SMALL FRUITS AND HOW HE GROWS THEM 
The BeUe 
MANURING THE GROUND. 
stable manure is the best. I should perfer to 
have it well rotted, but that cannot always be had. 
Get the best you can find, even if you have to 
draw it as fast as made. Spread it evenly over 
the ground during the winter and early spring. 
Do not put in piles. The deep snow is no objection 
to spreading. The winter and spring rains will 
wash the juices into the ground so it will be incor- 
porated with the soil where the plants can use it. 
Before plowing rake of? all coarse straw so that 
capillary attraction which draws water from the 
lower subsoil shall not be cut off. Water will not 
pass up through a mass of straw if plowed under. 
Be very careful about this. If you can't get stable 
manure apply broadcast from 400 to 800 pounds 
of pure, fine ground raw bone meal and not over 
fifty bushels per acre of unleached hardwood ashes 
and cultivate in before plowing. If commercial 
fertilizers are used select those rich in potash and 
phosplioric acid which are always conducive to 
fruit formation. 
The I^oller. You cannot properly fit land with- 
out a roller or floater. The plow and harrow leave 
the ground too loose and do not sufficiently ex- 
clude (ree air and capillary action will not bring 
the water up from below. The particles of earth 
The Floater 
must be brought near together. If you do not 
have a roller, take three t«o-inch planks about 
.seven feet long and one foot wide; bolt or spike 
the edges together like the sirling on a house, and 
hitch a chain to each end and load it with as much 
stone as the team can draw, and go over the sur- 
face. On many soils it will do better work than a 
roller. Do not attempt to set plants in loose earth. 
The Marker 
Marking off the ground. Have your ground pro- 
perly firmed, leveled and rolled so the perfection 
plant setter will set the plants exactly the right 
depth, or if you use the dibble or spade you can 
determine quickly the right depth for setting 
plants. Mark as light as possible where the 
rows are to be. For this purpose we take 
a board about one-half inch thick, eight or ten 
inches wide and long enough to mark four rows at 
a time. Make four short sled runners and nail 
them under the board the distance the rows are to 
be apart, and nail shafts or handles on the top to 
draw it with. A man can draw it all day without 
fatigue. The object of using a thin board is to 
make it bend and accommodate itself to the uneven 
surface of the ground. Get the first row perfectly 
straight and let one runner go in the last mark as 
a guide. This will make all the rows exactly so far 
apart, so that late in the season when your plants 
get larger you can adjust the cultivator so as to do 
thorough work by going once in the row. 
There are four methods of growing strawberries: 
The hill or single plants, the hedge row, half mat- 
ted row and full matted row. 
HILL CULTURE. 
Hill culture may be defined as a method of con- 
solidating many small plants into one very large 
plant and many small berries into one large berry. 
As a rule, when you cut ofl a runner and check the 
plant from multiplying itself in that way, it will 
then try to multiply itself by seeds or fruit and pro- 
ceed to form a new crown and fruit buds and in this 
way will build itself up to immense proportions. 
We have often had plants so large a bushel basket 
could not be placed over them without doubling 
Photograph of a Fonr Qnart Plant' 
Tin- fdlia^'i' was ronitivt'<l to shuw the lierrics. 
