198 State Horticultural Society. 



methods or use the same kind of tools. While some planters use a 

 spade and a boy to carry the plants, others mark off the rows with a 

 narrow shovel plow, opening a furrow three or four inches deep. Boys 

 follow, dropping- the plants, while men follow them packing the soil 

 firmly around the plants. We use a line in planting, and for each line 

 have two men with bright garden trowels or dibble, and a small box 

 or basket of plants trimmed and roots moistened in water. 



The Strazvberry Plant. — At the start the berry plant is feeble. It 

 has been torn from its mother soil, where it first had life. - It has stood 

 the racket of being packed and shipped probably from 500 to 1,000 

 miles, and then if it falls into the hands of a person unacquainted with its 

 needs it may die in a few short hours. So, Mr. Planter, you must nurse 

 this weak prince of the berry kingdom carefully for awhile, until it be- 

 comes used to its new home. Its tender roots are its mouth, and if 

 your soil is dry you must give it a drink of water. 



Matted Row or Hills. — Lately much has been written about the hill 

 culture of strawberries, and many tests have been made by the Experi- 

 ment stations and large commercial growers of the country, but it is 

 now the sense of the majority of berry growers that the wide, continued 

 matted row is the best method of berry culture, with possibly one single 

 exception, the Parker Earle. Its natural tendency is to grow in hills. 

 In the hill culture system there is more danger of plants being heaved 

 out of the ground by continued freezing at night and thawing out dur- 

 ing sunshiny days of the winter and spring seasons. 



The word "perfect" follows the names of all staminate strawberries 

 and the word "imperfect" after all the pistillate varieties. It is thought 

 the imperfect varieties are the most productive, but not so firm, yet are 

 less liable to be killed by the frost. In our planting for market we use 

 an equal number of perfect and imperfect varieties. That is four rows of 

 perfect and four rows of imperfect sorts. 



Don't set strawberries on a dry, windy day. 



Don't employ or allow small boys in the berry field. 



Don't use old or second-hand crates for berries that are to be shipped 

 to distant markets. 



Don't be everlastingly grumbling about the weather, whether it be 

 sunshiny, wet or dry, hot or cold. 



Don't kill the sweet honey bee ; it is your best insect friend. It can 

 fertilize 10,000 imperfect strawberry blooms in a day. 



Don't allow plants or trees to lie four or five days at the express 

 office and then abuse the nurseryman if they do not all grow. 



