22 WORCESTER COUNTY HOKTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1881. 



President, would not eat ourselves, and certainly not sell to 

 scatter the seeds of disease amongst the innocent. 



But to return to our strawberry plants. We shall be obliged 

 to invest in some kind of insuran(;e, or we may lose all that we 

 have worked all Summer for, yet, — the crop of strawl^erries. 



People are constantly speaking and writing about plants winter- 

 killing ; but it seldom happens here. I have yet to see the first 

 case except some foreign variety, like Jucunda, or Triomphe de 

 Gand ; but our variable and almost treacherous Springs will kill 

 many native varieties, unless protected. 



The sun dashes out some morning early in March, and the 

 innocent plants finding their roots liberated, rouse themselves up, 

 and looking Heavenward, take one long breath and court the 

 embraces of the coquettish southern breeze ; their sap begins to 

 circulate, and their rootlets to travel in the warm soil in pursuit 

 of nourishment ; but alas ! the night cometh, and with it a cold 

 northern blast, and our innocent plants are stricken down in 

 their first attempt at flirtation ! and we mourn their loss in vain, 

 unless we learn from it, that we must depend upon our own 

 strength and knowledge for our own and our families' support. 



The best way I know of to insure the crop, is to cover or 

 mulch the whole ground evenly, and well, to the depth of two 

 inches at least, with coarse light hay, or leaves, or some (.)ther 

 material that will shade the ground, and not mat down too hard. 

 I plough a light furrow around the outside of the bed, turning it 

 on to the mulch to hold it, and then scatter bean poles, brush, or 

 bundles of corn-fodder over the ground at intervals to hold the 

 rest of the mulch ; all the niulch is removed from all of my beds, 

 every Spring, when danger of freezing is over; so 1 can take the 

 plants from the paths on our matted beds, to set, and sell ; as 

 also to give us a chance to hoe the ground over, and put on more 

 fertilizers. The best spring fertilizer I use, is composted Ameri- 

 can guano, droppings of poultry composted with decomposed 

 turf or peat. 



I mulch again befora the heat of Summer commences, as a 

 summer insurance and if I use a material worth more to plough 

 under, than to save, ])lough it under witii the plants as soon as the 

 strawberries are off, salting the land well beforehand. 



We used to run our beds two or three years and get more 

 profit from the C. Downings, Kinney's 10, Boyden's 30, Kentucky, 

 and Jucundas the second and third years, than the first, until the 

 strawberry flea made his appearance ; since then we have been 

 obliged to make the change in management ; and this summer 

 and late fall ploughing, salting, and cultivating the cabbage on 

 the strawberry beds, tends to keep the white grub in subjection ; 



