If fresh manure is used it will be better mixed with the soil before planting time, 

 if it is applied in the previous autumn. Wood ashes are very useful for a top dressing, 

 and from 50 to 100 bushels per acre may be applied broadcast early in the spring 

 when the land is being harrowed, the larger quantity being used for land which is 

 poor in potash. An application of even twenty-five bushels per acre should give bene- 

 ficial results. If barnyard manure cannot be obtained easily, nitrogen and humus 

 may be added to the soil by ploughing under clover, peas or some other leguminous 

 crop ; potash, by using from 200 to 300 pounds per acre of muriate of potash, if wood 

 ashes cannot be obtained; phosphoric acid, by the use of ground bone, at the rate of 

 from 200 to 300 pounds per acre before planting. Nitrate of soda is also useful for 

 furnishing nitrogen, unless it can be obtained in a cheaper form by the use of barn- 

 yard manure or leguminous crops. An application of 100 to 150 pounds nitrate of 

 soda broadcasted just before the flowers open in the spring is sometimes desirable if 

 the plants are not making vigorous growth. 



Plants and their Treatment. 



If the plants for setting out are obtained from a distance, they should be ordered 

 to arrive as early in the spring as possible after the soil can be worked, and planted 

 soon after their arrival. It is often, however, not convenient to plant at once; but in 

 any case, the parcel containing the plants should be opened up when it arrives, other- 

 wise they are liable to heat or dry out, either one of which conditions should be 

 avoided if possible. The plants should now be heeled in in some place where the soil 

 is well drained. Open a trench suificiently deep to cover the strawberries well and so 

 that the crown will be .just above the ground. Now place the plants close together, 

 but in a single row in the trench. Another trench is now opened parallel with the 

 first and about six inches from it, using the soil to cover the roots of the plants in the 

 first trench. The soil should be firmly packed or tramped against the roots so that 

 the moisture will come into close contact with them. If loosely heeled in, they are 

 very likely to dry out and the plants die. Other trenches should be dug parallel with 

 the first two, if needed. By the time the field is ready for planting, these heeled-in 

 plants will have made new roots and be in better condition for planting than if they 

 had been set out at once. 



The best plants for autumn planting are what are known as ' pot ' plants. These 

 are obtained by sinking two and one-half inch pots filled with rich friable soil in the 

 ground and placing a new runner in each of them. These root and make good plants 

 by late summer. The advantage they have over plants rooted in the ordinary way is 

 that when they are transplanted they are taken from the pot and replanted with a 

 ball of earth without disturbing the roots. Hence they are but little checked and will 

 soon go on growing again, making stronger plants, which will bear more fruit than the 

 ordinary ones. 



Before planting it is a good plan to remove all the large leaves of the plants 

 except about two of the healthiest ones. This prevents too rapid transpiration of 

 moisture from the plant before it becomes established and may often save it when dry 

 weather sets in immediately after planting. Long and straggling roots may also be 

 cut off at this time, the removal of about one-third of the roots being a good practice. 



