SMALL FRUITS IN MAY AND JUNE. 169 



SMALL FRUITS IN MAY AND JUNE. 



WALTER YAHNKE, WINONA. 



May and June are two months when the fruit grower is kept 

 very busy. This is the critical time of the year when everything 

 is waiting to receive its share of the work, and the shares must be 

 pretty evenly divided, for if something is neglected there will be a 

 shortage somewhere, on the table or in the purse, and probably 

 with both. There is nothing that I know of that brings as large 

 returns per acre as strawberries if planted on suitable soil and given 

 proper care and cultivation, provided proper varieties are select- 

 ed. Any ground that will produce a good crop of corn or potatoes 

 will produce a good crop of strawberries. 



Considerable care should be used in setting out a strawberry 

 bed, for if the plants are set too deep the crown will rot or make a 

 feeble growth and if too high the upper roots will be exposed and 

 die. The plants should not be taken from an exhausted bed ; 

 fhey should be in a healthy and thrifty condition. Before planting 

 all the old runners and unnecessarv leaves should be removed. 



Mr. Yahnke's raspberry field in summer. 



When sufficient hands can be employed it is best to have some pre- 

 pare the plants while others do the planting. Great care should be 

 taken that the fine roots are not exposed fo the sun or wind. The 

 best way to protect them, I find, is to dip the roots into mud, put 

 the plant's into baskets or boxes and therein taken to the field. 



We find a line the best guide to set strawberry plants by, be- 

 cause it leaves the plants level with the ground, and therefore 

 they are not as likelv to be washed under during a heavv rain as 



