It pays to mulch strawberries. As soon as the first hard frost has come, cover the bed with about three inches of litter of salt hay or straw. This prevents the ground freezing and thawing during the winter. In the spring you clear a space over each plant for the leaves to come through, but leave the mulch on the ground. It not only keeps the soil from drying out, but it also keeps the fruit from getting dirty from sand or mud. From the first ripening, pick your berries as soon as they redden, every day if necessary, and let the picking be done in the early morning, before the sun has dried them. The berries keep longer and have a better flavor. As soon as the plants cease fruiting, remove the mulch and cultivate. A handful of bone-meal mixed with the soil between each plant will have a good effect. In a few days the plants will put out runners. Allow one runner to grow from each plant, and layer this between the old plants in a straight row. “Layering” is covering the runner at one or more points with earth, or really planting it. It will develop roots at these points and become a strawberry plant. In from two to three weeks it will have got a good start, and then you can take up the old plants. In this way you can renew your own strawberry patch every year at little trouble or expense, if you get good plants to start with. Some reference to the possible yields of strawberry beds has been made elsewhere in this book, so it will not be necessary to repeat here, but you will be making your own records soon, if you follow these simple rules. Raspberries and blackberries succeed in any soil that is not too wet and heavy, and there are good profits in their growing. If you intend to take up the culture of these fruits, you will do well to read “Bush Fruit,” by Prof. F. W. Card. The bushes of both should be cut back and pruned in the spring, the raspberry being easy to handle with ordinary hand-shears, but a blackberry hook is better for dealing with the sharp thorns of that bush. As soon as the fruit is gathered the fruiting canes of the season should all be removed; then in the spring, cut back all canes. This makes them stockier and stronger. They should be supported by wires stretched on either side and fastened to crossway pieces attached to stakes driven at each hill, for these fruits should be planted in hills, too. Plantations are generally renewed every five or six years, although with good care yearly, they last longer. The yield varies from 1200 to 10,000 quarts an acre; the difference lies partly in the canes, and partly in the cultivation. The home garden would scarcely be complete without currant and gooseberry bushes. They are easily grown, the gooseberry, in particular, requiring very little care and yielding large returns. It can be grown in clayey soil, though like the currant, it prefers a deep, moist, rich soil, especially a rich soil.