The Garden.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 2 September 1890, Page 2

The Garden.

* IIANUBES FOR STRAWBERRIES. Mr J. H. Hale, of Connecticut, wh < has been an extensive cultivator of Strawberries for the past twenty yeais, and has sometimes obtained from 400, to 500 bushels of Straw berries from one acre of land in a single year, advises that a thorough preparation of the soil to start with should be carefully attended to, if we expect to make a success of cultivating this frnit. Next, a liberal manuring of some sort is an all'inv portant question. Well-rotted stable-manure, if ap* plied libera ! ly, will give nood returns but from a careful studj' of the manure question in the cultivation of large fields of Strawberries for market, Mr Hale thinks a better crop of fruit can usually be had from the use of commercial manures having less nitrogen, and the fruit will be better texture and flavour, than when stable-manure is used, or nitrogenous commercial fertilisers. The Strawberry is a gross feeder, and whenever well-rotted manures, or fertilisers, containing a large amount of readily avialab'e plantfood of a nitrogenous character— -uuh as bl od and bone, Peruvian guano, or £Ulr scraps — are used, it wi 1 take them up greedi y, and a very rank foliage growth is the re* suit the first yenr, and the plant seems to make its pans for an enor* mus crop the next season. But somehow it n>'ver quite keeps its promises, making a greater show of fnlinge than of fruit, and what fruit there is, is watery and insipid in flavour, and lacking in firmness. On the other hand, Mr Hals baa fouud a manure a raw ground bona and wood-ashes, or muriate of pot* ash, to encourage a much less rapid plant-growth early the first season, thoiU'h, to thai, a fine stand of w<-ll* deve oped, but not rank, foliaged plants is encouraged thu.t will al' ways, at fruiting season the next year, give a heavy crop of firmer, brighter coloured, and better flavoured berries than can bo grown on the same soil by the aid of manures containing a large percentage of nitrogen. Whatever ia used, it should be applied broadcast aiter the soil is prepared, and thoroughly karrowod or raked iv . Potash, in its various forms* has be«n tested on lisjht sand, on loamy soil, on heavy clay, and on alluvial lauds, aud in every case this manure has been fouud to greatly improve the flavour of the Strawberry ; ita ef* foots, however, beinj; more marked on some varieties than on other*. It also has a marked effect on the colour of the fruit, giving it a much richer, darker colour ; and while the time of application seems to make little differen c with the flavour, it does wi h the colour, the most marked change being noticed when it has been applied early in the spring previous to fruiting. An excellent mode of growing ear y tomaoos cg s ' pants, &c , is to scoop out a potato or turnip aud fill tho hollow with ri«h earth. Hare

only one plant to each potato. "When the plant i< of t! c desired size phmt the potato (earth and young plant), and no check will be given the growth, as the decay of the potato will assist in providing food fm the plant. Wherp turnips can be had they should be preferred to potitf.es. Egf shells have been u--ed f>r the same purpese with success.