10 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 



indicate. No, no. They usually have many irons in the fire, 

 and the large jobs naturally get the first attention. The result 

 is, when they get around to the fruit-garden it is too late to do 

 the work to the best advantage. I can not blame a man for 

 dreading the job if it has been neglected until the weeds have 

 obtained full possession. Again, they haven't, perhaps, laid 

 out the patch so it can be worked to the best advantage with a 

 horse. I am also convinced, by talking with many farmers, 

 that they do not know how to take care of strawberries and 

 other small fruits properly. All these things I will try to help 

 you out on in the following pages. But let me say right here : 

 Please do not let any thing I have said, or may say, influence 

 you to set out any strawberries unless you have made up your 

 mind that that crop is just as important, so far as it goes, as 

 any other, and shall be taken care of properly and promptly, 

 and not pushed off by all the big jobs. Unless you will do just 

 this, whether or no, I pray you do not begin. Better save the 

 money you pay for plants. 



What I said in the first part of this chapter, about its being 

 better business policy, oftentimes, to buy berries than to raise 

 them, would not, of course, apply to very many farmers who 

 could not handily buy good fresh berries. Such must grow 

 them any way, or go without. Around us there are several 

 growers, in a small way, from whom we can get them fresh, 

 but still not quite as choice, usually, as those we grow our- 

 selves. Regular growers must pick them before they are ripe, 

 so they will stand sending to market. To have the strawberry 

 in its perfection you must leave it on the vines until dead ripe, 

 and then eat it very soon after picking. 



Right here I may as well confess that, even if I was not 

 brought up on a farm, and thought I could buy what we want- 

 ed as freely as though we raised it, we have used more berries 

 since we grew them than we ever did when we bought them. I 

 do not remember that we ever bought more than five or six 

 bushels of strawberries in a season. Last year I suppose we 



