9° The Canadian- Horticulturist 



the right proportion of various plant foods properly administered, apple growing 

 ought to be the most certain and successful business known, instead of being, as 

 it has become, the most uncertain. We know now how to destroy or guard 

 against insect enemies and it only requires the proper manures to make the 

 apple crop one of the most profitable crops of this country. 



W. A. Freeman. 

 Ha?nilton, Out. 



PROFITABLE STRAWBERRY GROWING. 



fertilizing the strawberry remember it feeds from near the surface, 

 and, as a consequence, is easily winter-killed. Therefore, to make 

 success sure it is best to well under-drain a piece of land to carry 

 off the surplus moisture in the fall and spring. The soil should 

 bemoist but not wet. Under-drains are fully as valuable in dry as 

 in wet weather, as they prevent, in a measure, the evaporation of moisture from 

 the soil. A soil that will produce a good crop of corn will produce a good crop 

 of strawberries. I would recommend a good clover sod, heavily fertilized with 

 good stable manure. Turn this under and plant to corn, which. will taken off 

 fertilizer than any other hoed crop. After the corn is taken off, plow the 

 ground, have the plants ready in the spring and set them in rows four feet 

 apart. Grow them in what is kno-vn as the "matted-row system," not allowing 

 the rows to spread more than 16 or 18 in. Keep the cultivator going and the 

 ground free from weeds. 



The second season you will obtain the best crop. Early in the spring, 

 after the plants are large enough for you to decide, go in and take out the smallest, 

 weakest crowns. When the crop has been harvested, put in the plow and 

 turn under the whole mass. Take off but one crop from a bed. Have a new bed 

 coming on each year for next season's crop. If the rows are four feet apart, a 

 row of beans may be grown between them the first season, but the ground 

 should be well cultivated, the cultivator running within six inches of the crowns 

 till the runners start togrow. When the runners have reached a distance of eight 

 or nine inches on each side pinch or cut them off. As fine specimens and as 

 large crops may thus be grown as by the hill system. 



Potash is the best fertilizer for the strawberry and is most chiefly obtained 

 from hard wood unleached ashes. Have them guaranteed to analyze at least 

 five per cent, of potash and there should be at least one and a half per cent, of 

 phosphoric acid in them. The vine and foliage require nitrogen and the fruit 

 potash and phosphoric acid. The former will be more cheaply obtained from 

 good barnyard manure, the latter from ashes and ground bone. Good Canada 

 hardwood ashes may be brought for $10 to $12 per ton, and 50 bushels or more 

 be profitably applied to an acre of berries. — George T. Powell, in Farm and 

 Home. 



