Cultivation. 115 



If the ground were poor, or one were desirous of large fruit, it would 

 be well to give a liberal autumn top-dressing of fine compost or any well- 

 rotted fertilizer not containing crude lime. Bone dust and wood ashes 

 are excellent. Scatter this along the rows, and hoe it in the last time 

 they are cultivated in the fall. 



With the exception of guano and other quick-acting stimulants, I 

 believe in fall top-dressing. The melting snows and March rains carry 

 the fertilizing properties down to the roots, which begin growing and feed- 

 ing very early in spring. If compost or barn-yard manure is used, it 

 aids in protecting the plants during the winter, warms and mellows the 

 soil, and starts them into a prompt, vigorous growth, thus enabling them 

 to store up sufficient vitality in the cool growing season to produce large 

 fruit in abundance. If top-dressings are applied in the spring, and a 

 dry period follows, they scarcely reach the roots in time to aid in forming 

 the fruit buds. The crop of the following year, however, will be increased. 

 Of course, it is far better to top-dress the rows in spring than not at 

 all. I only wish to suggest that usually the best results are obtained 

 by doing this work in the fall ; and this would be true especially of heavy 

 soils. 



When the ground begins to freeze, protect the plants for the winter 

 by covering the rows lightly with straw, leaves, or better than all 

 with light, strawy horse-manure, that has been piled up to heat and turned 

 over once or twice, so that in its violent fermentation all grass seeds have 

 been killed. Do not cover so heavily as to smother the plants, nor so lightly 

 that the wind and rains will dissipate the mulch. Your aim is not to 

 keep the plants from freezing, but from freezing and thawing with every 

 alternation of our variable winters and springs. On ordinarily dry land, 

 two or three inches of light material is sufficient. Moreover, the thaw- 

 ing out of the fruit buds or crown, under the direct rays of the sun, 

 injures them, I think. Most of the damage is done in February and 

 March. The good gardener watches his plants, adds to the covering 

 where it has been washed away or is insufficient, and drains off" puddles, 

 which are soon fatal to all the plants beneath them. Wet ground, 

 moreover, heaves ten times as badly as that which is dry. If one 

 neglects to do these things, he may find half of the plants thrown out 

 of the ground, after a day or two of alternate freezing and thawing. 

 Good drainage alone, with three or four inches of covering of light 

 material, can prevent this, although some varieties, like the Golden 

 Defiance, seem to resist the heaving action of frost remarkably. Never 

 cover with hot, heavy manure, nor too deeply with leaves, as the rains beat 



