RIDGWAY (B). 
EARLY. A variety of sterling merit and not fas- 
tidious about soil. Great, big, briglit fellows, red, rich 
aromatic flavor. Serve the beauties with stems or any 
other way. Firm enough to ship long distances and good 
enough for a king. Pedigree since introduction, eight 
years ago. 
The "cheap" fertilizer is mostly "filler" or dirt 
or some other substance used to make weight 
to which is added the nitrogen, phosphoric 
acid and potash and the amount of these 
three things govern the value. The cheap fer- 
tilizer contains very little of these elements 
and you have to pay freight on and distribute 
two or three tons of dirt to get as much food 
as one ton of the high grade. 
Commercial fertilizers should be used in 
connection with stable manures of leguminous 
plants turned under in order to get liumus. If 
there is plenty of humus in the soil you may 
rely on them altogether. The manufacturers 
have given careful study as to the needs of 
particular plants and furnished special forin- 
ulas for different crops and all towns have 
their agents so you can get these pamphlets 
free. 
It should analyze for strawberries from three 
to four per cent, nitrogen, ten to twelve of 
pure potash and twelve to fourteen available 
phosphoric acid. 
It pays to use manure very liberally. There 
are three things you can sefely borrow money 
to purchase and these are, Thorough Pedigree 
plants containing the machinery for making 
big, red berries; and plenty of power to run 
them in the shape of manures, good land and 
I might add, a good church pew for yourself 
and family. The returns of all these are 
bountiful and prompt. Use them even exces- 
sively liberal for the dividends will be ample. 
WHY WE PLOW. 
Plants take all their soil foods dissolved in 
water. Now if all the foods were kept soluble 
all the time the heavy rains would wash them 
away and soon there would be nothing left for 
plants to feed upon. Now the all wise Creator 
provided that they should revert to a form not 
soluble in water so they could not wash away 
and at the same time He provided an agency 
to gradually change them back to a soluble 
GLENN MARY (B). 
MEDIUM TO L \TE. There are not many growers 
who have not seen and tested Glenn Mary and, if they 
were not delighted with it, it was because they were 
monkeying with exhausted strains of plants. They are 
big. bright red, rich, meaty, creamy berries. Lives any- 
where you plant it. Seven year pedigree and anotlier of 
my pets. 
form and that agency is the o.xygen of tlie air. 
When the ground lays through the winter 
the rains pack it down hard and so the air 
cannot get in and the foods for plants quickly 
change to an insoluble form. We now take a 
plow and break it up, turn it over and then 
we take the harrrow and stir and roll it to 
mash the luinps and make it as fine as possible 
so the air will come in contact with every soil 
grain and then we say we have a good seed 
bed. We mean that the food in the soil has 
been made available so the plants can grow. 
When we merely turn the ground over with 
the plow we do not bring much of it in contact 
with the air and so but little of the food is 
made available so the plants can take it up 
and the growth would be slow. We always 
roll and harrow our ground about one dozen 
times before we set the plants and then you 
ought to see thein jump when sunshine comes 
to them. 
WHY WE SUBSOIL. 
Subsoiling is to follow the common plow 
with one which only breaks up and pulverizes 
the lower stratum and leaves it at the botom. 
of the furrow. This subsoil must not be 
brought to the surface, as it contains but little 
plant food. By breaking it up we actually cre- 
ate a reservoir of water under the plants which 
draws up by capillary action to tide them over 
the droughty season. The soil grains being 
separated, they will surround themselves with 
a thicker film of water. As an illustration, put 
some small gravel stones on a wet cloth and 
see the water pass up and quickly cover them 
and rctnain so long as the cloth is wet. 
Sometimes when the ground has been plowed 
the same depth for a number of years the bot- 
tom of the furrow becomes glazed and baked 
so hard the water cannot settle through it or 
come up from below by capillary action; and 
