41(1. State Horticultural Society. 



A MODEL SMALL STRAWBERRY PATCH. 



On the outskirts of the town of Columbia, in Central Missouri, there 

 is a strawberry patch which deserves to go on record as a model planta- 

 tion for its size. It covers barely three-fourths of an acre, and is the prop- 

 erty of a market gardener, Mr. Henry Kirklin. 



As a commercial enterprise this patch has proven highly successful. 

 During the year 1903 when the strawberry season was so cold and wet 

 that no fruit was formed in ordinary plantations, this patch of Mr. Kirk- 

 lin's netted the owner over four hundred dollars. From the beginning 

 to the end of the picking season, which covered a period of four weeks, 

 there was picked off "of this small area a total of 4,074 boxes, or 166 crates. 

 On an acre basis this would have been a yield of 212 crates. 



This yield, and especially in such a wet season as the past, has been 

 due entirely to the watchfulness and care of its owner. The small size 

 of the patch makes it possible for each plant to have more or personal at- 

 tention than w^ould be possible were they scattered over a wider area. 

 As it is, they are in matted rows 400 feet long, and the luxuriant, deep 

 green foliage of the plants spreads out, making the rows fully a foot and 

 a half wide. During the picking season the edges of these rows are bor- 

 dered on either side with a crimson fringe of delicious berries, and almost 

 a solid layer of fruits in the center. 



As for cultivation, Mr. Kirklin is a firm believer that strawberries 

 and weeds do not do well together, and the result is that this patch is kept 

 so clean, that a weed, no matter how respectable, ever dares to show 

 its head. As soon as the picking season is over, Mr. Kirklin begins culti- 

 vation, and keeps it up until late in the summer. On his place he has 

 found that the most useful tools for his purpose are a fine-toothed culti- 

 vator, a hoe and a spading fork. These tools are used as necessity de- 

 mands ; the cultivator doing the most of the work, and the hoe and fork 

 being serviceable principally in cleaning out the corners and others places 

 not being easily reached by the cultivator. These tools are kept going 

 all summer long, as frequently as the owner thinks the patch needs it, 

 which is occasionally as often as two or three times a month. With the 

 approach of autumn, when all plant life begins to prepare itself for a long 

 cold wdnter, cultivation is stopped and as soon as the first freeze occurs, 

 Mr. Kirklin puts a straw mulch on the patch. By this means he keeps 

 the plants perfectly dormant from the time the mulch is put on until it is 

 removed in the spring. 



The picking and marketing of the berries is done by Mr. Kirklin 

 and his family, and perhaps assisted by two or three children, who receive 



