348 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
because of the absolute necessity for protection to the vines, to 
have them live, but because without it, the frost acting upon 
the vines in its heaving process on the soil, breaks or strains 
and loosens the roots ef the plants, and so lessens in a great 
degree their fruitfulness. 
Coarse litter taken from the stable door is often used, but it 
is to be avoided, as it contains much grass and foul weed seeds, 
that cannot be removed, and must germinate. I have seen fine 
beds of strawberries destroyed by using such litter for cover¬ 
ing. 
In spring, after the new leaves have started under the straw, 
remove all protection with a garden rake. Nines that did not 
have the covering removed at all in the spring of 1859, escaped 
the frost of June 4th, and bore a fine crop; while those adjoin¬ 
ing and uncovered were destroyed. Pine sawdust is sometimes 
used, but not advisedly, as a mulch through the summer. 
During the past summer, the fruit from a bed of Wilson’s 
Albany was nearly lost, by the worms generating, or at least 
finding lodgment in the dust, and destroying the berries nearly 
as fast as they turned their color. 
The vines will now require but little care, if kept clean the 
previous year, until after the fruiting season, and runners are 
again forming, which, if all are left to grow, at random, will 
so mat the bed, by another year, that the fruit will be inferior. 
A convenient and effectual way is, soon after the fruit is all 
gathered, and in a moist time, to take an iron tooth rake, or an 
iron tooth potato digger, and thoroughly drag the bed. In this 
way the weak and stunted runners are removed, the whole bed 
is well thinned, and the surface of the ground is slightly mel¬ 
lowed, giving the new runners a better opportunity of being 
well rooted for winter. I have adopted this plan and find it 
much better than trying to keep them in rows—spading alter¬ 
nate strips—or in hills, which is worse than all other methods. 
If the bed is not well attended to, it will need renewing in 
another portion of the garden, as often as once in three years, 
and many slovenly-kept gardens will give but one crop; but 
