CHAPTER VI. 



CHOICE OF SOIL AND LOCATION. 



n^HE choice that Tobias Hobson imposed on his patrons 

 -^ when he compelled them to take " the horse nearest 

 to the stable-door " or none at all, is one that, in principle, 

 we often have to make in selecting our strawberry-ground. 

 We must use such as we have, or raise no berries. And yet 

 it has been said that " with no other fruit do soil and local- 

 ity make so great differences." While I am inclined to 

 think that this is truer of the raspberry, it is also thoroughly 

 established that location and the native qualities of the soil 

 are among the first and chief considerations in working out 

 the problem of success with strawberries. 



Especially should such forethought be given in selecting 

 a soil suited to the varieties we wish to raise. Dr. Thurber, 

 editor " American Agriculturist" states this truth emphati- 

 cally. In August, 1875, he wrote: "All talk about straw- 

 berries must be with reference to particular soils. As an 

 illustration of this, there were exhibited in our office win- 

 dows several successive lots of the Monarch of the West, 

 which were immense as to size and wonderful as to produc- 

 tiveness. This same Monarch behaved in so unkingly a 

 manner on our grounds (very light and sandy in their 

 nature) that he would have been deposed had we not seen 

 these berries, for it was quite inferior to either Charles 

 Downing, Seth Boyden, or Kentucky. " 



It is a generally admitted fact that the very best soil, and 

 the one adapted to the largest number of varieties, is a 



