Oct. 2, 1920.] 



Agricultural Gazette of N.S.W. 



735 



Time of Ripening. 



As soon as the plants begin to gi'ow they throw out a few early blossoms^ 

 wliich ripen and give an early picking in September. The proper main crop 

 of Creswell in this district, however, usually starts about the first week in 

 October, and lasts for three or four weeks. After this comes a break of three 

 or four weeks, then the second crop starts, and runs for a similar term. 

 After this, if the plants are kept free from runners and are well cared for, 

 they will throw another light oft-crop in the autumn, which will run on, if 

 the winter is mild, until the end of .June. Even where the runners are left, if 

 the season is favourable, they will throw a good few berries. 



Mulching. 



As soon as the plants begin to blossom the}^ should be surrounded by 

 mulching of some kind, to prevent the berries from being splashed with dirt 

 during rain or when watering. Bush Takings are best for this purpose, 

 as they make a good mulch for the first year, and can be worked in as 

 manure the next. Where leaves cannot be obtained other forms of mujch 

 may be used, such as straw, stable manure 

 from stables where straw has been used for 

 bedding, blady grass (either long or chopped 

 up into coarse chaff), &c. 



While the plants are blossoming and the 

 berries are growing care should be taken 

 to keep the bed free from weeds. Toward 

 the end of the season, when the runners 

 have spread all over the ground, this is a 

 task of some magnitude, and it is quite a 



common occurrence to see good beds so overgrown with summer grass that 

 the plants cannot be noticed from a distance of a few rods away. Where 

 this has happefie 1, and where runners are being saved for planting or sale in 

 the following year, the business of cleaning up is best deferred until the 

 runners are dug. 



Cropping. 



The warmth of our climate enables us to get two good crops in the year 

 from some of our most prolific varieties of strawberry, and in favourable 

 seasons an additional early and late off-crop may often be harvested. The 

 prices are always good for the latter, and this fact tempts growers to try to 

 produce them, but it is questionable whether the benefit derived from their 

 sale is worth the loss of vigour which the plants will have suffered by the 

 time they are called on to produce good main and second crops, except in an 

 unusually good season, vvhen there is an excess of moisture, or where the 

 grower is going in for strawberries only and can practise intensive cultivation. 

 In such a case, where the grower has a reliable water supply, and can put in 

 the whole of his time among his strawberries, he can produce— by careful 

 treatment — very good off-crops without interfering much with the main and 

 second crops. Several growers in the district mentioned claim to have 



Fig. 6. — Picking box, with punnets in 

 place, into which the fruit is 

 graded as it is picked. 



