118 Strawberry-Growing 



practice is discouraged, as it is likely to make the 

 berries sandy. 



The chief advantages of the crab-grass mulch are that 

 it is cheap and that it promotes early ripening. On the 

 other hand, it is dangerous. If tillage is stopped too soon, 

 the grass may smother the strawberry plants; if too 

 late, there will not be enough grass to make an effective 

 mulch. In wet seasons the plan works quite well; in 

 dry seasons there is not enough moisture for both straw- 

 berries and grass, and the result is a light crop the follow- 

 ing spring. The land is kept filled with weed seeds, 

 which plague the grower the next year. The Maryland 

 Experiment Station has compared a plot which received 

 no late summer cultivation and hence was filled with 

 crab-grass, with a plot cultivated until late fall and then 

 mulched with wheat straw ; also with a check plot which 

 was cultivated until late fall, but not mulched.^ The 

 berries on the crab-grass plot ripened a week earlier than 

 on either of the other plots, but yielded 708 quarts less 

 an acre than the check plot and 3713 quarts an acre less 

 than the plot mulched with wheat straw. It is probable 

 that on the lighter soils of the South, when extreme earli- 

 ness is desired, a crab-grass mulch will continue to find 

 favor; but the drift is constantly away from such un- 

 predictable methods towards cleaner culture and the 

 greater certainty of a hand-placed mulch. 



USE OF THE WINTER MULCH 



For many years northern growers waited until the 

 ground was frozen hard enough to hold up a wagon before 

 spreading the winter mulch. This is not advisable, since 



1 Bui. 124. Md. Exp. Sta. (1907). 



