92 SUCCESS WITH SMALL FRUITS. 



our best native ones, grow far better on heavy land, and a 

 soil largely mixed with clay gives a wider range in the choice 

 of varieties. 



If I had my choice between a farm of cold, stiff clay or 

 light, leachy land, I would unhesitatingly take the former, 

 and I would overcome its native unfitness by the following 

 methods : If at all inclined to be wet, as would be natural 

 from its tenacious texture, I should first underdrain it 

 thoroughly with tile. Then, if I found a fair amount of 

 vegetable matter, I would give it a dressing of air- slaked 

 lime, and plow it deeply late in the fall, leaving it unhar- 

 rowed so as to expose as much of the soil as possible to the 

 action of frost. Early in the spring, as soon as the ground 

 was dry enough to work and all danger of frost was over, I 

 would harrow in buckwheat and plow it under as it came 

 into blossom ; then sow a second crop and plow that under 

 also. It is the characteristic of buckwheat to Hghten and 

 clean land, and the reader perceives that it should be our 

 constant aim to impart lightness and life to the heavy soil. 

 Lime, in addition to its fertilizing effects, acts chemically 

 on the ground, producing the desired effect. It may be 

 objected that lime is not good for strawberries. That is 

 true if crude lime is applied directly to the plants, as we 

 would ashes or bone-dust ; but when it is mixed with the 

 soil for months, it is so neutralized as to be helpful, and in 

 the meantime its action on the soil itself is of great value. 

 It must be used for strawberries, however, in more limited 

 quantities than for many other crops, or else more time must 

 be given for it to become incorporated with the soil. 



The coarse green straw of the buckwheat is useful by its 

 mechanical division of the heavy land, while at the same 

 time its decomposition fills the soil with ammonia and other 

 gases vitally necessary to the plant. A clay soil retains 



