7 
120 APPENDIX. 
We will state here, at the outset, that to cultivate 
the strawberry successfully, is but a simple matter. 
To grow large, handsome, fine-flavored fruit in abund- 
ance, it is not necessary to employ a chemist to furnish 
us with a long list of specifics, nor even to employ a 
gardener by profession who can boast of long years of 
experience. Any one who can manage a crop of corn 
or potatoes, can, if he will, grow strawberries. We 
say this much by way of encouragement, because so 
much has been said in regard to various methods of 
culture, and various applications and specifics, that 
some people have become persuaded that a vast deal of 
learning and experience is necessary to produce large 
crops of strawberries. 
Judging from what we have seen, we believe that 
the great cause of failure is negligence. The straw- 
berry plant—not like a tree, which, when once set in 
its place, remains there—is constantly sending out 
shoots (runners) in all directions, taking possession of 
the ground rapidly around the parent plant. In a 
short time, therefore, unless these runners are kept in 
check, the ground becomes entirely occupied with 
plants, the parent plants become exhausted, and the 
ground can no longer be stirred or kept in such a con- 
dition as is necessary to sustain their vigor. The re- 
sult is, the ground is covered with a mass of starved 
and weakly plants, choking up each other in a hard, 
uncultivated soil, and producing a spare crop of small, 
insipid berries, that dry up on their stalks before they 
are ripe, unless rain happens to fall every day. 
The constant stirring of the soil around the plants, 
is one thing which in our climate is absolutely neces- 
