50 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 



ment. The. writer was visiting at a home in one of our large 

 cities once, where there was a blooming, rosy-cheeked young 

 lady. She showed me just & square rod oi land, no more, which 

 she had attended to all alone, and from which she had picked 

 108 quarts of delicious strawberries that were measured, besides 

 some that were eaten right from the vines, and this in a single 

 season. These berries were worth to them $15 ; but that was a 

 very small part of the enjoyment this lady got out of them. 

 Of course, to yield like this they received the best treatment 

 known to the art. She treated them somewhat as the man did 

 who, some years ago, received the prize offered for growing the 

 largest quantity of berries from a dozen plants of a new variety. 

 As nearly as I can now remember, he said he watered and fed 

 them as regularly as he did his horse. I have had two letters 

 from another city lady whose health has been very poor for 

 years. She has two or three rods of strawberries now, in which 

 she is deeply interested. It begins to look as though strawber- 

 ry culture might cheat the doctors out of any further job. 

 Many people who raise flowers might get as much enjoyment 

 out of strawberries on a part of the ground. A neatly kept 

 strawberry-bed would not be out of place anywhere. If there 

 is any prettier flower-bed in Ohio to-day than our strawberry- 

 patch, new in full bloom, I should like to see it. We like oth- 

 er flowers. We used to have five beds on the lawn for them. 

 This spring we sodded over all but two of them. We are get- 

 ting more interested in the flowers on strawberries, currants, 

 raspberries, blackberries, grapes, etc. fruit-bearing flowers, 

 useful flowers. Still, I would not have you love the other kind 

 less, but rather these useful ones more. Can you think of any 

 plant that would afford any more enjoyment than a strawberry- 

 plant cared for so that, when it comes to bear, it shall be loaded 

 down with berries from four to seven inches in circumference, 

 and as handsome as any flower too ; and not only that, but de- 

 licious to eat, also, after you are through looking at it ? 



