REPORT OF MR. TF. S. BLAIR. 323 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



Strawberries grown on this matted row system have given good crops here. In 

 field culture the rows should be piit 4 or 4J feet apart, as this would leave a space of 

 1 or li feet wide for picking the fruit. The plants should be set IS inches apart in 

 field culture. 



After the plants are set, the horse cultivator should be used to stir tho ground as 

 close to the plants as possible during their early growth, and gradually the space worked 

 by the cultivator may be narrowed as the runners start out and young plants are 

 produced. It is a good practice to go over the rows after the runners have partly 

 grown, and place them so as to fill all vacant spaces without crowding. A little care 

 at this juncture will increase the yield of fruit on the plot. 



Hand hoeing should be carefully attended to, and no weeds allowed to grow. All 

 weeds should be carefully hoed out in the late summer, and the patch kept clean well 

 into fall, for the damp fall weather favours the growth of many sorts of weeds. 



If the plantation has been Icept clean the first season, it is possible to obtain two 

 fruit crops, but, if not, the plantation should be ploughed up after the first crop is 

 taken off. It is much cheaper to reset a new plantation every year than to clean the 

 weeds out of one which has been neglected during the season after planting. 



Spring planting has been found to be the most successful here. Those plants set 

 in the fall are liable to winter-kill unless started very early, and it is difficult to obtain 

 young plants, far enough advanced, to put out in time to get well established before 

 winter comes. 



Tall-set plants produce but a limited amount of fruit the next season, and hence 

 one is very little farther ahead with fall-set plants than with those put out the next 

 spring. 



Plants for setting should be handled so that their tops will not wilt. In order to 

 prevent this the roots must be kept moist, and the plants sheltered from drying winds 

 as much as possible. Plants that have wilted should be * puddled ' in a mixture of 

 water, and heavy soil, mixed to the consistency of thick paint, before planting. The 

 roots, if dipped in this, will be coated with a thin layer of moist soil, which will 

 preserve them from drying. 



Set the plants so that the crown will be level with the ground after it is settled. 

 Strawberries should be planted on soil well enriched, by using stable manure. If 

 the ground has previously been used for a hoed crop, manure again in the fall after 

 the crop is removed and plough under, and work up again in the spring before plant- 

 ing. A good plan is to scatter complete fertilizer along the rows before planting, 

 which is worked in v/hpn =otting the plants. About twenty-five one-horse cartloads of 

 barn-yard manure should be used per acre. 



The dates of picking, and the quantity of fruit obtained eacl day, are given in 

 the following table ; also, the total yield per plot for the past three crops. One crop 

 only is taken from a plot ; thsy were after that ploughed under. The soil is a heavy 

 clay loam, which makes the ground difficult to keep clean and in good tilth by any 

 other method. 



Four varieties were also grown in the hill system. Two rows, 3 feet apart, were 

 set, the plants being 1 foot apart in the rows, and at each side of these a row of plants 

 were put out so that four plants would make the corner of a square, the plants all 

 being 1 foot apart each way. The runners were kept cut oft' all of these plants, and 

 only the plants set allowed to grow. The yield from these was greatly below that of 

 those grown in matted rows, and the fruit was not nearly so clean, being considerably 

 damaged with sand. 



Generally speaking, strawberries will not winter without some protection. From 

 1 to 2 inches of clean straw makes a good covering which should be put on the latter 

 part of November, after the ground is nicely frozen. Spruce boughs have also proved 

 quite satisfactory as a protection. 



16— 21i 



