04 STATE rOMOI.OOICAL SOCIETY. 



First, the strawberries. There is no serious problem about the cul- 

 ture of strawberries. It is uot much more difficult for me on my farm 

 to grow a bushel of strawberries thau a bushel of potatoes. There 

 isn't any deep secret iu success in that line. For a family garden, 

 select a good piece of land as near the house as may be, 

 plant in long, straight rows your strawberries, blackberries, cur- 

 rants and gooseberries, and let the old horse and cultivator 

 work up and down those rows every summer. Lay down the i-asp- 

 berries and blackberries iu the fall if they are the tender kinds; 

 give them a little pruning at the right time, a little pinching 

 here and a little pinching there, and that is all there will be to 

 it. It is not because you do not like them, or because your fami- 

 lies do not like them that you do not cultivate more of these choice 

 fruits. Strawberries maj- be planted in rows two and one-half or three 

 feet apart and fifteen or eighteen inches apart in the row% according to 

 the variety; one plant in a place. In the spring they should be cultivated 

 once or twice a week and hand hoed once in two or three weeks, and so on 

 through the summer, and mulched in the fall. The next season fi'om 

 that bed take some plants and set out a new bed and plow under the old 

 one, and so on year after year, with little expense in field culture. If it 

 is too much work to hoe them you may plant iu check rows and run the 

 cultivator two ways between the rows until the plants begin to run, and 

 theu one way. Raspberries and blackberries should be set in hills five 

 or six feet apart each way, and the horse and cultivator made to do all 

 the work. When they attain a height of fifteen or eighteen inches pinch 

 the tops and let them stop growing. Currants should also be planted iu 

 check rows so that the horse can cultivate them, and given a little judi- 

 cious pruning at the I'ight time. They may be planted either in the fall 

 or spring; even with your trying climate j'ou could uot kill the currant 

 bushes if planted iu September or October. Liberal pinching in of the 

 new growth in midsummer will stimulate the setting of fruit buds and 

 you may grow from a single currant bush from six to ten qu^^i'ts, under 

 a high state of cultivation. Gooseberries require much the same treat- 

 ment, planting either in the fall or spring, pinching back in midsummer, 

 thinning out the crowded branches and manuring deepl3^ There is noth- 

 ing difficult about the cultivation of these fruits, they are the most kindly 

 things that grow. Plant small fruits in almost any waj- you will and 

 cultivate them in the most shiftless manner nnd yet thej' will give you 

 returns; but like the apple tree or the good daiiy cow, the more skill and 

 care you apply the greater returns they will give. You may grow straw- 

 berries, twenty-five bushels to the acre, under the most shiftless culture, 

 up to 250 or 300 bushels under the highest method of culture. It simply 

 rests with the owner of the soil what his returns shall be. 



The question of soil depends greatly ou the variety. You mav grow 

 strawberries, as a general principle, upon auj- soil that would be good 

 potato soil. Some potato soil may be a little too damp and heavy for 

 certain varieties. Some varieties grow very much to foliage, and need 



