendid crops in March. The first runners from good plants 
should be layered in thumb-pots in July, which in a few weeks will be 
filled with roots. The young plants will then be ready for shifting into 
three or four inch pots; they should then be well watered and set in a 
cold frame, and when well filled with roots, again shifted into larger 
pots. When cold weather checks their growth in November, they should 
