184 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 



*'Mr. Root, the wonderful growth you see is due both to 

 the variety and treatment. The plants are the 'Nick Ohmer,' 

 and you have four of them already. The special treatment is 

 this : There is quite a quantity of rich old compost spaded un- 

 der the surface of the soil ; but it is not the compost alone. 

 After preparing the bed I stamped it down as hard as I could 

 tramp the mellow ground ; then I afterward pounded it as I 

 would pound the ground around a post, and this is the result." 



" Now, old friend, you have missed quite a little specula- 

 tion. Had you showed me these plants, and told me they were 

 a new variety just out, and were worth $1 00 a piece, I would 

 have taken half a dozen, without a moment's hesitation. As it 

 is, I want to say to you that the sight of this bed has been 

 worth my whole hard ride of 25 miles over the hills this morn- 

 ing." 



You see, this is nothing particularly new after all. T. B. 

 Terry and others fine up their wheat ground on the surface un- 

 til every lump is pulverized until the ground is like the dust 

 in the road, in fact. After having done this the soil is packed 

 down hard with a heavy land-roller. This is the viay they get 

 such enormous crops of wheat. Now, mind you, this can be 

 done only when the soil is very dry; and it is especially needed 

 on light sandy soils like friend Crawford's, or any soil where a 

 great amount of stable manure has been applied. As soon as 

 it was explained to me I understood exactly why strawberries 

 do not do well at this time of year in my plant-beds where the 

 soil is almost half stable manure. 



After the above I went home and tested this firming mat- 

 ter most thoroughly on a great variety of plants, especially our 

 choice ones. It has always given wonderful results, both in 

 variety and fruit ; but we use it in our plant beds only where 

 there was an excess of old manure. I do not know how it 

 would work in field culture. If it answers as well as it does in 

 our rich beds, the ground can probably be firmed with a very 

 heavy roller loaded down, drawn by horses. A strawberry- 

 grower of much experience once told me that my old plants, 

 close by a path where the ground had been tramped down hard 

 and solid by many feet, would stand over winter, without the 

 plants heaving out, better than in soft ground, and that has 

 proved to be the case. 



