146 SUCCESS WITH SMALL FRUITS. 



pear. Unless the plants are very strong and are set out 

 very early, fruiting the same year means feebleness and often 

 death. If berries are wanted within a year, the plants must 

 be set in summer or autumn. Then they can be permitted 

 to bear all they will the following season. A child Avith a 

 pair of shears or a knife, not too dull, can easily keep a 

 large garden-plot free from runners, unless there are long pe- 

 riods of neglect. Half an hour's work once a week, in the cool 

 of the evening, will be sufficient. A boy paid at the rate of 

 twenty-five cents a day can keep acres clipped if he tries. 



If the ground were poor, or one were desirous of large 

 fruit, it would be well to give a liberal autumn top-dressing 

 of fine compost or any well-rotted fertilizer not contain- 

 ing crude hme. Bone-dust and wood-ashes are excellent. 

 Scatter this along the rows, and hoe it in the last time they 

 are cultivated in the fall. 



With the exception of guano and other quick-acting 

 stimulants, I believe in fall top-dressing. The melting 

 snows and March rains carry the fertilizing properties down 

 to the roots, which begin growing and feeding very early in 

 spring. If compost or barn-yard manure is used, it aids in 

 protecting the plants during the winter, warms and mellows 

 the soil, and starts them into a prompt, vigorous growth, 

 thus enabling them to store up sufficient vitality in the 

 cool growing season to produce large fruit in abundance. 

 If top-dressings are applied in the spring, and a dry period 

 follows, they scarcely reach the roots in time to aid in 

 forming the fruit buds. The crop of the following year, 

 however, will be increased. Of course, it is far better to 

 top-dress the rows in spring than not at all. I only wish to 

 suggest that usually the best results are obtained by doing 

 this work in the fall ; and this would be true especially of 

 heavy soils. 



