86 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



weed in a strawberry bed as any other weed after you have a 

 certain number of plants set in the bed. 



Question : Regarding varieties, what is your opinion of the 

 fall bearers, — what are termed perpetual bearers? 



Mr. Putnam : Let them alone commercially. If you want to 

 play with them a little bit by yourself, all right. There are a 

 few of those that do fairly well but it costs. You must havv' the 

 blossoms all off the first crop if you want to get a second crop. 

 As a rule, people will not pay the price for out-of-season pro- 

 duce that it costs to raise it. If you take pains with them, keep 

 them heavily cultivated, and cut off the blossoms early in the 

 season. You will get a few good berries, but as a commercial 

 proposition, I do not believe they will be a success. The same 

 thing applies to the fall bearing raspberry. 



Question : How much does it cost ? 



Mr. Putnam : You can raise them for twenty-five to thirty 

 cents a basket, I guess, all right, and if >ou do it after you get 

 through working, at night, you never will miss the cost. 



The first year you should keep your strawberries thoroughly 

 cultivated, free from weeds. In the fall, when you can drive 

 on without cutting through the ground you should mulch them. 

 I like strawy horse manure for a mulch. Be careful not to put 

 on too much so as to smother the plants. Cover them over 

 and keep them frozen ; keep them from thawing. The mulch 

 holds the snow on and keeps them from freezing and thawing 

 alternately, — protects them in that way. 



Question. Has the time passed yet to mulch? 



Mr. Putnam : No ; up here is a good time now to do it. 

 If I have straw or hay mulch it is pretty likely to blow off, but 

 when the first good snow squall comes on the straw, that snow 

 will hold the straw down well. It will freeze to the ground, 

 and then it will stay all winter. The horse manure may be put 

 on any time when the ground is frozen enough so as to drive 

 over the rows without cutting the strawberry plants. 



Now as to picking and marketing. I sort my berries for a 

 special market. All my berries are sorted except the last pick- 

 ing. I can't get pickers that I can trust. They all come to the 

 table and are sorted very rapidly. If your berries are running 

 good you will get almost as many baskets as you had to start 

 with and your baskets of seconds extra which will bring about 



