74 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



attention; if you have boys, you will be astonished to see how many girls 

 they have taken a fancy to, or who have taken a fancy to them. You will 

 find also there are very many sickly persons, far and near, on whose stomachs 

 nothing will sit but strawberries. Besides all this, you will have become 

 a gentleman and a man of taste; instead of hard stories being told about 

 you, it will only be whispered that you are a little odd or cross now and 

 then, and everybody will think you the finest man in the neighborhood. 



" FIELD CULTURE. 



" For a next year's crop, take a piece of your own land, for your own 

 land will always do better than rented land, and during the summer plow 

 it well once a month, and, if it is inclined to grass, harrow it thoroughly, 

 so as to tear every sod to pieces. By plowing well I mean plow as if you 

 would like to get down to the center of the earth; plow as if you were a 

 soldier in battle, and determined to conquer barbarism and crown freedom. 

 But I should say, if it is clover land, don't touch it; grass you can kill, 

 clover you cannot, and it will come up and ruin j'our plants. Here, in 

 southern Illinois, grass grows with reluctance, and I have seen a gentle- 

 man take a visitor over his lot to show him his grass, and occasionally 

 both would be on their hands and knees. Sometimes they see it. This is 

 the kind of land for strawberries, and it is superior also for any other kind 

 of fruit Strawberries require a fair — I might say extra fair — soil. High 

 land is better than low land, and hilly land is good. The very best is thin 

 new land, or old worn out land well manured, with no clover seed in it. 

 But let the soil be what it may, plow deep and often through the summer. 

 A very good way to raise strawberries is after an extra crop of potatoes, 

 which have been kept entirely clean tln-ough the summer and fall. All 

 you will have to do with such ground will be to plow it up as early as you 

 can in the spring. 



" Suppose, now, everything is ready, commence by throwing the ground 

 into ridges, from three to four feet apart — four feet will be better — and for 

 this purpose I would take a yoke of cattle and the heaviest plow I had, get 

 good plants, and set them on the ridges, eighteen inches apart. Usually, 

 they will bear enough the first year — that is, two months after planting, 

 to pay you for all your labor. After picking, run between the rows with a 

 one-horse turning plow, throwing the dirt towards the plants. It will 

 cover some of the runners, and all the better, for they will take root 

 in the soft soil and grow finely. Plants set out in the spring are worth 

 double what they would be set out in the fall ; for they commence immedi- 

 ately to grow; they require no puddling or watering, and every one will 

 grow. Set in the fall, many of them are heaved out by freezing and thaw- 

 ing, and, being in their weak state, they are subject to all the various 

 changes of the unfavorable winter. 



"As regards the trj^^yttmcnt now to be pfirsued, there is a diversity of 

 opinion. Those who are anxious to do great things, and who are deter- 

 mined to do them, will set the plants tliickly, cut off all runners as often 

 as twice a week, and hoe well through the summer and fall. They are 

 going to show how to raise strawberries. Very good. One faithful man 

 can keep an acre clean; he cannot do more, and his labor is worth a hun- 



