Hi EXPERIMENTAL FARMS. 



64 VICTORIA, A. 1901 



always in full bearing. It is quite possible to obtain two good crops, and this is often 

 done where it is not convenient to make a new plantation every year. But the older 

 the plantation, the less the crop will be, as a rule. The fruit will also be smaller and 

 weeds will become very plentiful. 



FERTILIZERS. 



As a rule the strawberry crop is greater and the fruit better in proportion 

 to the richness of the soil that the plants grow in. This being the case the soil, 

 if not naturally rich, should be made so. No fertilizer is so good for this purpose as 

 barn-yard manure, as it adds more humus to the soil than any other and is a complete 

 fertilizer. This should be applied, when it can be obtained, in the manner already 

 described in the preparation of the soil. Leguminous crops, such as clover and pease, 

 ploughed ui:der in the autumn are also very useful in adding nitrogen and humus 

 to the soil. As a fertilizer with a fair proportion of potash is required, there is noth- 

 ing better than wood ashes to suply it. Wood ashes may be applied broadcast in the 

 t^pring when the land is being prepared for the plants, at the rate of 50 to 100 bushels 

 per acre. If it is not convenient to furnish the necessary nitrogen, phosphoric acid 

 and potash by the proper use of barn-yard manure, green crops, and wood ashes, it will 

 be necessary to use a judicious mixture of the more expensive fertilizers to supply it, 

 such as nitrate of soda, ground bone, and muriate of potash. 



POLLINATION. 



It occasionally happens that a person who has a variety of strawberry which 

 yields much better with him than other varieties which he has growing along 

 side, concludes to discard all his other kinds and grow that one variety. He does 

 tO and is disappointed to find that he has very few berries, and these ill-shaped and 

 worthless. He does not know what to think about it, but writes to the Experimental 

 Farm to learn what is the matter. The reply is sent back: 'Are you aware that the 

 llowers of strawberries may be perfect or imperfect, or bisexual and pistillate ; in 

 other words, do you know that some varieties of strawberries produce blossoms which 

 have both male and female organs, while other varieties have onjy female organs; if 

 you do not, the solution of your difiiculty is very easy ? ' 



The male and female organs in jjlants perform the same functions as in animals, 

 the fine dust formed on the stamens, which is shed when the flower is in bloom, is the 

 fertilizing agent, it falls on the pistil and fertilization takes place. If the stamens 

 fire absent, or nearly all absent, as is ths case in imperfect or pistillate flowers, , no 

 fruii, or very little fruit is formed. If a perfect or bisexual flowering variety and an 

 imperfect flowering variety are growing in close proximity the flowers on both will be 

 fertilized, as insects and winds carry the pollen or dust from the perfect to the 

 imperfect. It very often happens that imperfect flowering varieties produce the best 

 orops when properly pollinated, and this experience may lead fruit-growers who are 

 ignorant of the foregoing facts, to make the mistake of planting only one variety, 

 ■which may be imperfect. 



A row of a perfect flowering sort should be planted to about every three or four 

 Tow.s of an imperfect variety to have good results. Of course, it is not necessary to 

 I)lant an imperfect variety at all, as there are plenty of good sorts which have perfect 

 flowers. It is essential to have the perfect and imperfect varieties in full bloom at the 

 same time, as if the former bloomed before the latter there would be no object in 

 planting it as a pollinator. 



VARIETIES. 



There are now so many varieties of strawberries offered for sale that it is very 

 puzzling to the intending planter to know just what sorts to select. Some varieties 



