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Irorn a staiid-poiut where laud is worth $500 to $1,000 per 

 acre (and badly " run " at that), manure at two dollars per 

 cord, and other thinsfs in proportion ; but rather on land 

 near any of our vilages, that can be bought ibr $80 to $150 

 per acre, manure from swamp muck, leaf mould, leached 

 ushes, sods from the roadsides and from the villages, to be 

 had for almost the drawing. Still, we wi^h to be under- 

 stood that strawberries can be grown on the firs named 

 ground at even six cents per quart, and pay better than the 

 best crop of potatoes to be found about such cities, And if 

 this is so, one can see at a glance how profitable Ihey will 

 prove on rich virgin soil, or, in fact, on any soil that will grow 

 good corn or potatoes ; such soil requiring but little, if any 

 manure, providing the plants are thoroughly worked and 

 well mulched. Some of the most successful cultivators 

 claim that they can raise large and fine crops and vines 

 on poor soil, if it is only kept well worked and mulched, 

 thus showing that it need not necessarily follow that strav/- 

 berries cannot be made profitable because land is poor. 



We admit that if strawberries are grown on the " slip- 

 shod " plan, they will not really prove profitable. Cannot 

 the same be said of any crop, especially if grown on very 

 high priced land ? We claim that we can get a far better 

 crop of fruit from strawberry plants than from pig-weeds, 

 rkink-weeds, and the like, and the more the ground is occu- 

 pied by the first, and the less by the last, the better the 

 crop, and vice versa. We cannot " gather grapes of thorns, 

 or figs of thistles." 



One very important fact to be taken into consideration 

 is that it costs no more to grow good and pure varieties 

 than inferior and mixed up sorts; and second, that it costs 

 no more (except in the original plants) to cultivate a row 

 that has been thickly set with plants, than one where the 

 plants were set too far apart — the consequence being that 

 the first form perfect rows, with the ground fully occupied, 

 with no vacancies, while the last are very imperfect and 

 the ground not half occupied — the crop on the first being 

 double to triple of the last. 



We have found how true this latter fact is from bitter ex- 

 perience. We have had rows sixteen rods Ibng that had 

 been set thickly, plants ten to twelve inches apart in the 

 row, and as these run they formed fine wide matted rows 

 all through, with no vacancies, and yielded through the 

 seasou three to four bushels of fruit, while other rows near 



