AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 347 



simply digging the ground deep before setting out the plants, without 

 using any manurial sub.-tance whatever. 



R. G. Pardee, — High manuring will force runners and leaves, and such 

 plants will not bear fruit well. It never injures plants to cut off runners. 

 Don't let your varieties of berries run together. The strongest growers 

 will drive out the best bearers. The Early Scarlet sends out runners very 

 strong. I would set a board between varieties, to prevent their running 

 together. To fructify Hovey's seedling, T would not require staminate 

 plants nearer than thirty feet. I would have a bed ten feet square of 

 staminates to one of 100 feet of pistilates. 



Prof. Mapes. — An excellent thing for a strawberry bed is a tanbark 

 liquor, not too strong. The reason that field strawberries are high flavored 

 is probably because there is more tannic acid to be obtained by the plants in 

 the fields than in the garden. A good plan for field culture is alternate 

 beds and paths. Prepare the paths well in Spring, and let the runners set 

 in them, and then turn under the old vines. Mulch is particularly useful. 

 A gentleman at Derby, Conn., covered his beds with slabs, edged to a 

 width of four feet long, and laid them down bark up, with notches in the edges 

 through which the plants grow. The plants grew well, and have produced 

 well and kept clean. After bearing the crop, he lifts the slabs and loosens 

 the soil, and lays down the slabs again. If runners are wanted for new 

 plants, the slabs are taken away. 



Mr. Pardee. — I arranged a mound of earth with clam shells all around, 

 with strawberry plants between them, watering at the top and letting it run 

 down. It is upon the same principle as the slab theory, and makc^ a very 

 pretty ornament, and the crop was very large. April is the best time to 

 set plants for Autumn. One who will attend to it will succeed best in the 

 season after fruiting. I can transplant plants all the Summer months. 



Prof. Mapes. — I find potash, phosphate, soda, all excellent for straw- 

 berries. 



Judge Meigs. — I have found the broken bark of the wood pile an excel- 

 lent dressing for strawberries owing to the tannin in the bark. 



RENOVATING OLD ORCHARDS. 

 Prof. Mapes. — There was an old orchard on my place that had ceased 

 bearing, which I fully renovated and afterward cut down, because I cannot 

 afford the shade. The land is to valuable to grow large trees upon. I can 

 produce fruit upon dwarfs more economically. All old apple orchards are 

 deficient in lime, but the lime must be properly prepared to be of use. 

 The caustic soda wash spoken of last week will clear them of insects 

 and fungi. I subsoiled the old orchard which was in grass, and applied 

 lime. I recommend ten bushels per acre, sowed in a caustic state on the 

 surface. Lime is only soluble in large quantities of water. The next 

 Spring I applied phosphate of lime. This orchard was then in vigorous 

 bearing, and had not before borne for years. The grass crop was also more 

 than doubled. Run the subsoil plow up and down hill, and it will terve to 

 drain the land. 



