70 SUCCESS WITH SMALL FRUITS. 



little more preparation than for wheat, and such methods 

 must pay or they would not be continued. Many who fol- 

 low these methods declare that they are the most profitable 

 in the long run. I doubt it. 



If our market is one in which strawberries are sold simply 

 as such, without much regard to flavor or size, there is not 

 the same inducement to produce fine fruit. But even when 

 quantity is the chief object, deeply prepared and enriched 

 land retains that essential moisture of which we have spoken, 

 and enables the plant not only to form, but also to develop 

 and mature, a great deal of fruit. In the majority of mar- 

 kets, however, each year, size and beauty count for more, 

 and these qualities can be secured, even from a favorable 

 soil, only after thorough preparation and enriching. I find 

 that every writer of experience on this subject, both Ameri- 

 can and European, insists vigorously on the value of such 

 careful pulverization and deepening of the soil. 



Having thus considered the most favorable land in the 

 best condition possible, under ordinary cultivation, I shall 

 now treat of that less suitable, until we finally reach a soil 

 too sterile and hopelessly bad to repay cultivation. 



I will speak first of this same deep, moist loam, in its un- 

 subdued condition ; that is, in stiff sod, trees, or brush-wood. 

 Of course, the latter must be removed, and, as a rule, the 

 crops on new land — which has been undisturbed by the 

 plow for a number of years, and, perhaps, never robbed of 

 its original fertility — will amply repay for the extra labor of 

 clearing. Especially will this be the case if the brush and 

 rubbish are burned evenly over the surface. The finest of 

 wild strawberries are found where trees have been felled and 

 the brush burned ; and the successful fruit grower is the one 

 who makes the best use of such hints from nature. 



The field would look better and the cultivation be easier 



