180 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



June 



acres — so with all your crops. Spread manure 

 heavily and plow in at once to save the gases. 

 Corn jellows, when put upon strong, heating ma- 

 nure in the hill. It makes slow growth till the 

 roots meet the fresh earth as they range out of 

 the hill, gaining hardiness, nourishment, strength 

 and growth, as they come in contact with the 

 spread manure. Compost will do to put in the 

 hill. If you were setting out fruit trees, you 

 would not think it sufficient to "dung in the hill," 

 to'insure a thrifty cn-chard. Roots want the good 

 feed as they journey on. Some farmers merely 

 harrow in their manure. It seems to me a fatal 

 error, it being so near the surface, a few weeks 

 must evaporate all its goodness. Jf I should plow 

 ten inches deep for any crop, I should plow in my 

 manure. Unceasing evaporation bri'ig.'^up all the 

 gases to the surface, leaving its enriching quali- 

 ties in the soil for vegetable growth. In proof of 

 this, dig a hill of potatoes eight inches or more 

 deep, and you will find no ammonial gases in the 

 rotted manure, and the potatoe entirely uuimpreg- 

 nated with it. 



The season is late, but late seasons are more 

 safe for fruits and the early crops. Your work 

 becomes more pressing, but if seedtime is late, 

 July and August seldom fails to make your crops. 

 This day of summer heat has brought out the 

 blossoms of my peach tree, that never fails to give 

 me one to two bushels of delicious fruit annually. 



The length of this' communication is its objec- 

 tion, although I am only half through. But if 

 you think it of any value to your readers, publish 

 it ; if not, cast it among the waste paper. 



H. POOK. 



Brooklyn, L. L, Ajml 24, 1864. 



Remarks. — None too long, friend Poor. Your 

 offerings are always acceptable and timely. Write 

 often. 



CULTURE OF THE STRAWBERRTT. 

 Some years since, Mr. Peabody, of Georgia, one 

 of the Editors of the- "Soil of the South," culti- 

 vated the strawberry quite extensively, and did 

 undoubtedly meet with great success.- He says : 



It is a fact too notorious now for any one of re- 

 spectability to dare to dispute, that we do culti- 

 vate acres of strawberries without animal manure 

 of any kind ; and that we have a constant succes- 

 sion of fruit from March until September ; and 

 this, too, in this hot climate of the South. 

 The Secret. 



The whole secret of strawberry culture is to 

 cultivate for fruit, and not for vine or blossom. 

 Much depends upon the locality of the strawberry 

 bed. No tree or plant should be near it ; the 

 strawberry loves shade, but not a shade that sucks 

 its very life blood out. The lowest part of the 

 garden, the bank of some little stream of water, 

 are proper localities, and where it is possible se- 

 lect new land. As to the soil, our beds are on as 

 poor pine land as gopher or salamander ever built 

 into pyramids, and we believe it is pretty general- 

 ly conceded now, within a circle of a few hundred 

 miles, that we do occaskmally have a strawberry. 

 We do not know but a stitfer land may suit them 

 better, but ours does well enough, and we are not 

 disposed to act like that foolish man who "was 



well, wished to be better, took physic, and died." 

 The strawberry may be transplanted any time from 

 September until March. The plant, properly tak- 

 en up, is very tenacious of life, and bears trans- 

 planting well. 



Directions, etc. 



The ground designed for the strawberry bed 

 should be plowed or spaded as deep as tools can 

 well make it. If the soil is light and thin, a thick 

 coat of swamp muck or partially decomposed 

 leaves, with leached or unleached ashes, will be 

 fine to turn under. After the ground is pulver- 

 ized and leveled, mark it off into rows two feet 

 apart. Now plant eight rows of Hovey's Seed- 

 ling and one of the Early Scarlet, two feet apart 

 iij the rows, and so continue until the bed is fin- 

 ished. We speak particularly of these two varie- 

 ies, and we should consider it labor lost to culti- 

 vate a variety which only gives fruit three or four 

 weeks in the season. And we have never found 

 a finer fruit, in point of size and flavor, than the 

 Hovey, and none finer flavored than the Early 

 Scarlet. Care should be taken that the plants are 

 put into the ground just as they came out of it ; 

 that is, with all their laterals spreading, and not 

 all gathered together and crammed into a little 

 hole. Now, if the object be to get a large num- 

 ber of plants for another year, keep them well 

 worked with the hoe, and let the runners take 

 root. The whole ground will be full by fall. But 

 if fruit be the object, cover the whole surface of 

 the ground with ])artially decomposed leaves or 

 straw, and as the first^'unners begin to show them- 

 selves, take them off'. Care must be used in tak- 

 ing off the runners ; they should be cut, and not 

 pulled off, as careless servants will ruin many 

 plants. When the vine has once commenced 

 fruiting, it will show but little disposition to run, 

 as its whole effort is to make the fruit — particu- 

 larly if the vine is not over stimulated. It is not 

 enough that the strawberry bed is in a moist, 

 cool location ; for if the ground is moist, the plants 

 want water to set the fruit, and to swell the fruit 

 when set. It is asserted by some English culti- 

 vators that the plant should not have water when 

 in bloom, as it washes the pollen away. This 

 may do for England, but it does not do here. We 

 care not how much water they have when in 

 bloom. If the season proves dry, we give them 

 water to set the fruit by artificial rain ; and unless 

 it rains twice a week, we give artificial rain to 

 swell the fruit, and then we give artificial rain to 

 form the next fruit stems, and so on. Fear not 

 to give too much water ; water morning and even- 

 ing. If grass and weeds show themselves, use 

 the hoe freely. After it is no longer an object to 

 gatlTfer fruit, let the vines run and mat together. 

 In the winter, go through with the hoe, thinning 

 out to twelve or eighteen inches ; leaving the cut- 

 up vines to decay where they were cut ; then cov- 

 er the whole bed with leaves, straw, swamp-muck, 

 &c., but use no animal manure. Let the propor- 

 tions of male and female plants remain the same 

 as when first planted. 



Let the cultivator remember the four great re- 

 quisites for a profitable strawberry bed : proper 

 location, vegetable manures, shade to the ground, 

 and water, ivater, water. 



It not unfrequently happens that manners are 

 best learned from the unmannerly. 



