256 HORTICULTURE, FORESTRY, FLORICULTURE 



this can be turned under and will not only provide a large amount 

 of plant food, but it will so add to the humus in the soil that there 

 will be far less danger from drouth. Cow-pea will in most parts of 

 the United States make a fair growth, and where the ground is 

 not needed for other crops can be grown and turned under previous 

 to planting the strawberries. 



Sod land is not desirable, as it is generally deficient in humus 

 and plant food and frequently contains insect larvae, which may 

 prove destructive to the plants. Almost any of the hoed crops may 

 ibe used for one year previous to setting the plants and will leave the 

 land in good condition for the strawberries, especially if it was heavily 

 top-dressed with stable manure in the spring, or fall, previous to 

 planting. Few soils will give the best results without the use of man- 

 ure or fertilizer of some kind, and if the manure can be applied to 

 the land at least one year before it is to be used for the strawberries 

 it will decompose and will be in a suitable condition to yield up this 

 plant food. 



An application of fifteen to twenty loads of partially decom- 

 posed manure will be sufficient for most soils, but where wood ashes 

 can be readily secured their use will be found profitable ; fifty to one 

 hundred bushels to the acre should be applied, after the land has 

 been plowed and worked into the soil when dragging. 



For commercial plantations it will hardly be desirable to use 

 chemical fertilizers, as, with clover and other green crops and the 

 addition of manure and wood ashes, fertilizers will add but slightly 

 to the yield, and the expense will not be returned in the crops ; for 

 the private garden, however, if the manure can not be readily 

 obtained, fertilizers may be used. A number of brands of fertilizers 

 have been prepared by the different manufacturers, eespecially for 

 the small fruits, and a thousand to fifteen hundred pounds per acre 

 will give good results. For those who desire to prepare their own 

 mixtures, however, we recommend one hundred pounds of nitrate 

 of soda, eight hundred pounds of ground bone, and one hundred 

 bushels of wood ashes, or, if these can not be obtained, four hundred 

 pounds of Dotash salts, either muriate or sulphate. Although fall 

 planting will give fair results under intensive culture, the best 

 returns will ordinarily be secured from spring-set plants. 



Unless the land is unusually heavy so that there will be danger 

 of its puddling during the winter, it will be well to plow the land in 

 the fall, and in the spring thoroughly pulverize the surface. With 

 deep soil the furrows may be turned to the depth of seven or eight 

 inches, but in a thin light soil, it will not be advisable to plow more 

 than one-half inch deeper than the previous plowing. If the plow- 

 ing was not done in the fall, it should be done in the spring as early 

 as the ground can be worked and rolled to press the loose soils firmly 

 down upon the under soil, in order that the upward movement of the 

 water may not be checked. The dragging can hardly be too thor- 

 ough, and especially if for any reason the plants can not be set as 

 soon as the land has been prepared, the working should be kept up, 

 at least once a week. 



