BREAKING UP THE SOIL. 
"ymS piece of ground was seeded to clover in June, 1903, \vhich made a rank growth and was turned under in 
September, 1904; after which a dressing of manure was applied and rye sown to furnish a winter covering. 
The above picture shows our teams turning the rye and manure under in April, 1905. This furnishes an abund- 
ance of humus and plant food to keep up a continuous and vigorous growth in plants. 
Strengthen its seed and fruit producing organs 
and these qualities were acquired by the 
constant selection of those showing the greatest 
degree of improvement through a long series 
of years. 
It is simply a recognition of the individuality 
of a plant and makes ancestry of value be- 
cause characteristics are more surely transmit- 
ted through runners and buds than by seeds. 
The most significant difference between a 
commonly grown and a pedigree plant is that 
with the former you get no adequate return for 
your labor, while the latter pays richly. 
The great railroad magnate, C. P. Hunting- 
ton, once said to a group of young men, "Be 
on the lookout for a proposition that pays." 
It is applicable to strawberry growing. A large 
share of strawberry growers are entertaining a 
proposition that does not pay. They are using 
poor plants that cannot be made to pay by any 
system of manuring or tillage. 
It is much like the dairy. Years ago a farmer 
could not tell how much cream and butter a 
cow made. Some cows paid and some were 
kept at a loss. 
'l"he Babcock test came in. This is a ma- 
chine that tells at a glance how much butter 
there is in a quart of milk, and so the dairyman 
began killing off ihe poor cows and breeding 
from those testing highest, and now he is get- 
ting rich because every cow is a good one and 
getting better every year. 
It is the same thing in strawberry growing. 
Accepting "a proposition that pays," gives you 
pleasure, makes life worth living, creates a 
standing in the community where you live, and 
a good bank account — that's what pedigree 
plants do. "It is a paying proposition." 
Soil Preparation 
WE have shown that from naturally strong 
plants it is possible greatly to increase 
the yield and quality of the strawberry. 
W e also have made it clear that the physical 
condition of the soil and good soil management 
are essential to secure desired results. The max- 
imum productive capacity is reached when the 
soil is able to hold the greatest amount of moisture, 
charged with a large amount of plant food. 
Stable manure, judiciously applied, comes the 
nearest to filling these requirements of anything 
we have tried. If some leguminous crop could 
be grown in advance of strawberries, the result 
would be better still; when this cannot be done, 
9 
