Il8 SrCCI^SS WITH SMALL FRUITS. 



be shipped in one box. But, allowing for all expenses, I 

 think it is evident that people can obtain a fair profit 

 from potted plants within eight or ten months from the 

 time of planting. Moreover, autumn-set plants start with 

 double vigor in early spring, and make a fine growth before 

 the hot, dry weather checks them ; and the crop from them 

 the second year will be the very best that they are capable 

 of producing. Two paying crops are thus obtained within 

 two years, and the cost of cultivation the first year is slight 

 for the plants are set after the great impulse of annual weed 

 growth is past. With spring-set plants you get but one 

 crop in two years. The first year yields nothing unless 

 plants are sold, and yet the cultivation must be unceasing 

 through May, June and July, when Nature seems to give no 

 little thought to the problem of how many weeds can be 

 growTi to the square inch. If one wishes early plants, he 

 certainly should practise autumn planting, for a plant set 

 even in November, will begin to make runners nearly a 

 month earlier than one set in spring. 



Thus far we have looked at the subject from a business 

 stand-point. 



Those who wish plants for the home supply certainly 

 should not hesitate to furnish their gardens as early in the 

 summer as possible. To wait two years of our short lives 

 for strawberries because the plants are a little cheaper in 

 the spring is a phase of economy that suggests the moon. 

 Such self-denial in a good cause would be heroic. 



If people will use a little forethought, they can practise 

 summer and autumn planting with double success, indepen- 

 dently of the plant grower. We have shown that there is 

 no mystery in raising potted plants. Moreover, in the hot- 

 test summers there are showery, cloudy days when ordinary 

 layer plants can be set with perfect safety. If the field or 



