30 The Strawberry Book. 



when they are easily obtained ; and of these, oak leaves 

 are the worst, blowing oft' sometimes faster than they can 

 be raked back, and pine needles the best. A uniform, even 

 covering of two or three inches of pine leaves, somewhat 

 matted by long lying in the woods, with a few pine boughs 

 on top, if the bed is much exposed to the wind, is about 

 as good a winter protection to the plants as can be desired. 



The beds should be covered before the ground has frozen 

 very hard, and, of course, in time to anticipate the first 

 heavy fall of snow. One gardener I know, having plenty 

 of labor at command, covers his beds early in the winter 

 with about eighteen inches of oak leaves, with boughs on 

 top, so that I do not believe the soil of his beds freezes 

 from one year's end to another. 



Where leaves are used, enough will generally settle in 

 among the plants to make a very excellent mulch for the 

 summer months. 



A covering of light, strawy manure will answer very 

 well for a winter protection ; but a covering of solid, wet, 

 barn-yard manure, if applied late in the fall, will almost 

 certainly kill every vine. 



A few garden rows of valuable plants may be very neatly 

 protected by covering each row with leaves, and then with 

 two old boards leaning against each other, so as to make 

 a covering like an inverted V, thus keeping down the 

 leaves, and turning off the rain. But I must add that I 

 have in this manner so thoroughly protected strawberry 

 plants in pots, standing on the surface of the ground, that 

 they got as dry as ashes in the winter, and were stone dead 

 in the spring. 



