170 STATE HORTICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 



C. W. Murtfeldt — With mixed liiisbandry, fruit-growing and gen- 

 eral farming may be carried on successfully. Don't put all your eggs 

 in one basket ; they may crush and then you are done. 



LaG RANGE, Mo , Dec. 5, 1892. 

 L. A. Goodman, Esq., Secretary, Westport, Mo.: 



Dear Sir— My name appears on the program for a report on small fruits, but 

 I find the proceeds of the fruit crop this season is not strong enough on the right 

 side of the account to invite a diagonal trip across the State to meet with the 

 Society at Carthage, so I will drop a few words on the strawberry question. In 

 the early spring the prospect for a very large crop of fruit of all kinds was very 

 promising, rather above an average, but rains commenced and rains continued until 

 there was too much water for even the strawberry. The apple crop, which pro- 

 mised 80 large, was wholly destroyed in the blossom. It is a rare thing for spring 

 rains to destroy strawberries, but such was the case with some varieties last spring ; 

 the Michel's Early suffered most, but several other older sorts went down also. 

 Rains poured down in such great, quantities of water and with such frequency the 

 fruit actually ceased to exist after the berries were well formed and in dome cases 

 half grown. This was more particularly noticed on new patches and on flat land. 

 On old fields with land not not so flat the crops did much better; the berries, how- 

 ever, were all more or less water-soaked. 



But such seasons seldom come, and the fruit-growers console themselves in 

 the hope, always uppermost, for something better next season. 



My method of strawberry growing is to seed the land the season before with 

 rye or oats, and plow all under when about a foot or so high; then harrow and work 

 the land as often as the weeds need to be destroyed during the summer. Plow the 

 land very deep and close, as early next spring as it will work well, then after get- 

 ting it in first-class condition mark oft" both ways, 4X2J feet, then plant the rows 

 the narrow way, two rows of an imperfect to one of a perfect bloomer, putting in 

 an occasional row of the perfect bloomer of a sort that blossoms late to aid fertili- 

 zation, in the late blossoms that come on nearly all good bearing pistillate varieties. 

 In this way the cultivator may be run both ways until the plants have run out too 

 far to continue the narrow way. Of course the fruit stems are all cut off at blos- 

 soming time, and all runners are kept cut off until July or August. ( The seasons 

 have much to do with this.) In this plan I can hoe and stir the ground and Keep it 

 free from weeds, and raise strawberries for less money than any other plan I have 

 tried. When 1 cease cutting oft" the runners, I only run the cultivator through the 

 rows one way, the broad way, and by fall I have broad matted rows, sometimes 

 meeting in the middle, and these plants are so grown that every blossom will be 

 well fertilized. I like to have the rows run east and west, as the prevailing south 

 winds aid the pollen in distribution. 



When the fruit is gathered, the different varieties are all mixed in the boxes 

 together, all apparently alike and always grading and selling alike, and the pickers 

 are all ready to take the next row instead of asking the boa for ''a goad row." 

 This is the most satisfactory way for all concerned I have yet found. 



We must of course grow the fruit to suit the trade we try to supply. My 

 fruit is nearly all shipped away. A select trade at the home market might not be 

 pleased with this method, and those growers who draw plants from fruiting beds 

 or fields would not take to this plan ; but 1 think it is injurious to the vines and a 

 shortening of the crop to draw plants in this way. 1 always set a few rows every 



