STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 57 



CULTIVATION OF THE STRAWBERRY, 



The liglit, sandy or gravelly soils are the lea'-t desirable, and the 

 alluvial soils or those containing a larger percentage of vegetable 

 mould the best. It ought to be worked two years to completely 

 rot the sod, remove the white grub, and check the weeds. 



To furnish an abundant supply of plant food, apply from twenty 

 to forty cords of good manure to the acre, and plow in ten inches 

 deep. This after being thoroughly cultivated and smoothed will 

 give you a grand feeding ground for the strawberry. You may 

 think this amount of manure exc ssive and that the stawberry is a 

 rank feeder. It is not exhaustive to the soil but when we cover 

 one season with growth and without added fertility get a crop of 

 berries the next, you see plainly that there must be, to secure good 

 results, a large amount of plant food in the soil Again this plant 

 does a large amount of work in a very short time. We uncover 

 the plants about the first of May and begin picking the lasst of June. 

 Doing .so much in so short time, putting forth the buds, blossr.ming, 

 developing the fruit, ripening, all within about ten weeks, calls for 

 an available and full supply of food. 



VARIETIES. 



There are a host of possibilities and often anticipated results in 

 this one word that we never realize. There are failures here the 

 same a-t in every other enterprise. Talk about varieties running 

 out; they can't help it the way some people handle them. Give 

 them a herd of Jerseys that would average twenty pounds of butter 

 a week and they would run out in the same way. Improper care 

 and an utter disregard of the laws that govern production. People 

 often come to me asking for plants from an old bed. I tell them 

 they can have all they want but they are good for nothing. It is 

 better to pay a dollar a hundred for good plants than get these old 

 ones for nothing 



We want strong, vigorous stock to start with and then put all our 

 powers at work to strengthen the good points, by selecting those 

 neare-t our ideal to propagate from. By this method a variety 

 instead of running out may ba wonderfully improved. For general 

 cultivation I have never fruited a kind that would compare with 

 CresL-ent in vigor of plant and yield of fruit. I have found a her- 

 maphrodite sort at last, (Michel's Early) that is its equal in vigor 



