76 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



truer fun than that out of life, 1 hope that when the time 

 comes you will stand up here and tell us what it is. 



I will now try and speak of our crops and our methods of 

 growing them. First let us take strawberries. With us the 

 only berries that are worth growing are the large, dark- 

 colored, high-flavored fruit, that can be sold "twelve hours 

 from the vine." It is only with such fruit that we compete 

 with the larger growers. We use chiefly the varieties that 

 grow best in single hills, like Parker Earle, Marshall, Glen 

 Mary and Gardiner. We use the hill system for various 

 reasons, chief of which are the facts that we want sunshine 

 on all sides of the plant, and that we usually grow other 

 crops while the strawberry plants are gaining their size. Our 

 plan of growing is about as follows. And now you will 

 understand that when I say " I " and " we " I am simply the 

 talker representing the workers. My wife and the boys 

 really do the work, and about the best that I can do is to 

 play the dignified part assumed by the rooster who crows 

 when the hen lays an egg. Last spring we selected a strong 

 piece of land. I would prefer a level, well-drained field that 

 had been in cow-peas the previous year. This was first 

 worked several times with the Cutaway and thoroughly 

 chopped up. It was then deeply ploughed with a Swivel 

 plough, so that the Cutawayed soil was turned to the bottom. 

 On most of our soil I would omit this ploughing, as the soil 

 is so shallow that part of the subsoil would be ploughed to 

 the surface. After ploughing, the ground was well worked, 

 first with the Acme and then with the Iron Age two-horse 

 cultivator. The object of this was to have the soil well 

 pulverized and aired down to the subsoil. Large and strong 

 plants were dug with the Richards transplanter, and set three 

 feet apart in rows six feet wide. These plants never stopped 

 growing for a moment. Just after the strawberries were set 

 out we planted June Eating potatoes midway between the 

 rows of strawberries. The potatoes w^ere dug in July, and 

 the rows were levelled and worked with the two-horse culti- 

 vator. With the Richards transplanter we then set out plants 

 on the potato rows, fifteen inches apart and also in between 

 the old plants. This bed will probably be picked three 

 years, and will then be ploughed up and either planted to 



