94 STA.TE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETT. 



about ten cords of stable manure or 2000 pounds of phosphate per 

 acre would not be too heavy. After the first 3'ear I prefer a com- 

 mercial fertilize'* for a top dressing as it contains no foal seeds, is 

 much easier to apph', and just as good results are obtained as by 

 using stable manure. The latter is preferable on a heavy clay soil, 

 as by constantly mixing it with the soil and working with the hoe, 

 it changes its nature and becomes more porous. A strawberry bed 

 should be set where it is sheltered. If in the garden located so that 

 the snow will fall upon it, and remain on the ground the larger por- 

 tion of the winter, making a most excellent covering. Do not set 

 plants where they will be shaded ; the fruit will be later of inferior 

 quality and not as productive. With most sorts the beds get ex- 

 hausted and run out when two years old and should be spaded up 

 and re- set. Though I have seen a bed of Wilson's on the same 

 piece of ground seven years and still bear abundantly. This was 

 done by spading up the old plants each year and taking them out 

 after the runners were well rooted. Of course this is about as much 

 work as it would be to set and cultivate a new bed. My practice 

 has been to take two crops from a bed, sometimes three before 

 ploughing them under. 



All growers do not believe in this practice, and say that there is 

 more nione}' in producing one good crop and then turn them under. 

 I should say that that would depend on the situation, the con- 

 dition of the plants, entirely. If the plants all groio when they are 

 set the first year, and a perfect matted row is formed, and they 

 survive the winter all right, yield a large and full crop, then I 

 should advise ploughing them under as soon as the fruit was taken 

 off. But I have never been able to get a perfect set of plants the 

 first year. Many of them die out. The cut worm destroys many 

 more, and by the time that new plants are set in these "acant 

 spaces and rooted well the season is too far advanced fortl.em to 

 send out runners enough to make a perfect row, consequentlj' I do 

 not consider it a perfect or full crop the first 3^ear under these con- 

 ditions and believe that it will pay to run them the second year, 

 when by that time the rows are wider, there are manj^ new plants 

 formed, and from these we look for the bulk of the crop the second 

 year. It is much more work to keep them clear from weeds the 

 second 3'ear than it would be to care for a new bed. Sometimes, 

 however, the yield is the largest the second year. A large grower 

 of small fruits of Palm3'ra, N. Y., has made the statement that he 



