Few soils can be found so deep and rich by nature that they cannot be
improved by art; and the question for each to decide is, how far the
returns will compensate for extra preparation. Very often land for
strawberries receives but little more preparation than for wheat, and
such methods must pay or they would not be continued. Many who follow
these methods declare that they are the most profitable in the long
run. I doubt it.

If our market is one in which strawberries are sold simply as such,
without much regard to flavor or size, there is not the same
inducement to produce fine fruit. But even when quantity is the chief
object, deeply prepared and enriched land retains that essential
moisture of which we have spoken, and enables the plant not only to
form, but also to develop and mature, a great deal of fruit. In the
majority of markets, however, each year, size and beauty count for
more, and these qualities can be secured, even from a favorable soil,
only after thorough preparation and enriching. I find that every
writer of experience on this subject, both American and European,
insists vigorously on the value of such careful pulverization and
deepening of the soil.

Having thus considered the most favorable land in the best condition
possible, under ordinary cultivation, I shall now treat of that less
suitable, until we finally reach a soil too sterile and hopelessly bad
to repay cultivation.

I will speak first of this same deep, moist loam, in its unsubdued
condition; that is, in stiff sod, trees, or brush-wood. Of course, the
latter must be removed, and, as a rule, the crops on new land--which