May, 1920 



BETTER FRUIT 



Page 7 



soil, however, they may be brown or 

 yellowish in color. If the plants are at 

 all dry upon arrival, the roots should be 

 soaked in water for a few hours before 

 planting or heeling in. If they can not 

 be set at once, the bundles should be 

 opened and the plants separated and 

 heeled in. The soil packed about the 

 roots of the plants should be thoroughly 

 moistened. 



The plants to be set should be pro- 

 tected from the sun and from drying 

 winds while they are being distributed 

 in the field, either by means of burlap, 

 old sacks, or in some other effective 

 way. An old fertilizer sack may be used 

 for protecting the plants while drop- 

 ping them. 



Setting the Plants — %Vhen furrows 

 and beds are made in preparing the soil 

 they will show approximately the rows 

 on which the plants are to be set. Care 

 should be taken, however, to have the 

 rows straight, and the exact place for 

 the setting of each individual plant 

 may be indicated by the use of a 

 marker. 



If the soil is very mellow, a place for 

 the roots may be made with the hand, 

 but in heavier soil a dibble or trowel 

 or the tools known as punch and tongs 

 may be used. One accustomed to their 

 use can set 10,000 plants in eight hours 

 and experts can set a much larger 

 number. 



Perhaps the most important points 

 in setting plants are to place them at 

 the right depth and thoroughly to firm 

 the soil about the roots after they are 

 set. If the plants are set too high or 

 the soil is not sufficiently firm, they will 

 dry out and die, while if they are set 

 too low and the crown is covered with 

 soil, the plants may rot. 



Care After Planting — Where the 

 plants are set in early spring, flower 

 stems frequently appear in a short time. 

 Unless the plants are thoroughly estab- 

 lished in the soil these should be re- 

 moved, as the production of fruit is too 

 great a strain on plants not fully estab- 

 lished. When a large number of run- 

 ner plants are needed, the flower stems 

 should also be removed, as experiments 

 have shown that this practice will in- 

 crease the number of runner plants 

 that are made. 



When all the runners that develop 

 are allowed to root without any re- 

 strictions, too many plants form in the 

 matted rows, and some means should 

 be taken to thin them. Sometimes roller 

 cutters are attached to cultivators and 

 all runners extending into the furrows 

 are removed by them. A distance of at 

 least six inches should be maintained 

 between plants in matted rows, and 

 when necessary, the plants should be 

 thinned with a hoe or by hand in order 

 to prevent overcrowding. 



W'hen the plants in the matted row 

 are spaced, the strongest runners are 

 selected. As soon as the tip of a runner 

 has enlarged and a leaf appears, it is 

 covered with soil. Each runner is thus 

 made to take root at a predetermined 

 distance from the parent plant and 

 from adjoining runner plants. Some- 

 times a large number of runner plants 

 are made to root, cither in distinct 

 rows or at a distance of about seven or 



Hcirics lu'iny t;i'i\\n between i)ie trees in :i W ioliinglun dislrict. 



eight inches from each other, and all 

 runners except those used are removed 

 by a hoe, knife, or in some other way. 

 Tillage is practiced to conserve mois- 

 ture, to aerate the soil, and to keep 

 down weeds. It should begin soon after 

 the plants are set, and should be con- 

 tinued during the growing season. As 

 soon as possible after each irrigation, 

 the irrigation furrows should be culti- 

 vated. This leaves a dust mulch on the 

 surface which conserves moisture and 

 helps keep the soil in good condition. 

 If the furrows are not cultivated, the 

 soil may become water-logged and may 

 shrink on drying so that large cracks 

 appear. These cracks not only increase 

 the loss of water by evaporation, but 

 may even break the roots of the plants. 

 One-horse cultivators are usually run 

 through the furrows, and hand hoes or 

 rakes used on the beds. In light soils, 

 a horse cultivator may be used as often 

 as once every four to six days, while in 

 the heavier soils, once every week or 

 two weeks usually will be sufficient. 



Maintaining the Fertility of the Soil— 

 The use of stable manure and fertilizers 

 on strawberry fields is governed largely 

 by the same principles that apply to 

 other crops. As soils vary greatly in 

 llieir composition, the use of fertilizers 

 is chiefly a local matter, to be deter- 

 mined by each man for his own condi- 

 tions, this can be done by applying 

 the different plant foods, nitrogen, 

 phosphoric acid, and potash, separately 

 and in diflerent combinations and vary- 

 ing quantities to small plats, and keep- 

 ing records of the yields. In like man- 

 ner, the effect of difTcrent applications 

 of stable manure shoulil be tested on 

 small plats. If certain fads arc kept 

 in mind, such plats will be helpful in 

 determining the quantities to use. A 

 good crop of berries will remove con- 

 siderable quantities of nitrogen, phos- 

 phoric acid and potash. Excepting 

 coarse sand, most soils are so well sup- 



plied with these plant foods that large 

 crops can be produced without fertil- 

 izers, provided the physical condition 

 of the soil is good. If, therefore, the 

 soil is kept in a satisfactory condition 

 by the addition of humus and by ade- 

 quate irrigation and tillage, many soils 

 will need no commercial fertilizer or 

 stable manure. In many localities, 

 however, growers have found the use 

 of fertilizers profitable, but the applica- 

 tions which can be made with the great- 

 est gains vary with different soils and 

 different soil conditions. Much can be 

 done to insure productive plantations 

 by seeing to it that the soil is in the 

 best possible state of fertility before 

 the strawberry plants are set out. 



Irrigating Strawberries — Strawber- 

 ries must have an ample supply of mois- 

 ture, not only during the season when 

 they are bearing fruit, but also through- 

 out the growing season. As the root 

 system is shallow, the surface soil must 

 be kept moist and the irrigations must 

 be more frequent than for many plants 

 whose roots penetrate the soil deeply, 

 (he number of irrigations, however, 

 will depend largely on the character 

 and frequency of the tillage used in 

 conserving moisture and on the type 

 and condition of the soil. If the fur- 

 rows are thoroughly cultivated as soon 

 as the moisture conditions permit 

 after each irrigation, the number of ap- 

 plications of water can be materially 

 reduced as compared with the number 

 required when cultivation is neglected. 

 In the lighter soils during the bearing 

 season, the fields may be irrigated as 

 often as every four to six days, and in 

 heavy soils every week or two. During 

 tiie months when the plants are not 

 fruiting, irrigation need not be so fre- 

 quent as when the crop is developing, 

 only enough water to keep them in a 

 llirifl\' growing condition being neces- 

 sary. 



During the fruiting period the usual 



