88 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 



but not an overgrowth ; and the last applied manure will be 

 used largely for making fruit. I know some think that there 

 is stored up in the crowns, in the fall, the substance from which 

 the fruit is made, largely ; but nevertheless I think you will 

 find that manure applied in the fall will help greatly to increase 

 the crop. 



I think it was at Black River Falls, in Wisconsin, that I 

 stopped with a Mr. Lake, who beat any thing I ever saw or 

 heard of in the way of heavy manuring. His strawberries 

 brought him $500 an acre the year before. The soil (?) was 

 about as clear, sharp sand as we are able to get here for mortar. 

 Between three and four acres of his berries were covered with 

 manure in such quantities as I never saw put on land before. 

 It did not seem possible that it could be spread so as not to 

 smother the plants. It had been drawn on snow and dumped 

 in piles. It was pretty much all one pile. The snow had just 

 melted, and they were getting ready to spread it when I was 

 there. The snow is all the winter protection needed in that 

 latitude. There were over 500 " pinery loads " on the three or 

 four acres. Unless you have been up in the pine woods of the 

 Northwest, and seen their huge sleds, you will not have much 

 idea of a " pinery load." The growth of vines where this ma- 

 nure was to be spread was about such as can be found on my 

 patch in the winter. But if that immense quantity of manure 

 does not smother any vines, the yield ought to be enormous. 

 Mr. L- expected a good deal more than $500 an acre. Now, 

 one reads often of such manuring as this without getting all 

 the circumstances connected with it. There were two impor- 

 tant ones in this case. The manure did not cost any thing, ex- 

 cept the hauling, and the land was so podr it would not grow a 

 thing without heavy manuring. 



Mr. J. M Smith's success is partly due to heavy manuring. 

 He uses about 40 large loads per acre on his land each year. His 

 land is worth too much, being near Green Bay, quite a city, to 



