198 The Canadian Horticulturist. 



fertilize the field. Say one row of bi-sexual to one of pistillate. Lida might be 

 added to the first list and Crawford to the second. 



I do not know what simpleton it was who started the advice never to stir a 

 strawberry bed until after the picking season, to let the weeds grow till then and 

 after that hoe in. I followed the advice long enough to ruin my beds, wear out 

 my comfort and spoil all the fun of growing berries. Now I keep the weeds out 

 all the time. 



A friend, in looking over my beds early in April, said, " But when will you 

 take off the covering ? " I answered him, " Never, that covering is all right in 

 winter for protection, and in summer for mulching." I obtain horse manure 

 from a neighboring stable and thinly cover the whole ground in November. If 

 this is not procurable, I obtain sawdust and cover thinly as with manure. This 

 is admirable protection, as strawberries do not need to be entirely covered. 



In the spring the hens work this over, collecting all hiding worms and bugs. 

 I do not disturb it further except in cultivating. The hens work in a part, the rest 

 lies about loose and dry, and entirely innocuous of odor. It is, in fact, as clean 

 as straw. It enriches the bed and saves a vast amount of work uncovering 

 beds. Of course, if one cannot get manure free from seeds it will be better to 

 use sawdust. That which I use is badly burned and the value much lessened 

 for a fertilizer; but is all the better for cover and mulch. 



I have never seen any market over-stocked with fine fruit, especially with 

 berries. It frequently happens that inferior sorts are sold and customers made 

 shy. In the grape season this is a serious injury to the market. No one should 

 sell a Champion grape. I do not think much better of a Wilson strawberry. 

 It will never teach people to crave more berries. It will not educate taste. 

 People will buy it for a while and then get "tired of strawberries." But let 

 them get hold of Bubach or Cumberland and see. It pays in the long run to 

 grow the best and only the best. 



BLACKBERRIES. 



I have tried with some impatience a large number of blackberries. Wilson 

 was tender, and Wilson, Jr. worse, so tender in fact that no fruit was sure after a 

 good covering. Lawton is tender and sour. Kittatinny firm, but so tender that 

 fruit could be counted only one year out of three. These I dug out with great 

 labor, and what is the worst of such experiments you will see the last of a black- 

 berry patch after ten years. Then I tried Wachusetts and Snyder. The first of 

 them is all in all of no value. It is not thornless ; it is small and so easily 

 affected by dry weather as to be very small indeed. 



The Snyder, if in rich low land, does nobly, but is really not a first-class fruit. 

 It is hardy as an elm. I suppose, when I say low land, I must qualify by saying 

 I live on a hill side. Blackberries are easily affected by drought, and so with me 

 they are planted in my moist but not wet swale. I still hold on to Snyder. 



