SECRETARY'S PORTFOLIO. 357 



STRAWBERRY PLANTING AND CARE. 



We extract the following from a lengthy article in the World by Secretary 

 Williams of the New Jersey Horticultural Society: 



It is always best to look up home testimony in regard to the success or fail- 

 ure of any fruit, if it is to be had. No one engaging in strawberry culture on 

 the most limited scale should confine himself to a single variety. Three or 

 four dozen plants, in as many varieties, costing about a dollar, delivered at 

 your postoffice, are little enough to start with. It is far preferable to invest- 

 ing the same amount in one variety, for you not only cover a longer season by 

 having early, medium, and late kinds, but some one or more may prove better 

 adapted for your purposes than the others. We consider the spring generally 

 the best season to set plants, but time is saved and sometimes good results 

 obtained by setting in July or August. In the latter case plants should be 

 procured near at hand or by express, the warm weather and growing condition 

 of the plants rendering their transit by mail unsafe. Plants rooted in pots till 

 they will hold the ball of earth together are perfectly safe, but if left too long 

 they become pot-bound and are poor investments. I have found old broken 

 berry baskets preferable to pots for this purpose, and the best way to utilize 

 them. If not sufficiently open to allow the roots free egress they can be easily 

 made so. Sunk in the ground to the surface, as soon as the young plant is 

 rooted in them, they may be lifted entire and planted where wanted without 

 removing them from the basket. 



If confined to a small garden where the work must be done by hand we have 

 generally set the plants in beds of three rows, fifteen to eighteen inches apart, 

 and the plants one foot in the row, leaving a space — a path — between each bed 

 from which to gather the fruit. If the runners are kept off, the plants will 

 make large stools and produce larger fruit than if allowed to run at will. 

 Where horse culture is available it is far preferable and cheaper. In this case 

 the rows should be as long as possible, and two and one-half to five feet apart. 

 I plant at the latter distance, allowing the young plants to root in rows cover- 

 ing a space about two feet wide. The cultivator is kept running to keep the 

 ground free of weeds, and the young plants set in evenly over the space 

 designated. 



I have never yet found any fertilizer preferable to well rotted barn-yard 

 manure, but if the ground is made rich for preceding crops it is all the better. 

 I have experimented with commercial fertilizers, but so far they are only 

 experiments. 



What should be done with beds now that the season is over? Turn them 

 under and put some other crop on the ground, or fertilize and renew with 

 young plants on the same ground. I find it cheaper and less labor to set and 

 keep clean a new bed than to clean out an old one. New beds should be set 

 every spring on purpose to supply young plants for fall or spring setting. Old 

 beds are a poor dependence for plants where vigor and healthfulness are 

 considered. 



STRAWBERRIES FOR DISTANT MARKETS. 



The above article called to mind another, written for the Farmer and Fruit 

 Grower by Secretary Galusha of the Illinois Horticultural Society, on a kindred 

 topic, from which we extract as follows : 



