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plants. It is better not to mark out for them with a light corn- 

 plow till just before planting, so that the roots may be placed at 

 once in fresh, moist soil. I think there are but few practicnl 

 fruit-growers who will not say that one acre prepared in this 

 manner will yield as much as two run hastily over once with a 

 plow and harrow and then r.'lanted with little or no manure. 



This thorough preparation gives not only a large crop, but 

 also large showy fruit and a long season in picking, and here is 

 where ihe profit comes in. Besides if the ground is rich it resists 

 drouth far better than if poor. Many of the berries sent to New 

 York are so inferior that they scarcely pay the expense of pick- 

 ing, freight, and commission, and those who were economical of 

 time and manure, or ambitious to count a large number of acres 

 in fruit, lenrn by costly experience that only well prepared and 

 cultivated land returns satisfactory profit. Let no one who has 

 read of unusual yields imagine that he has only to half plow an 

 acre of rough poor land to secure like results. The conditions 

 of success . I re simple but they must be complied with. Nature 

 is not to-be cheated nor " cornered." She ever demands square, 

 straightforward dealing, or quietly checkmates. 



If the land is in fair condition for corn, enrich it with from 

 30 to 50 tons of" barnyard manure to the acre ; if it is poor or 

 coiiiparatively so, do not be afraid to put on 75 tons. Mix 

 this thoroughly in the soil by plowing and cross-plowing. If 

 manure cannot be had, guano, bone dust, hen droppings can be 

 harrowed in at the rate of 800 to 1,000 pounds to the acre ; 

 though I would much prefer composting these concentrated agents 

 with fifty times their weigiit of leaves, muck, sod, or even good 

 earth. A pig-sty properly managed will enrich a large strawberry 

 bed, and I find my pigs, in working over weeds, leaves, and rub- 

 bish into strong manure, are worth more to me than their pork. 

 A crop or two of green clover or buckwheat plowed under is most 

 excellent. 



But suppose the land designed for strawberries is in stiff sod. 

 In this case there must be patience and one makes haste slowly. 

 A year, or at least several months, must intervene before the 



