BERRY CULTURE FROM EXPERIENCE. 293 



BERRY CULTURE FROM EXPERIENCE. 



E. F. PECK, AUSTIN. 

 (Southern Minnesota Horticultural Society.) 



In presenting- this article for your consideration, I make no apol- 

 ogy for going- into details, for the beginner can not possibly know- 

 too much about his new enterprise, and the old grower eagerly 

 grasps everything relating to his specialty in the hope of gaining 

 fresh and, perhaps, valuable information. He wants to know how 

 the other fellow manages. The "know horr" makes the difference 

 between success and failure in any enterprise, and no one knows 

 this better than the man who goes into the culture of small fruit for 

 all there is in it. 



Strawberries.— In taking up the subject of strawberries I will, 

 in as small a space as possible, give my method of raising this best 

 of all small fruits. I say best of all, and I say it advisedly, for a bet- 

 ter man than I, and a wiser one, has said: "When God made the 

 garden of Eden he decorated it with the best of all small fruits, the 

 strawberry, and man and his helpmeet have improved and cultiva- 

 ted it from then until the present time." 



I shall not in this article give my opinion in regard to what may 

 seem the one essential, the particular qualification of soil necessary 

 to the production of a large crop of strawberries, for the reason that 

 I do not wish to discourage any one from making a start whose in- 

 clination may lead in that direction. I am sure that there is no soil 

 upon which a good crop of corn or potatoes can be raised, where 

 some variety of strawberry will not do equally well. I will go still 

 further and say that, in my opinion, the kind of soil has no more to 

 do with success on the farm or in the garden than the kind of man 

 that manipulates the soil. Any land that is worth paying taxes on, 

 with the proper amount of brain and muscle judiciously mixed will 

 produce paying crops of strawberries, provided always climatic con- 

 ditions are favorable. If you are not the right kind of a man, thor- 

 oughly in love with your work and bound to do your whole part in 

 assisting nature, as the Irishman said, ''The best time to quit is just 

 before you commence." 



If it should happen that a kind Providence has placed you in pos- 

 session of a location and soil well adapted to the particular variety 

 you choose to plant, with scarcely any effort or exertion or expense 

 on your part good results may come to you the first year. But my 

 friend, let me tell you that after this experience you will have to take 

 off your coat and go to work, or nature will see to it that it don't occur 

 again on the same piece of ground. 



Now, then, while too much stress cannot be laid on the early set- 

 ting of s^roog-, vigorous, well-rooted plants and their subsequent 

 cultivation, I must say right here that the profits of a strawberry 

 plantation will be very largely governed by the thorough prepara- 

 tion of the soil previous to planting. 



After selecting a location,if possible, above the frost line, fitting the 

 ground with me is done as follows: Spread manure in the fall, winter 

 and early spring on ground that has been fall plowed; surface plow 

 not more than four inches deep; harrow to pulverize remaining 



