CHAPTER X. 



THE STRAWBERRY. 



THE cultivation of this early and delicious fruit, so uni- 

 versally esteemed, is much neglected through the country at 

 large. Failure from bad management has doubtless con 

 tributed to this neglect. 



The requisites for success, are chiefly, 



1. A good, deep, rich soil ; 



2. Clean cultivation between the rows ; 



3. A renewal by planting as often as once in three years ; 



4. Selection of suitable varieties. 



Soil. Any deep, rich soil, which will afford fine crops of 

 corn and potatoes, is well adapted to the cultivation of the 

 strawberry. To be uniformly productive, it must be deep- 

 ly trenched, either by the spade or by double plowing, and 

 well enriched with manure. Fine crops, it is true, may be 

 obtained without trenching, but not in such excellence, pro- 

 fusion, nor certainty, in all seasons. It rarely, but some- 

 times happens that the soil is made too rich. The usual 

 error is the reverse. 



Clea?i Cultivation is a most essential requisite. On a 

 large scale, it may be very cheaply accomplished by a horse 

 and cultivator, the rows being about two feet apart, and the 

 plants a foot to a foot and a half in the rows. The runners 

 must be kept down by hoeing, or treated precisely as weeds ; 

 and unless the soil is already quite fertile, a dressing of' 

 manure should be applied each autumn, which will protect 

 the roots, soak into the soil, and may be turned under in 

 spring. A light top-dressing of leached ashes is highly 

 beneficial to strawberry beds. 



Some varieties, as the Large Early Scarlet and Dundee, 

 will often bear profusely for a single season, even when the 

 plants run thickly together; others, and more particularly 



