694 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTtJRE. 



Sept. 



the last of August, great uionstrous clumps 

 of fruit-crowns, leatly t«) bear next season. 

 I do not nnderstanil it yet. .Vfter friend 

 Terry got home we went out among the 

 plants, and I (piestioiied him. 



" What manure, and how much, did you 

 use to get this wonderful growthV" 



He quietly replied, with one of his pecul- 

 iar smiles : 



" Didn't use any manure at all.'' 



I opened my mouth in astonishment, and 

 he smiled again, and added : 



" We plowed under clover.''' 



You know the great controversy between 

 friend Terry and Professor Chamberlain 

 lias been on stable manure and clover. 

 Friend Chamberlain is stiong in defense of 

 stable manure ; and since friend Teny has 

 started in that line, he has been putting in 

 some heavy blows for clover; therefore 

 when lie went to raising strawberries he 

 may have thought he would demonsliaLe 

 what clover would do, in order to keep up 

 his end of the argument. I think a good 

 many told him not to put tlie berries on 

 clover sod. Now, the next point that would 

 come up is. How big a growth of clover did 

 friend Terry have to plow under, where 

 those plants were growing? Well, I 

 shouldn't wonder if it were a giowth of 

 clover tliat few of us ever .seiv Across the 

 road we found a twelve-acre (ield where the 

 clover was higher than dur knees, and yet 

 this held liad already given 24 big loads of 

 clover hay this season. His liorses eat clo- 

 ver and no grain ; his potatoes grow on clo- 

 ver sod, with just a little manure, and this 

 great growth of strawberries was over clover 

 sod and no manure. Of course, they had 

 every advantage of cultivation, and no 

 weeds were allowed to grow. Furthermore, 

 every runner was cut oiT as soon as it was 

 visible. 



Said r, " Friend T., isn't it almost as big 

 a task to keep these runners clipped as it is 

 to weed strawberries? Who tends to cut- 

 ting the runners?" 



He quietly replied that he cut them him- 

 self. 



" But, how can you attord to use your val- 

 uable time in clipping off strawberry-run- 

 ners?" 



"• Oh ! I do that when I need rest, and so it 

 does not cost much if any thing." 



Now, friends, perhaps you think it a fun- 

 ny way of resting; but 1 waul, to tell you 

 that nothing in the world rests me so much 

 as doing something of this sort that I enjoy 

 and love. I do not know who would not 

 love those strawberry-plants. It would re- 

 vive and rest me just to look at them. I am 

 going to work to-day to lixa piece of ground 

 according to my noliou for strawberries. 

 With the aid of the iriinsplanting-tubes, we 

 are entirely independent of rain. In fact, I 

 sliould prefer not to have it rain until I get 

 tiiem all out. I can pulverize the grouiid, 

 and roll and harrow it, a. good deal better 

 wlieii the soil is tolerably dry. Friend 

 Teriy plants the strawberries only in the 

 spring. He makes tlieni grow as I have 

 told you, just one summer, and then gets 

 one crop of fruit, and then the whole bed is 

 plowed under, a little more than a year aft- 



er the plants are first set out. A good many 

 others are adopting just this plan. I tell 

 you it seemed too bad lo plow such beauti- 

 ful plants under when they had given only 

 their first crop ; but he says the enormous 

 expense of getting the weeds out after once 

 fruiting is too great to think of. 



A w eek ago I visited a successful fruit- 

 grower who showed me a patch of straw- 

 berries at one side of his cornfield. Instead 

 of cutting the runners, as friend Terry does, 

 he lets them grow and root just as much as 

 they please. Now, although the plants 

 were put out only last spring, the whole 

 ground was covered with ay enormous 

 giowth of plants. Of course, none of them 

 would compare in size with friend Terry's 

 single hills; but I knew he would get a 

 great number of quarts, even if the berries 

 were not so large. 



" But, friend S," said I. " what has been 

 the expense of weeding this patch of berries 

 standing so thickly, during this wonderful 

 season for growing weeds?" 

 He smiled too, as he replied : 

 " The expense has not been very much." 

 •' How many times did you weed them?" 

 I saw by his smile that he felt a little 

 proud of his success as he replied : 



" Mr. Root, those strawberries have been 

 weeded only o«ce." 



As before, I opened my mouth in aston- 

 isliment. It has cost me a good many dol- 

 lars to weed a patch of strawberries just 

 about like it, and I began to suspect there 

 was some trick I hadn't got hold of, so I 

 continued : 



" Look here, Mr. S., what crop grew on 

 that land last year?" 

 '• Didnt ami crop grow on the land." 

 " Well, what did you do with the land 

 last year?" 

 "• Oh ! I just plowed and harrowed it." 

 Now you have the key to it, friends. He 

 worked that ground all last season, to kill 

 the weeds. He turned it over and over, and 

 made every weed germinate that he could, 

 and then killed it; then he fixed it nicely and 

 put his plants out this spring, so there weren't 

 any weeds of any account to grow, because 

 they made their growth last year. I men- 

 tioned the matter to friend Terry, and asked 

 him if we could not clear the ground of weeds 

 in this way and raise a crop too. He replied 

 that ue could, without any trouble at all. 

 He said he thought he could raise a croi> of 

 potatoes, and keep the ground just as clean, 

 and make every weed grow, just as well as 

 to work it with no crop. Do you see the point, 

 friends ? Tliese successful tillers of the soil 

 have tricks and sleights so as to save the 

 enormous expense that huch blunderers as we 

 (a good many of us) seem to think necessary. 

 Both of these gentlemen asked me where I 

 purchased my luannre that I used in such 

 liberal quantities. When I informed them 

 that 1 got it from the livery stables, and that 

 I mulched my berries with this manure, 

 they said they did not wonder that I had got 

 discouraged in lighting weeds. Friend Terry, 

 with his clover, has no such terrible draw- 

 backs to contend wiLli. The useof chemical 

 manures, and guano also, avoids seeding our 



