820 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



teaspoonful of .ammonia (hartshorn) may be added with benefit to each quart of water when 

 watering. If, in November, the ground between the plants is covered thickly with rotted 

 manure, before giving winter protection, it will greatly add to the quantity and size of the 

 berries. Thinning out the fruit stalks or berries is seldom practiced. 



Winter Protection. In the fall, just before the ground commences to freeze, or 

 within two or three weeks afterwards, strawberry plants should be mulched or covered with 

 some coarse material, to prevent them from alternate freezing and thawing during the winter 

 or spring. Rye or wheat straw, or coarse manure, is most generally applied for this 

 purpose, spreading about one inch thick. In the latitude of New Jersey a cheap and excellent 

 covering for narrow rows is from one to three inches of soil. Evergreen boughs, pine 

 needles, salt or marsh hay, or other coarse material that will not pack closely and 

 smother the plants, are all good. A mulching of corn-stalks, placed crosswise, will 

 answer. If the ground is first covered with rotted manure, great benefit will usually be 

 obtained. It may be lightly dug under in spring. Leaves sometimes smother the plants. 

 Many persons use them, however, adding an inch of soil to keep them in place. Scattered 

 thinly over matted rows, and with a very little soil scattered here and there over them, is a 

 better way to employ them. If the mulching material of straw, etc., is applied at the 

 commencement of a rain or snow storm, it will seldom need any poles to keep it from blowing 

 off. Another method of mulching is to sow oats thickly over the beds about September 1, 

 and allow the straw to fall down and cover the plants. Most growers allow the mulch of coarse 

 manure, straw, salt hay, or pine needles to be left on until after fruiting, merely removing 

 the mulch from over the crown of the plants in the spring, if too thick. Coarse manure 

 becomes bleached by that time, and is sufficiently clean. In removing the mulch, wait until 

 about the time that the ground ceases to freeze and thaw. 



Cultivation the. Second Year. When the time can be given, we prefer to have 

 the mulching removed, early in April, from all except the matted rows. If plants are 

 covered with leaves, soil, corn-stalks, or evergreen boughs, it must, of course, be done. After 

 hoeing or spading the ground from two to three inches deep, it may be again placed around 

 the plants and in the paths. The soil should not be disturbed while very wet, nor after the 

 plants are in blossom. The paths between the matted rows may also be spaded at this time, 

 and be mulched again some weeks before fruiting. Though we consider it to be an advantage 

 to give shallow cultivation early in the spring, yet, if entirely dispensed with, good crops may 

 still be obtained. 



Treatment of Plants after Fruiting. Plants grown in &quot; matted rows &quot; are 

 usually allowed to bear only one crop, and are then plowed under, and the ground at once 

 planted with tomatoes or winter cabbages, or sown with turnip seed, sweet corn, buckwheat, 

 or other grain. When this is the custom, a new plot of strawberries is made each spring. 

 Sometimes, when the weeds are not very bad, the beds may be cleaned up, and the paths 

 spaded or plowed, and occasionally cultivated during the season. A top-dressing of fine 

 manure, bonedust, or other fertilizer, should be given in such cases. Another way is to mow 

 down all except a narrow strip in each matted row, rake off the foliage, and plow or spade 

 up all except the strips that have been left first manuring the ground if possible. New 

 runners will soon appear, and, by using the cultivator, as in the preceding year, new &quot; matted 

 rows &quot; will be formed. 



Old beds grown by the &quot;hill system&quot; are more easily managed. Apply manure or 

 fertilizers, plow or spade up the soil, hoe out the weeds, and loosen the soil in among the 

 plants. Cultivate afterwards the same as the first year. I do not recommend cutting off the 

 foliage, except in wet seasons; however, if the plants, or the south half of each plant, are left, 

 a partial shade will yet remain. An inch or two of fresh soil from the paths or elsewhere, is 



