242 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 



ble for successful strawberry culture. The plant is very 

 deep-rooted, its roots having been traced to a depth of 

 four feet. Surface watering by hand is impracticable, 

 and of no avail, nor are low lying situations, unless sus- 

 ceptible of deep drainage, advisable. 



A well-drained, deeply stirred, friable, more or less 

 loamy or clayey soil, with plenty of vegetable matter, will 

 be more retentive of moisture and more suitable than any 

 other. If there be a choice of location, a northern open 

 exposure is to be preferred. 



A light, sandy soil, although it will mature the earliest 

 fruit, will produce smaller berries, the picking season 

 will be much shorter, and the entire crop is apt to be 

 killed out during the first summer. This summer kill- 

 ing is the chief drawback to strawberry culture at the 

 South. 



If stable manure is to be used, the lighter the land, the 

 more necessity that the manure should be thoroughly 

 rotted, lest the plants grow to vine at the expense of the 

 fruit. This is more likely to occur at the South than in 

 a cooler climate, and heavier applications of manure are 

 therefore more practicable at the North. 



While large quantities of strong animal manures are 

 not necessary on already fertile clay soils, they cannot 

 contain too much decaying vegetable matter. If the soil 

 be of proper character, a field which has been planted for 

 several seasons in vegetables, and upon which no weeds and 

 grass have been permitted to go to seed, would give the 

 best chances for success. Such land, after having ma- 

 tured a well-manured cabbage crop, would need no other, 

 and no better fertilization, than a crop of cow peas sown 

 after the removal of the cabbages in May, and turned 

 under a few weeks before the setting of the strawberry 

 plants. In such case the land should be deeply cross- 

 plowed, a subsoil following the turning plow, a deep soil 

 being as necessary as a fertile one. If manure is to be 



