FRUIT PLANTATIONS STRAWBERRIES. 303 



weeds horse-lioeing being the cheapest method. Stable, farmyard, or town manure is 

 applied in late summer, when the runners are removed, to stimulate the growth of stout 

 crowns, from 20 to 80 tons being used per acre. Digging is not practised in light soils, 

 but the plants are moulded up with a plough to keep the crowns warm and dry in 

 midwinter. Where the ground is rather heavy, the alleys are lightly dug between 

 during the winter. A dressing of soot is applied in March or early April according to 

 season and locality, 40 to 80 bushels per acre, this tending to keep down slugs, as well 

 as to stimulate and sustain growth and crop. Powdered nitrate of soda. 2 pounds per rod, 

 may be employed instead of the soot. Mulching should be done early in June. Clean 

 stable litter or barley straw is used at the rate of about \\ ton per acre. As soon as the 

 crop is gathered, the runners are cut off with a hook, the land broken between the rows 

 with a horse-hoe and cleared from weeds, runners, and mulching. On light soils two 

 crops, or with heavy manuring, three only pay ; on deep rich loams, also marls and 

 greensand formations, the plants bear profitably for five or six years. 



