APPENDIX. 121 
sary; and any system of culture which precludes this, 
or throws any obstacle in its way, is defective. If any 
one will examine his strawberry beds, he will find the 
plants along the outer edges of the beds, where the soil 
has been kept clean and fresh by the frequent use of 
the hoe, vigorous and healthy, with luxuriant dark- 
green foliage, and large, fine fruit; while in the interior 
of the beds, where the plants have grown into masses, 
and covered all the ground, so as to prevent its cultiva- 
tion, they are yellow and sickly-looking, and the fruit 
poor and worthless. This we see in our own grounds, 
and everywhere that we find plants growing under 
similar circumstances. Does this not show the neces- 
sity of cultivation close around the plants? No mat- 
ter how deep we may trench the soil, or how unsparing 
we may be with manures, or how copiously we supply 
moisture, this cultivation cannot be dispensed with, if 
we aim at producing fine fruits and abundance of 
them. “But,” says one cultivator, “by allowing the 
ground to be all occupied with plants, we save all the 
labor which would be consumed in removing the run- 
ners, and we avoid the necessity of applying a mulch- 
ing to keep the fruit clean.” Very true, you save some 
expense; but what do you get in return? A crop of 
fruit not fit for the table—small, insipid, and so dirty, 
if a heavy rain occurs about ripening-time, that it must 
be put through the wash-tub before it is placed on the 
table. It is possible that the market-grower may be 
able to produce berries of this kind at a less price per 
quart than he could by a careful, cleanly, and thorough 
system of culture; but then he can expect to sell such 
fruit only when no better can be had. We have some 
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