THE CANADIAN HORTI0ULTUKI6T. 



77 



have appeared in print, I hold to the 

 opinion that its use after the cabbages 

 have begun to head would be very- 

 hazardous. 



STRAWBERRIES— WHAT TO PLANT 

 AND HOW TO GO ABOUT IT. 



BY T. C ROBINSON, OWEN SOUND. 



Winter is the time to plan, especially 

 for the fruit garden. Many persons 

 buy a few quarts of inferior berries, 

 and do without a great many they would 

 like to have, for want of planning at 

 the right time ; and the planning is put 

 off because a knowledge of the best 

 varieties and the easiness and cheapness 

 of raising them is not realized. 



Any man who can look back on the 

 strawberry bed in the home garden, 

 when he was a boy, and the pleasant 

 memories that cluster around it, will 

 need little urging to add this attraction 

 to his children's love of home, even 

 with the memory of the trouble of hoe- 

 ing and weeding in his mind. But if 

 it can be shown that hoeing and weed- 

 ing can be reduced to a tithe of what 

 they were under the old system of cul- 

 tivation, surely no man who has suit- 

 able land, and cares for his family, will 

 be without strawberries — " the best 

 fruit God ever made !" 



And suitable soils are of great variety. 

 Any land that will raise wheat, or 

 potatoes, or corn — especially the last — 

 will raise strawberries. 



Planting can be laid out best while 

 looking at the land. Let us take an 

 imaginary trip, reader, into your gar- 

 den, and if it is as bare of snow as mine 

 is jiLst now we may talk to the best 

 purj)ose. 



Your garden is from a quarter of an 

 acre to an acre in size, I suppo.se, and 

 you want enough berries for a family 



of four to eight persons, twice a day, 

 for as long a season as possible, with a 

 sufficient surplus to entertain occasional 

 company, and to preserve or can for 

 winter. And if you can have that 

 without its narrowing much that preci- 

 ous cabbage and potato patch, or cost- 

 ing much for the plants, or taking too 

 much time and trouble for hoeing, or 

 much bother at any other time, " well, 

 you wouldn't mind," etc. I see ! All 

 right — very sorry I can't promise you 

 the ben-ies without any trouble at all, 

 except planting and picking, but I'll 

 show you what can be done. 



Any part of your garden will do that 

 is level or not too steep, and not shaded 

 by trees ; but if it is the same to you 

 let us take that patch in the north-west 

 corner, because the snow drifting over 

 the fence will protect the plants in 

 winter. Is your house or orchard in 

 that corner 1 All the better then, per- 

 haps. By planting immediately south 

 or east of the trees the snow will fall 

 deeply and evenly with still more cer- 

 tainty. Now let us have rows at least 

 fifty or sixty feet long, because it will 

 take less trouble in moving and setting 

 your line to plant by, and if at any 

 time you bring a team on with manure, 

 or take a notion to cultivate with a 

 horse hoe, you have less turning and 

 less chance of injuring the plants at the 

 end of the row. We will set fifty 

 plants in a row about a foot or fourteen 

 inches apart, and the rows two feet 

 apart, because a strawberry plant needs 

 about two square feet of land to do 

 well on, and at that distance a horee 

 cultivator can work with facility, if 

 desired. 



Now lis to varieties. Do you expect 

 me to advise you to stick in 500 or 

 1,000 Sharpless, or Bidwell, or Golden 

 Defiance, or other sorts that you only 

 know of from the headings of flaming 

 advertisements in nurserymen's cata- 



