84 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



made expressly for the business. The cultivator that I use is one 

 of my own invention, and is nothing but a small harrow made with 

 steel teeth, with a cutter on behind. It leaves the ground as per- 

 fectly smooth as you could leave it with a garden rake, and it cuts 

 up every weed. You don't w^ant to use one of our common culti- 

 vators, such as farmers use in cultivating field crops. They leave 

 the ground too rough, and knock the dirt on to the plants. I 

 cultivate and hoe them every other week all through the season, till 

 the frost comes, and by attending to it regularly it is but a slight 

 task. But if you once let the weeds get the start, the game is up. 

 They drive more people out of the business than all other causes 

 combined, and too much importance cannot be attached to the 

 necessity of keeping up the cultivation till late in the season, so 

 that there will not be a weed left, however small, ready to start in 

 the spring. If they are kept perfectly clean, as they should be, 

 all through the season, the}^ will need but very little attention the 

 next year, except to pick the fruit. I know of no business but will 

 bear neglect better than strawberry growing. 



After or just before the ground freezes, I cart out and spread 

 over the piece about ten cart loads of decomposed strawy horse 

 dressing. With me this is almost the secret of the whole business, 

 and I should not know how to grow strawberries without doing it, 

 for it not only affords the plants a good winter protection, but it 

 gives them a vigorous start in the spring, makes splendid, large 

 berries, and keeps them out of the dirt. Just before winter sets in, 

 or early the next spring, as soon as the dressing thaws, you w^ant 

 to go round w^ith a hoe, pound up all the lumps, and spread them 

 round on the vacant spots, so that the whole surface will be covered 

 evenly, and the rains will thoroughly soak and leach the dressing 

 into the soil. The next spring I take the other half acre of the 

 ground that was planted to beans, and treat in the same manner. 



But why not set the whole piece the first season ? You can, if 

 you choose, but with my method of culture it does not come right, 

 for I keep my strawberries on the same ground every year. I plow 

 up one-half and set one-half of the acre every season, and that 

 gives me one-half acre in bearing every j^ear. I can get more ber- 

 ries with less labor and expense in this manner than in any other. 

 If I were obliged to prepare a new bed every second or third year, 

 I should be tempted to go out of the business. It does not cost 

 half as much to dress and run an acre after it has once been pre^ 



