THE STRAWBERRY. 257 



any soil, from almost pure sand to clay, provided it is 

 drained naturally or artificially. In all soils, deep spad- 

 ing or plowing is essential to the production of fine 

 crops ; and this should not be less than a foot, and if 

 eighteen inches, all the better. A coat of thoroughly 

 rotted stable manure, at least three inches in thickness, 

 should be dug in and well mixed with the soil to a depth 

 of six or nine inches. In the absence of stable manure, 

 any of the concentrated fertilizers mentioned in Chapter 

 VI., "How to Use Concentrated Fertilizers," used in 

 the manner and quantities there described, will do as a 

 substitute. Where muck from the swamps or leaf mold 

 from the woods can be obtained, twenty bushels of either 

 of these mixed with one bushel of ashes will make an ex- 

 cellent fertilizer for Strawberries, and may be spread on 

 as thickly as stable manure, and on sandy soils is prob- 

 ably better. 



Strawberries may be planted either in the fall or spring. 

 If the plants are to be set in the fall, it should not be 

 done, in this latitude, if it can be avoided, before the 

 middle of September. This, of course, refers to the 

 plants from runners taken up from the bed in the usual 

 manner ; and there is nothing gained in time over plant- 

 ing the next spring, as the plant must grow for one sea- 

 son before it can bear a full crop of fruit. In private 

 gardens it is much better to have the plants layered in 

 pots, as they may then be set at almost any time. These 

 pots may be from two to three inches in diameter. When 

 a lot of Strawberry plants are wanted for a new bed, all 

 that is necessary to do is to fill these small pots with 

 soil, and "plunge" or plant the pot just to the surface 

 level, placing the unrooted "runner" of the Strawberry 

 plant on the top of the soil in the iiower pot, and laying 

 a small stone or clod on it to keep it in place. This 

 method of striking in pots is shown in figure 83. The 

 runners so treated will form plants in two or three weeks, 



