-4- 
of easy culture, and coming into bearing so soon after planting, 
everyone possessing a piece of land, if only a town lot, should grow 
sufficient of this wholesume and popular fruit for his own family, at 
least. A bed 150 feet long and 18 inches wide will furnish berries 
in abundance for an ordinary family. By planting an early, a 
medium, and a late variety, the strawberry season may be extended 
over a period of four or five weeks. 
SOIL. 
While the strawberry will grow and succeed fairly well on 
a variety of soils, it reaches its highest degree of perfection when 
grown on a rich, sandy loam. Light or sandy soils give earlier 
fruit, but the crop is generally heavier from land partaking of a 
clayey nature. A southern slope will produce earlier fruit, a north¬ 
ern the reverse, but land level, or nearly so, is more desirable, and 
especially where irrigation is practiced. It is always best to set 
strawberries on clean land—land that has been in some cultivated 
crop the previous year. Sod ground is not desirable, because it is 
often infested with the white grub, which in many places is so de¬ 
structive to strawberry plants. Formerly, it was believed that straw¬ 
berries flourished best and were most productive when grown on 
moderately poor soil, and that they must not be manured heavily; 
but now we know that the plant is a very heavy feeder, and that the 
crops we get are just in proportion to the amount of plant food we 
supply them. 
MANURES. 
The best results are obtained from the use of commercial 
fertilizers 5 those high in potash and bone phosphate are the 
best. Hardwood ashes used as a top dressing are also beneficial. Or¬ 
dinary barnyard manure contains the seeds of numerous trouble¬ 
some weeds, which to keep under subjection requires a great 
amount of labor and expense. In the use of chemical manures, 
many of these noxious weeds are avoided, and the plants are fur¬ 
nished with just the proper elements for the production of fruit. It 
has been noted that where mineral manures have been used, the 
strawberry grub did but little damage. Nitrate of soda applied 
in early spring, as a top dressing, has been found to greatly in¬ 
crease the yield of fruit. In this State, where commercial fertilizers 
are high and but little used, well-rotted barnyard manure will have 
to suffice. If it has been composted and turned several times, all 
the better, as in the process of fermentation many weed seeds are de¬ 
stroyed. The land should be manured and plowed several months 
before the time for setting plants, in order that the rnanure may be¬ 
come well incorporated with the soil; before planting, plow again, 
sub-soiling if possible, then harrow until the surface is smooth and 
fine. 
