48 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1897. 



receive the strawberi'}' plants in the spring. I never allowed ground 

 to lay bare during the winter, but shall use rj'e instead of barley in the 

 future, sow thick, and plough under at eighteen inches grow^th (as I 

 have since found it better, to hold the moisture). I ploughed the 

 early ground, as it would crumble nicely ; harrowed it fine, and sat one 

 and eleven-sixteenths acres, May 10 to 17, using mj' own plants, 

 grown near by. Placing boxes on a stoue-boat 1 dug the plants in 

 clumps, leaving the dirt on, drew the piece and set them withont using 

 any water. Ninety-nine plants out of every hundred grew and 

 scarcely a plant wilted the second daj'. The rows were three and 

 one-half feet, plants about fifteen inches apart, a hundred and five 

 rows of twelve rods length, nine varieties, but principally Lovitt, 

 Bubach and Parker Earle. 



oO Lovitt. 10 Greenville. 4 Timbrell. 



21 Bubach. 8 Haviland 3 P^ureka. 



20 Parker Earle. 5 Mammoth IJoauty. 



Not any farm manure used, set by line and raked in twenty-five pounds 

 Stockbridge fruit manure ou each row as set. May 22 and 25, raked 

 the entire piece with common garden rake and again ten days later; 

 then cultivated with horse every ten days after until September, nar- 

 rowing cultivator, growing wide matted rows. June 8, sowed 800 lbs. 

 cotton-seed meal on the rows; June 26. sowed 2,000 lbs. fine bone on 

 the rows; November 1, sowed 100 bushels ashes on the rows. Ashes 

 were 20 to 25 per cent, lime mixed in, and mauy soft-wood ashes on 

 the rows. Nov. 5, spread six to seven tons bog hay evenly over the 

 entire surface ; and during winter spread a few loads coarse manure ou 

 the rows, enough to hold the hay down during March winds. April 

 22, uncovered the rows, leaving hay in paths; May 2. sowed 100 

 l)ushels ashes (20 per cent, lime) on the rows. Picked first crate 

 fruit June 19, and last quart July 30; yield 320 bushels. I sprayed 

 the plants soon as leaves started to grow and again as soon as the first 

 blossoms opened, using eight pounds sulphate copper, eight pounds 

 of lime, and a quarter pound of Paris green to fifty gallons of water. 

 Mulch when ground freezes enough to bear a load of hay and thick 

 enough to hide every leaf. Later put ou heavier. No amount of 

 mulcii will smother or weaken the plants, if taken as soon as frost 

 conies out. Use hay or coarse manure, put on any time during the 

 winter. I am not afraid of too mucli foliage, if there is enough 

 potash and phosphoric acid in the soil to balance, or back up the 

 fruit started with uitrogen. I never had a good crop of potatoes 

 without a good show of tops. And in the winter is the only time it 



