92 VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



In selecting - your plants you must know which are pistil- 

 late and which are staminate berries. Plants, like animals, 

 have sex and the laws of nature must be studied and complied 

 with if you would succeed. As a rule the pistillate plants are 

 more productive, yet many varieties have been produced of 

 late years that are self-fertile and still bear well. The pistil- 

 late or non-fertile plants want to be set so that every third or 

 fifth row will be staminate or self-fertile, so the pollen can 

 be blown and carried by insects over one or two rows each way. 



The same variety will not succeed equally well on all soils 

 and in all localities, and I believe we should set out a few of 

 several varieties and prove them before we go into it on a 

 large scale. Plants of our own raising from the first and 

 earliest runners will do better than plants that have to be 

 shipped very far by express. 



I believe there is no best variety of strawberries, for what 

 seems best in one locality will fail in others. Hence the nec- 

 essity of testing each variety, or of having it tested, in your 

 locality. For home or garden culture they will bear to be set 

 thicker than for field culture. 



Two or three feet apart for rows and eighteen inches for 

 hills is right for garden, while for field culture I put them 

 four or five feet in the rows and about the same in the hill. 

 Set the plants so the crown will be just level with the surface 

 of the soil, not too deep or too far out of ground, but just 

 right, pressing the soil firmly about the plant. We usually 

 put the plants into a pail of water and set from there, which 

 is easier, than wetting each plant, and the earth will stick to 

 the wet roots and do as well as if wet. After planting the 

 work is only just begun. If in the garden or field, hoe and 

 cultivate often for it is easier to hoe twice without weeds than 

 once with weeds. Keep them down with constant cultivation 

 and hoeing, for weeds and strawberries do not do well togeth- 

 er. When the runners begin to start, it is better to keep them 

 cut till July or August and then let enough grow to form 

 plants six or eight inches apart. On my own plants I have 

 used horse manure for winter protection, getting it after heat- 

 ing so as to kill the weeds that may be in it. I put it on to 

 the first snow. I prefer this to straw or boughs ; yet these 

 are good. This serves several purposes. First, enriching' 

 tfie soil, then it holds the frost from heaving out plants, also 

 keeps the soil moist and fruit clean. Spread it on thin and 

 even as you can and cover the snow. And in spring take a 

 fork and shake out the thickest places, leaving the plants to 

 come up through. If for market, buy new, clean baskets and 

 crates and fill them full of nice, clean, large berries, and 

 there is no end to the amount that can be sold. 



