w such excellent varieties of fall bearing strawberries on
the market that a person can have no good excuse for not planting some
in his garden. Select the ground for the bed where you will get the
whole benefit from the rays of the sun. I want no trees, bushes, or tall
growing plants of any kind near the bed. The farther away, the better.

The earth should be made quite rich with well rotted compost. I like the
plan of preparing the bed a long time before you get ready to set your
plants. You can then work the soil over, time after time, and every time
kill a crop of weeds. More plants are set in the spring than any other
time, but they will grow and do well if set in midsummer or any time
after that up to the middle of October. Get through setting in September
if you can. If you set later, in October, cover the plants with a slight
covering of straw as soon as planted. Then afterwards, when you make a
business of covering put on a little more, cover them nicely--but you
are liable to kill them if you put on too much. Two inches deep I find
to be about the right depth to go through our ordinary winters. I mean
two inches after the straw has settled. I think many persons spoil their
plants, or at least injure them severely, by putting on too heavy a coat
of covering. I will also tell you to beware of using horse-manure as a
covering for strawberries. Clean straw or hay is the best of covering.
(Fall planting of strawberries not advisable in Minnesota.--Secy.)

Most people do not trim the plants enough before they are set. All fruit
stems should be cut off, if there are any, and the most of the old
leaves removed, two or three of the youngest leaves on the plant is all
that should be left. These will start right off into a vigorous growth,
and you will soon have strong, healthy plants. I think it pays to put a
small handful of tobacco dust on and around each hill. You can generally
get it at your nearest greenhouse--or you can find out there where to
send for it. Get enough to put it on two or three times during the early
and latter part of summer.

Do not select ground for your new bed that has been in strawberries;
take ground that has never had strawberries on, or at least that two or
three crops of some kind have been taken from it since it was covered
with strawberry vines.

After the plants are set, they should be well firmed; it is absolutely
necessary that they should be very solid in the earth. They should not