.64 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 



very dry (plants should not be set out when the soil is wet), and 

 to also have the ground very fine and firm before you begin. 

 I notice some fancy growers, in a small way, talk about having 

 the soil so mellow they can run the hand down in to the 

 shoulder. I should not care to set out plants in soil as loose as 

 that. One spring it was very dry for some weeks after straw- 

 berry-setting time. But by using care in the above lines, our 

 plants grew right along, splendidly, all of them. It was dry 

 when we set them out ; but we put moist earth in contact with 

 the plants, and tramped them in with the feet. We could not 

 have had a better season to show the benefits of firming the 

 soil. It happened that a large grower called here about a 

 month after setting time. He walked back and forth on my 

 half-acre for some time without saying a word. At last I said 

 to him: "I suppose your berries look better than mine. I am 

 quite a new hand at the bu'siness, you know." 



He replied: "No, they do not. I wish they looked as 

 well. It has been so dry that they have scarcely started since 

 they were put out, and many are dead entirely. Yours are 

 growing right along." 



This was pleasing to me, although I felt sorry for my 

 friend. Of course, however, as he was a large experienced 

 grower I did not presume to tell him what I thought was the 

 cause of the difference. But let me ask you, reader, if you do 

 not think it was simply better care all the way through? We 

 never tried to see how fast we could do any of the work, but 

 how thoroughly well we could manage in every particular. It 

 being dry, we set the plants so they could stand it and grow 

 right along, and they did. 



In a former chapter I think I spoke of a grower saying 

 that a strawberry-plant would often live and take root when 

 thrown away and left on the surface of the ground. This is 

 true, for I found some once when cultivating a newly set patch. 

 One plant was actually in blossom, and about as large as those 

 set out. But that was a very wet season. A little less care in 



