100 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CUMURE. 



at his request. S'xty thousand plants were taken from the 

 same land in the spring, worth $300, and then between $700 

 and $800 worth of celery and cabbages were grown on the same 

 3) acres after the berries were plowed under I could not get 

 the exact figures on the vegetables, as they were not all sold. 

 These figures fairly take one's breath away. Mr. S.'s largest 

 yield for a single season was 446 bushels per acre. Certainly 

 we may all give careful attention to all friend Smith saj s on 

 any point connected with strawberry-growing. But I believe I 

 have not given you what seemed to me one of the great secrets 

 of his wonderful success. Heavy manuring, and the most 

 thorough tillage that man knows how to give, and the choicest 

 plants that can be grown, with such a man as Mr. Smith at the 

 helm, are important factors ; but there was one more point, as 

 it seemed to me : Mr. S.'s land is very sandy, and but a few 

 feet above the water of the bay. There is abundant moisture 

 at all times. Capillary attraction brings it up readily, through 

 the mellow sand, and with Mr. Smith's tillage his crops suffer 

 little or none for water, whether it rains or not. He has tile- 

 drained and surface-drained, in beds, his land, to take the sur- 

 face water, after a shower, off quickly, sandy as it is ; but there 

 is a never -failing supply but a little way down. His land is 

 notably such as I spoke of in a previous chapter as best for 

 strawberries well drained, but moist. Much of your success, 

 my friends, may depend on your selecting land of this charac- 

 ter. 



Now, some readers, perhaps, would like to know about 

 what the profits are in strawberry -growing on a large scale. It 

 has been difficult to get figures on this point from growers. In 

 fact, the only man who has followed the business for years, and 

 would tell just what he made, was Mr. Adams, of whom I have 

 spoken before. The following are his figures as to the cost of 

 growing an acre, on the average, for a term of years : 



