of rocks, brush, and trees, may feel like congratulating himself on
the easy task before him; and, indeed, where the sod is light,
strawberries, and especially the larger small fruits, are often
planted on it at once with fair success. I do not recommend the
practice; for, unless the subsequent culture is very thorough and
frequent, the grass roots will continue to grow and may become so
intertwined with those of the strawberry that they cannot be
separated. Corn is probably the best hoed crop to precede the
strawberry. Potatoes too closely resemble this fruit in their demand
for potash, and exhaust the soil of one of the most needed elements. A
dressing of wood ashes, however, will make good the loss. Buckwheat is
one of the most effective means of subduing and cleaning land, and two
crops can be plowed under in a single summer. Last spring I had some
very stiff marsh sod turned over and sown with buckwheat, which, in
our hurry, was not plowed under until considerable of the seed ripened
and fell. A second crop from this came up at once, and was plowed
under when coming into blossom, as the first should have been. The
straw, in its succulent state, decayed in a few days, and by autumn my
rough marsh sod was light, rich, and mellow as a garden, ready for
anything.

If it should happen that the land designed for strawberries was in
clover, it would make an admirable fertilizer if turned under while
still green, and I think its use for this purpose would pay better
than cutting it for hay, even though there is no better. Indeed, were
I about to put any sod land, that was not very stiff and unsubdued,
into small fruits, I would wait till whatever herbage covered the
ground was just coming into flower, and then turn it under. The
earlier growth that precedes the formation of seed does not tax the
soil much, but draws its substance largely from the atmosphere, and