SUGGESTIVE EXPERIENCES. 325 



In the Sixth Annual Report of the N. J. State Board of 

 Agriculture I find the following interesting statement from 

 the well-knowTi horticulturist, Mr. P. T. Quinn. 



ONE ACRE OF STRAWBERRIES. 



Newark, October, 1878. 



The following are the methods of culture and the products 

 of one acre of strawberries, grown on my farm near Newark, 

 during the season of 1878. The ground on which these straw- 

 berries were grown was planted with Early Rose potatoes and 

 heavily manured in the spring of 1877. These potatoes were 

 dug and marketed during the last week in July and first week 

 in August of the same year. The ground was at once cleared 

 off, plowed and harrowed smoothly. Furrows were then opened 

 four or five inches deep and two and a half feet apart. Between 

 the 15th and 22d of August, 1877, the strawberry plants were 

 set in these furrows from fifteen to eighteen inches apart, with- 

 out any manure being added. Some plants died here and there, 

 but the bulk of those set out made a strong growth before cold 

 weather. They were kept free from weeds by running a cultiva- 

 tor twice between the rows and hoeing twice. This treatment 

 kept the ground absolutely free from weeds. In the middle of 

 December, the plants were covered over with a compost of the 

 sweepings of the vegetable and fish markets, with some horse 

 manure mixed through it. The whole was thoroughly decayed 

 and hght in character. About the middle of April, 1878, the 

 coarsest part of this mulch was raked off the strawberry plants, 

 and left in the spaces between the rows, the finer portion being 

 left among the plants. To the coarse part raked off was added 

 salt hay, pressed under the leaves of the plants on either side of 

 the rows, enough being added to keep the soil around the plants 

 moist and the fruit free from grit. There was no disturbance 

 of the soil in any way in the spring, beyond the cutting off at 

 the surface of a few straggling weeds that started up here and 

 there. 



The varieties grown upon this acre were Charles Down- 

 ing and Green Prolific, and the yield was five thousand four 



