598 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



of the gooseberry business, but I have just planted quite a patch 

 of them. The prices we are getting is absolutely ridiculous, but if 

 we had to i)ut them on the market, a few would go a good ways. 

 It takes a lot for the canners. IIow much it will take in the future, 

 you don't know and I don't know. But anyhow, we have enough 

 faith to keep on planting. 



Now, 1 will take up the strawberry, and when I get to straw- 

 berries, I am right at home. We have G8 acres to pick this year, 

 and will have more next year. As for planting, we plant them just 

 as soon as we can in the spring. Early planting is an important 

 matter. AVhen I planted my berries last year, the ground would be 

 frozen an inch or two in the morning. If it thawed at eight o'clock, 

 we would start to plant, and plant for the rest of the day. Some 

 of my neighbors laughed at me, but before the season was over, we 

 had a dry spell and they had trouble getting their plants to live. 



As for planting, the best method we have found is to make out 

 the rows with a corn planter. It marks out two rows at once and 

 the furrower leaves the ground in nice order to get the roots in 

 well. We like to put a crop in between the rows of plants when we 

 set them ; for instance, a crop of peas. We put the berries five feet 

 apart. The peas get out of the way, and it helps to pay the expense 

 of farming the first year. One thing you must be careful of, the 

 planting of those berries. It is not worth while to replant them. 

 If you take the proper pains in setting, you won't lose one in a thou- 

 sand. Get the roots down well, if it does take a little longer it is 

 not waste time. 



A word as to fertilization. I have tried various fertilization for 

 berries at time of planting and whenever I put a commercial fer- 

 tilizer on them, I get stuck. It is pretty sure to interfere with the 

 berries. We take fairly good land and plant the berries. After we 

 get them planted, we put half a ton of ground bone to the acre. 

 That is the only place I use bone. There is nothing in it to hurt 

 the berries, and it is on top of the ground, and we like it. A little 

 later in the season, we put on 500 pounds of tankage. 



Question: How do you raise them, in rows or in hills? 



MR. ROBEllTS: We set them in rows. We farm the berries 

 well, keep them thoroughly tilled. A weeder we find is a big help. 

 It saves hoeing. We take out a tooth, so we can keep the weeder 

 close up to them without hurting them. About the first of June we 

 plant tomatoes right in the berry rows, so by August I can tell peo- 

 ple that is my strawberry patch, but it looks like a tomato patch. 

 Between every other hill of strawberries we plant a tomato. That 

 may look live vandalism, but it protects them during the hot weather 

 of August. It keeps them from getting too thick, and we get the 

 finest kind of tomatoes, often get a hundred dollars an acre for our 

 t(miatoes, and we don't find it interferes with the berries. 



Another thing, any man that raises tomatoes for market, soon 

 learns to make it pay, he must spray them thoroughly, and while 

 spraying those tomatoes, we are spraying the strawberries, too. We 

 do that two or three times, and our strawberries go into the winter 

 quarters in fine shape. 



Question: Do you never have to thin any? 



