372 CROP GROWING AND CROP FEEDING 



berry is the sulphate free from chlorides, but as market growers usually grow 

 for size and appearance rather than quality, the muriate is more commonly 

 used; on the home strawberry bed use the sulphate. Eotation is important 

 to the strawberry grower, too. Two crops is all that should be taken. The 

 plants are then plowed under and cow peas sown for hay, followed by vetches 

 in winter and corn in the spring. Then oats, followed by cow peas heavily 

 fertilized with acid phosphate and potash, and the whole plowed under for 

 strawberries again. A sole dependence on the commercial fertilizers is as 

 bad for the strawberry grower as for any one else, and he should grow crops of 

 forage and feed cattle to make manure that will aid in the humus accumu- 

 lation in his soil. A soil well filled with organic matter will make a better 

 crop of berries without fertilizer than a soil deficient in this will with a 

 heavy application of fertilizer. 



35. Finally, no matter what crop you are using the fertilizers on, always 

 keep a small piece without any application as a check plat to show what the 

 treatment is doing for you. Without something of this sort you will be 

 simply guessing as to whether the application is paying you or not. In 

 brief, study your soils and crops, and do nothing simply because your 'neigh- 

 bors or your fathers did it, but always be ready to give a reason of an intelli- 

 gent character for the hope that is in you. If this book has no other effect 

 than to set its readers to thinking, it will have accomplished its mission. 



