Miscellaneous. 209 



many years past, and never, except in one instance, have I succeeded in 

 harvesting a large crop of berries. There were good reasons, however, 

 for this apparent exception, as the following facts will show : The first crop 

 from this patch was very light, owing to unfavorable weather conditions 

 during the latter part of the previous year. The early part of the season, 

 from the time the plants were put in the ground, to midsummer, was 

 very favorable, so that the plants made an unusually large growth. The 

 late summer and fall were hot and dry, so that bud development was much 

 restricted, and very few fruit buds resulted. Hence, the fruit harvested 

 the first year was very light, scarcely checking the growth of plants, 

 which was practically continuous through the second year. The patch 

 was thoroughly worked immediately after the fruiting season and few 

 new plants were permitted to grow, as plants were carefuly layered the 

 first year, and having borne but little fruit, were in fine condition. The 

 resulting crop was phenomenal, perhaps the largest I have ever grown, 

 and the berries were almost entirely fancy. Previous and subsequent 

 results, however, have been disappointing, and I would not recommend 

 the renewal of strawberry beds as a rule. 



Exhausted Plants. — The cause of these disappointing results is easily 

 understood, if one will examine a plant immediately after it has borne a 

 crop. The plant is a mere skeleton. It has been absorbed, root and stem, 

 in the ripening of the fruit. The plant is in a state of complete exhaustion, 

 from which, after a period of suspended activity, it makes a slow and im- 

 perfect recovery. It makes a new root system and throws out runners 

 from which new plants may be established. In the light of these facts, let 

 us see what may be expected of a patch of thousands of plants, each of 

 which has borne a large yield of berries. The condition of these plants 

 is precisely like that of the plant described above. The fruit will have 

 been gathered by July i (the average date), and the plants will not have 

 recovered from their fruiting effort and be in fair growing condition be- 

 fore August I. That is to say, the making of the second strawberry crop 

 can hardly be considered fairly under way before August i. Growth of 

 plant, the propagation of new plants and the development of fruit bucls 

 and the work of an entire growing season is crowded into the late sum- 

 mer and fall months. Under favorable conditions moderate results are 

 possible. But if, as often happens, the seasonable conditions are unfavor- 

 able, that is, if the weather should be hot or dry, or both, or cold weather 

 should set in early, the second is likely to be very light. 



Treatment of the Bed. — Immediately after the fruiting season we run 

 over the ground with the mower. The coarse materials are raked up and 

 drawn ofif the field. The soil is then worked by a special pattern of cut- 



H— 14 



