278 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



recommend setting an acre with less than 6,000 or 8,000 

 plants ; then if the cutworm occasionally destroys one the 

 runners can be trained in so as to fill up the vacancy. The 

 plants should be set in the spring — the earlier the better, after 

 the ground is in a suitable condition to receive them. In regard 

 to the future cultivation of the crop, it is sufficient to say that 

 clean culture is absolutely essential to success. The most 

 economical way to insure this is to hoe them well as often as 

 twice in three weeks, from the middle of May to the first of 

 October. It should be remembered that about nine-tenths of all 

 the labor required in growing this crop is requisite the first 

 year, and the ensuing crop depends almost entirely on the 

 fidelity with which that labor is performed. 



I would not advise cutting the runners, unless it was with a 

 variety that it was desirable to cultivate in hills, but would train 

 them in lengthwise the rows until the middle of August or the 

 first of September, when they should be allowed to run at ran- 

 dom for the purpose of making plants for the following year. If 

 the plants are well set in April, about the first of June they will 

 be handsomely in bloom, at which time the fruit-stalk supporting 

 the blossom should be cut ofi" with a sharp knife or a pair of 

 scissors. 



The strawberry is sure to bear the first year, and overbear, if 

 it never does afterward ; and if permitted to have its own way 

 in this respect its vitality will be so far impaired that no subse- 

 quent nursing or treatment will restore its wonted vigor or 

 atone for its youthful indiscretion. 



About the first of December the plants should be covered 

 with a mulch, consisting of straw, fresh or salt hay, at the rate 

 of two and a half tons per acre. Care should be taken that it 

 be evenly spread, and no thick flakes should be left on the 

 plants lest they mould or die from suffocation. Trash-wood 

 laid on the mulch will prevent the wind from rolling it up and 

 save much trouble during the winter. This completes the first 

 season's management, upon which the entire crop of the follow- 

 ing year depends. It is now too late to make amends for any 

 neglect or bad culture which the plants have suffered at our 

 hands. The most we can hope for is that a kind Providence 

 will restore them to us in the spring as vigorous and promising 

 as when we took leave of them in early winter. Early in April, 



