CHAPTER XIII. 



THE EASPBEERT. 



Eminently this is a home fruit. The best 

 varieties are so soft as to suffer by transporta- 

 tion and by keeping. The plants are specially 

 adapted to garden culture, and when properly 

 treated are certain, productive, and permanent. 

 It requires less care than the strawberry, is more 

 easily picked, and by most persons is preferred, 

 for its high flavor. It deserves a place in every 

 garden, and also more extensive and careful cul- 

 ture for local markets. In most of our large 

 cities the supply of a good quality of this fruit 

 has been less than the demand, and hence the 

 price has been very remunerative. A rich and 

 deep, rather moist loam, not inclining either to 

 gravel or clay, but what would be called a mel- 

 low, retentive garden soil, is best. The planting 

 of the red varieties should be in rows four feet 

 apart, and three feet apart in the rows. It is 

 better to cut the plants down within six inches 

 of the ground, in planting ; thus obtaining three 



