ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 161 



until June, and even then feel a little unsafe until a week has 

 passed. We were growing that half -acre of strawberries large- 

 ly for the pleasure of doing our best on a little land, and not as 

 a source of income. Now, do you not see that, if we had made 

 a business of it, and had five or ten acres, we should have been 

 hurt badly ? I know these conditions to exist here, and have 

 no right to put out a crop that it would cripple me to lose, and 

 then blame Providence for bad luck. All these points have 

 been studied most carefully. Our crops of potatoes, wheat, 

 and clover, are almost perfectly safe. They have never failed 

 to pay us. I could make more money from strawberries, if 

 they were as safe ; but they are not, here. There are places 

 where they are. Within a mile is a hill of rich, mellow, moist 

 soil on which I would not hesitate to put out strawberries large- 

 ly. As it is, one does not like to work hard for nothing half 

 the time, and we shall set out only plenty of strawberries 

 for our own use in the future. We decided on this before the 

 frost, knowing well the chances, and set out this year only 

 what should bring us, say, 20 bushels in a good year. We will 

 do our best to succeed in what we undertake ; and then, if fail- 

 ure comes, it will be no fault of ours. Special farming is not 

 very popular, but we will grow what nature has best fitted our 

 farm for. We want safety and almost certainty with as little of 

 luck and lottery as possible. 



Now, this is the idea that went through my mind, friend 

 Root, when you asked me why I did not put in many acres of 

 strawberries. I wish I had brought it out more fully in our lit- 

 tle strawberry-book. Being rather set up by success then, I 

 hardly made as plain as I should this point of going against 

 nature. But still that book was intended mostly for farmers, 

 who raise berries only for their own use, and this I would do in 

 any locality, however unfavorable. By setting out the varieties 

 that stand frost best, and by heavy mulching, and, best of all, 

 by setting out a great plenty, berries may be almost a certainty; 

 and if not particularly profitable some years, it will not matter 

 on a small patch. T. B. TERRY. 



Hudson, O., June 4, 1891. 



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