Food for tivation, but the matted row is generally found more profit- 

 able than the plan of growing only in hills. While some 

 "40 growers claim that one year's crop is all that should be har- 

 vested before ploughing down for potatoes, as a matter of 

 fact the common practice is to keep the bed for at least two 

 harvests. In selecting plants care should be exercised to see 

 that pistillate plants are not kept too much by themselves, or 

 the blossoms will prove barren. The crop is a heavy con- 

 sumer of plant food, and the soil cannot be made too rich. 

 Farmyard manure should never be used after the plants are 

 set out, as the weed seeds contained therein will give much 

 trouble, especially as the horse hoe is of little use in the beds. 

 Use from 400 to 800 pounds of phosphate, applied broadcast 

 immediately after harvest; in the spring, ac soon as the straw- 

 berry leaves show the bright, fresh green of new growth, and 

 apply broadcast 200 pounds of Nitrate of Soda to the acre. 



Strawberries In settin S out . a new bed ' scatter alon g the 

 rows and cultivate in, before the plants are 



set out, the following mixture : 



Nitrate of Soda 200 Ibs. 



Muriate of Potash 100 " 



Superphosphate 300 " 



It is well to scatter the fertilizers 

 for a foot on each side of the rows so 

 that the runners will have something 

 to feed upon. In the spring sow Ni- 

 trate of Soda on 

 the bed broad- 

 cast at the rate 

 of about 200 

 pounds per acre. 

 On old beds sow 



the mixture broadcast in the fall and an additional 200 

 pounds of Nitrate per acre in the spring. 



Prof. W. F. Massey (all farmers know him) writes: 

 "I top-dressed an old strawberry bed in its fifth year of bear- 

 ing with 300 pounds Nitrate of Soda per acre. I had in- 

 tended ploughing it up the previous summer as it was in an 

 exhausted condition and foul with white clover and sorrel. 



"The effect was amazing, for this bed of an acre and a 

 quarter, from which I expected almost nothing, gave seven 

 thousand quarts of berries. 



