TIMES AND SEASONS. 17 



berry plants had increased to over sixty, set out in 

 rows about a foot apart each way. The garden was 

 so exceedingly small that it was necessary to crowd 

 them together to gain room, the intention being the 

 next year to allow no runners to grow. On the 

 twenty-first of November the ground was frozen hard 

 and the strawberries were covered with dead leaves. 

 Over this was laid some boughs and sticks to keep 

 the wind from blowing the leaves away. A friend 

 had given me in October a hundred currant cuttings, 

 half Red Dutch and half White Dutch. These had 

 been carefully set out in a bed by themselves, and 

 were covered with leaves and brush about the twen- 

 tieth of November. A few dozen grape cuttings, also 

 a gift, were placed in a wooden box and buried two 

 feet deep in the ground. Meantime I had sifted two 

 barrels of good soil, mixing it with bone-meal, wood- 

 ashes and guano, and stored it in the cellar. Then 

 the snow came and the season was at an end. 





