In
fertilizing, ever keep in mind the two great requisites--moisture
and coolness. Manure from the horse-stable, therefore, is almost
doubled in value as well as bulk if composted with leaves, muck,
or sods, and allowed to decay before being used.
Next to enriching the soil, the most important step is to deepen
it. If a plow is used, sink it to the beam, and run it twice in a
furrow. If a lifting subsoil-plow can follow, all the better.
Strawberry roots have been traced two feet below the surface.
If the situation of the plot does not admit the use of a plow, let
the gardener begin at one side and trench the area to at least the
depth of eighteen inches, taking pains to mix the surface,
subsoil, and fertilizer evenly and thoroughly. A small plot thus
treated will yield as much as one three or four times as large.
One of the chief advantages of thus deepening the soil is that the
plants are insured against their worst enemy--drought. How often I
have seen beds in early June languishing for moisture, the fruit
trusses lying on the ground, fainting under their burden, and the
berries ripening prematurely into little more than diminutive
collections of seeds! When ground has been deepened as I have
said, the drought must be almost unparalleled to arrest the
development of the fruit.
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