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APPENDIX. 



we may be with manures, or how copiously we supply 

 moisture, this cultivation cannot be dispensed with, if 

 we aim at producing fine fruits, and abundance of 

 them. ^^But," says one cultivator, ''by allowing the 

 ground to be all occupied with plants, we save all the 

 labor which would be consumed in removing the run- 

 ners^ and we avoid the necessity of applying a mulch- 

 ing to keep the fruit clean." Very true, you save some 

 expense ; but what do you get in return ? A crop of 

 fruit not fit for the table — small, insipid, and so dirty, 

 if a heavy rain occurs about ripening-time, that it must 

 be put through the wash-tub before it is placed on the 

 table. It is possible that the market-grower may be 

 able to produce berries of this kind at a less price per 

 quart than he could by a careful, cleanly, and thorough 

 system of culture ; but then he can expect to sell such 

 fruit only when no better can be hafl. We have some 

 doubts^ however, as to the economy of bad culture in 

 the long run. If a proper system were adopted at the 

 outstart^ and followed up with regularity, it would not 

 be found so profitless or expensive. In this, as in 

 every other kind of culture, a system is absolutely 

 necessary. A certain routine of operations which are 

 easily executed if taken at the right time, become bur- 

 densome when deferred ; and being so, they are not 

 unfrequently put off altogether. Precisely thus it is 

 that strawberry beds are neglected^ both in market 



