1 66 SUCCESS WITH SMALL FRUITS. 



In December, acre after acre is covered until all the plants 

 are quite hidden from view. In the spring, this winter 

 mulch is left upon the ground as the summer mulch, the 

 new growth in most instances pushing its way through it 

 readily. When it is too thick to permit this, it is pushed 

 aside from the crowns of the plants. 



Thus far he has given the bearing fields no spring culture, 

 adopting the common theory that the ground around the 

 plants must not be disturbed at this season. I advocate 

 the opposite view, and believe in early spring culture, as I 

 have already explained ; and I think his experience this 

 year will lead him to give my method a trial in 1880. The 

 latter part of April and early May was very dry at Norfolk, 

 and the ground between the bearing plants became parched, 

 hard, and in many instances full of weeds that had been 

 developing through the long, mild spring of this region. 

 Now I am satisfied that if he, and all others in this region 

 who adopt the narrow row system, would loosen the ground 

 deeply with a subsoil plow early in the season, before the 

 plants had made any growth, and then stir and pulverize all 

 the surface between the plants in the rows, they would in- 

 crease the size and quantity of the berries at least one third, 

 and in many instances double the crop. It would require 

 a very severe drought, indeed, to injure plants thus treated, 

 and it is well known, also, that a porous, mellow soil will 

 best endure too frequent rains. I have sometimes thought 

 that light and air are as indispensable to the roots of plants 

 as to the foliage. 



The winter mulch need not prevent this spring culture. 

 Let the men begin on one side of a field, and rake inward 

 until half a dozen rows are uncovered. Down through these 

 the subsoil plow and the cultivator can pass. Then the hay 

 can be raked back again as the summer mulch, and a nev/ 



