The Strawberry Book. 13 
Unleached wood ashes is an admirable fertilizer. It 
tends to produce runners, and hence is valuable in propa- 
gating new varieties, or in securing what is technically 
called a good spread, i. e., making single rows of plants, 
set‘three or four feet apart in the spring, cover thé whole 
intermediate space by fall. Ashes, of course, should not 
be used together with guano. 
No definite rule can be given as to the amount of ma- 
nure an acre of strawberries requires. The best and most 
successful cultivators I know, — men who make a. large 
share of their income from their strawberries, — in reply 
to my question, ‘“‘ How much manure do you use?” have. 
invariably said, “All we can get.” Ihave seen a field 
of naturally strong soil, where the owner ploughed in all 
the stable manure he could conveniently spread, then 
spread and ploughed in a quantity equal to the first, and, 
when his plants had become established, spaded a third 
dressing in between the rows. The variety planted was 
the Triomphe de Gand, and the result was an enormous 
crop of immense Bertics, selling at the highest price, and, 
I presume, an equally enormous crop .of some market 
vegetable the next season. For it should be noticed that 
the system of cultivation adopted must in some measure 
regulate the amount of manure applied. For ‘instance, 
where strawberries are planted in rows or hills, and are 
-to remain thus for two or three years, good results may 
be looked for with perhaps half the amount of manure 
required in the annual system — where rows set out in 
April or May are to fill the spaces with strong, vigorous 
plants by the first of September. The finer the manure 
the better ; and whatever is applied should be thoroughly 
mixed and incorporated with the soil— guano and ashes 
excepted, which do very well if merely sprinkled on the 
surface before a rain. ‘ 
With these two admirable fertilizers little and often 
should be the rule. A fall top-dressing of light, strawy 
