But like their neglected strawberry beds they usualh' go on from 

 bad to worse till the}^ have to be " turned under," 



Remember, my friend — you who occasionally smack your 

 lips over a chance strawberry, if you have not a productive bed 

 of your own (having place for one) you are " sinning against light." 



In a city not a hundred miles from my farm there are many 

 abodes of wealth with spacious grounds in which in many instan- 

 ces, I am told, no place is found for the strawberry bed. " It is 

 cheaper and easier to buy them," it is said. Tiiis is thrift with 

 a vengeance. No economy in brass buttons and livery, but a 

 little trouble (I doubt about the mone}') saved on the choicest 

 luxury of the year. The idea of going out of their rural paradises 

 to buy half-stale fruit ! But this class is largely at the mercy 

 of the " hired man," or his more disagreeable development, the 

 ^^professed'' gardener who gives his soul to I'are plants, artichokes, 

 and clipped lawns, but stints the family in all things save his 

 impudence. If he tells his obsequious employers that it is 

 cheaper and easier to buy their strawberries than raise them, of 

 course there is naught to do but go to the market and pick ud 

 what they can. A true gardener like Mr. Thos. Skene, would 

 send to the house a heaped basket twice a day for five weeks 

 and if he had glass, for five months. 



I congratulate those who have got so far back toward man's 

 first happy state as to make the raising of delicious fruits 

 their daily work. But as the conditions of life have changed 

 somewhat from that primitive and perfect state, and dress and 

 many other costly essentials require mone}^, I shall endt-avor to 

 show how every strawberry plant may be a source of profit as 

 well as pleasure. 



In conclusion, I would suggest to that small class (?) who 

 enjoy making others happy that there are few ways in which 

 they can succeed better at home, and among their friends, than 

 by supplying them often with the ^' finest fruit God ever 

 made." 



I trust that we are now ready to go to work, and the first 

 things to be considered are. 



