S8 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



Since 1890, culture of strawberries has progressed more rapidly than 

 before. In 1802 the writer sold his crop of strawberries, beginning at 

 eighteen cents per box and but few going at less than ten cents per box. 

 In 1897, with better methods of culture, better varieties, and better ber- 

 ries, he began marketing at ten cents and got down so low as four. 

 Many berries were sold lower. Both seasons gave abundant crops. In 

 '97 the first price was affected by southern berries, and later prices by 

 a large crop at home and a limited market. 



In methods of culture we have much to learn, but there are among us 

 progressive growers, well up-to-date, who are profiting by their pains- 

 taking efforts. But there are those who turn over five or six inches of 

 the surface soil, rake it over, take plants from old beds that have borne 

 several successive crops in grass and weeds and been subjected to blight, 

 disease, and insects, and without other preparation set them on this 

 ground. During the summer they hoe them once or twice, or have the 

 children do it. They complete the process hy picking the few small ber- 

 ries with long stems, putting them in bulk in pail, basket, or box, de- 

 positing it over the hind axle of the all-purpose farm-wagon, jolting them 

 several miles over a corduroy and dusty road, and taking for them in 

 the market whatever may be offered; and they invariably complain that 

 thev don't have anv luck with strawberries. Neither do thev attend the 

 farmers' institutes nor meetings of the horticultural society; they take 

 no farm paper; they don't believe in the Agricultural college, "nor 

 book farmers, nohow." 



Commercial fertilizers are a nonentity in Gratiot. They are too ex- 

 pensive. Barnyard manure is the main reliance. 



A few years ago I purchased a few acres of land which for a number 

 of years had been rented yearly to different tenants, each removing as 

 much as possible from the soil and returning nothing. The ground \\'as 

 bleached out and would bake like a brick. To restore this land to anv- 

 thing like fertility was no easy task. I believed that what the land 

 needed most was vegetable matter — that it was deficient in humus. A 

 heavy covering of barnyard manure was applied, and a crop of early 

 potatoes and early corn grown. After these crops W(M'e removed, more 

 manure w^as applied, the ground plowed, thoroughly harrowed, and 

 sown to rye, which w^as plowed under in the spring. In' short, clover, 

 rye, field peas, hen manure, hardwood ashes, and thorough cultivation 

 have brought this land into condition to raise a fair crop of strawber- 

 ries. Commercial fertilizers might have done it, but I doubt if they 

 would have done it better. This land has something growing upon it all 

 the time, and green crops are turned under each spring. 



Invariably I set strawberry plants in the spring. My plantings next 

 spring will be mostly on ground which produced a crop of strawberries 

 the past season. After the crop was removed, manure was applied, the 

 bed turned under, and field peas sown, which have made a good growth 

 and are yet green. This pea straw will be turned under deeply next 

 spring, and the ground thoroughly harrowed and pulverized with a plank 

 clod-crusher. Then a top-dressing of hen manure and unleached hard- 

 wood ashes will be harrowed in separately. 



The matted row system is used here almost wholly, and after some 

 experience I have found that the rows four feet apart suit well, and that 

 they should be set mostly from two to three feet in the row. These rows 



