MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 391 



AN IMPORTA.NT POINT IN STRA.VVBEREY CULTURE. 



It is all-important tbat a strawberry grower should plant varieties 

 that ripen in succession, froin the earliest to mid-season, or in many 

 cases very late. It enables him to sell many more at a profit. If his 

 market is a small and limited one, he is thus enabled to supply it 

 through seven or eight weeks. If his market is large and unlim- 

 ited, like the great northern ones, and his increase is limited solely 

 by the size of his picking force, it enables him to pick more than twice 

 as much. 



As to varieties, 13 years of experience has convinced me that the 

 following are best : For extremely early, Improved Westbrook and 

 Murray's Extra Early, pollenized with Meek's Early every fourth row. 

 These are not only prolific, but the earliest, the most splendidly colored 

 and the firmest and best shippers I ever saw. They ripen so early 

 that they can be picked and sold before medium early varieties begin 

 to ripen. To follow close on the heels of these, I would have Brandy- 

 wine, Tennessee Prolific, Woolverten, West Lawn and Bubach, pollen- 

 izing the Bubach and West Lawn with one of the three preceding 

 varieties. These are all superb market varieties and heavy bearers. 

 Aroma and Gandy give a large crop of the finest of late berries. 



The season can be still further prolonged by having the Lucretia 

 dewberry, which ripens just as strawberries are gone, and is an exceed- 

 ingly heavy bearer, of large, luscious berries. It succeeds everywhere. 

 If growers will follow the plan above outlined, they can plant a large 

 acreage and still never have their berries spoil in fields for lack of 

 pickers. Nor will the market be swamped by a glut of berries all 

 ripened at one time.— O. W. Blacknall, Vance Co., N. C, in Rural 

 World. 



The Rural New Yorker says that observant strawberry growers 

 have noticed that when nitrate of soda is applied to naturally soft- 

 berried varieties of strawberries, such as Sharpless, the fruit loses 

 color and becomes softer, while such varieties as Wilson and Lovett 

 retain their color and firmness. When slower-acting fish or tank fer- 

 tilizers are used even the naturally soft berries are not injured. 



