298 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



fourth should be ploughed iu. So continue sprouting and kill- 

 ing through one entire season. Immense numbers of weeds 

 may be destroyed very easily in this way. 



2. Blake your soil deep. Eighteen inches will do well, two 

 feet will do better. One fair crop may be obtained on a soil 

 only eight inches deep if the season is every way favorable, but 

 if you undertake to continue that mode of culture, you will 

 become fully satisfied in three years that " strawberry grow- 

 ing won't pay." Nearly all soils need trenching or subsoil 

 ploughing. 



3. Make the soil sufficiently porous, that the surface water 

 may drain through and pass off readily, that the roots may pen- 

 etrate in all directions easily, and that, in the dry season, mois- 

 ture may come up from the subsoil freely. A strong clay loam 

 may be prepared by thorough under-draining, with a large 

 application of sand, or red loam and coal ashes, well mixed 

 with the soil. Spent tan, meadow muck, and lime are useful 

 on such soils. 



4. Fertilize your soils with manure rich in potash, soda and 

 lime ; with decayed vegetable matters, as rotted turf, leaf mould, 

 or meadow muck. The soil must furnish silica. Some soils 

 contain enough of these substances to produce good crops for 

 several years without much addition, but they are exceptions. 

 In preparing grass lands they should be ploughed very deeply, 

 and one or two crops may be taken off before setting the plants. 

 Corn is a good crop to precede strawberries. If the ground is 

 free from witch-grass and other troublesome roots, and is not 

 very weedy, the grass sward may be turned under very deeply 

 and smoothly in spring, and the plants can be set the same 

 season. In this case apply per acre, after ploughing, from 

 fifty to eighty bushels of fresh ashes and from three to six casks 

 of lime. Oyster-shell lime is best. Slake the lime with brine 

 strong as salt will make it, or, mix a half-bushel of salt with a 

 cask of lime and slake with water. Slake the lime to a fine 

 powder, not to a paste, or mortar. Spread the lime and ashes 

 and harrow in thoroughly. It is better to do this a week or 

 two before setting the plants. Do not set them until after at 

 least one good soaking rain. A very coarse and poor gravel I 

 made productive by applying strong clay, ploughing in green 

 crops sprinkled with lime, and using ashes as a top-dressing. 



