54 Success with Small Fruits. 



receives but little more preparation than for wheat, and such methods 

 must pay or they would not be continued. Many who follow these 

 methods declare that they are the most profitable in the long run. I 

 doubt it. 



If our market is one in which strawberries are sold simply as such, 

 without much regard to flavor or size, there is not the same inducement to 

 produce fine fruit. But even when quantity is the chief object, deeply 

 prepared and enriched land retains that essential moisture of which we 

 have spoken, and enables the plant not only to form, but also to develop 

 and mature, a great deal of fruit. In the majority of markets, however, 

 each year, size and beauty count for more, and these qualities can be 

 .secured, even from a favorable soil, only after thorough preparation and 

 enriching. I find that every writer of experience on this subject, both 

 American and European, insists vigorously on the value of such careful 

 pulverization and deepening of the soil. 



Having thus considered the most favorable land in the best condition 

 possible, under ordinary cultivation, I shall now treat of that less suitable, 

 until we finally reach a soil too sterile and hopelessly bad to repay cultiva- 

 tion. 



I will speak first of this same deep, moist loam, in its unsubdued 

 condition ; that is, in stiff sod, trees or brush-wood. Of course, the latter 

 must be removed, and, as a rule, the crops on new land which has 

 been undisturbed by the plow for a number of years, and, perhaps, never 

 robbed of its original fertility will amply repay for the extra labor of 

 clearing. Especially will this be the case if the brush and rubbish are 

 burned evenly over the surface. The finest of wild strawberries are 

 found where trees have been felled and the brush burned ; and the 

 successful fruit grower is the one who makes the best use of such hints 

 from nature. 



The field would look better and the cultivation be easier if all the 

 stumps could be removed before planting, but this might involve too 

 great preliminary expense, and I always counsel against debt except in 

 the direst necessity. A little brush burned on each stump will effectually 

 check new growth, and, in two or three years, these unsightly objects will 

 be so rotten that they can be pried out, anol easily turned into ashes, one 

 of the best of fertilizers. In the meantime, the native strength of the 

 land will cause a growth which will compensate for the partial lack of 

 deep and thorough cultivation which the stumps and roots prevent. 

 Those who have traveled West and South have seen fine crops of corn 

 growing among the half-burned stumps, and strawberries will do as well. 



