24 THE UKW AGRICULTURE. 



Few stone were found in the soil. Here and there, however, 

 buried and out of sight, was found an occasional pine or hemlock 

 knot, resisting for generations the tooth of time. Here we found the 

 first clump-foot cabbage, and forthwith, suspecting something w r as 

 not quite right, we dug down, and brought out a huge pine knot. 

 Here, again, we began experiments with Hovey's seedling, succeed- 

 ing after a year or two of patient endeavor, in gathering from a 

 bed of thirty hills nearly a pint of strawberries, the largest speci- 

 men of w r hich measured three inches in circumference. So great was 

 our triumph that one of our friends traveled on foot six miles to see 

 that big berry. Were our friend now near by, instead of far away 

 we would, were he to visit us next July, 1885, show him bushels of 

 berries, averaging as large as the one, which at that time, was the 

 greatest of wonders. When it conies to specimens of our best, 

 viz : Jersey Queens, Jumbos, Manchesters, Monarchs, &c., we 

 could exhibit them by scores and hundreds, measuring from five 

 to seven inches in circumference. 



But the reason of the barrenness of most of our strawberry plants 

 in our first garden puzzled and vexed us to find out, as it probably 

 did every other producer in our county. While onions grew to 

 larger size than we had seen anywhere, and cabbages, beets and 

 turnips astonished us with their prodigious growth, only about one 

 out of three of our strawberry plants showed berries. The vines 

 appeared sickly, and the roots of the plants did not seem to get 

 firm hold in the earth, and we took to pulling them up, and digging 

 down, seeking the cause of infecundity and unthrift. With scarce 

 an exception, we found at the depth of from twelve to fifteen inches 

 the inevitable pine or hemlock knot, and still more frequently, a 

 flat stone. We found the roots of our plants, reaching deeply down, 

 had come in contact with buried obstructions, and that disease had 

 followed. Making use of the spectacles of an aged person serving 



