4. Wilt disease. 



5. Frost damage. 



Strawberry growing demands a lot of 

 low cost labor, too, an important item 

 if you have a substantial acreage. 



When the berries are ripe the pickers 

 start work at 4:30 A. M., or as soon as 

 they can see, while the fruit is cool 

 and moist. After nine o'clock the qual- 

 ity depreciates. The berries must be 

 packed and delivered to the loading 

 shed at once. The crop is highly perish- 

 able. Berries picked in Edgar county 

 Thursday morning invariably are on 

 sale in the stores of Chicago, Rockford, 

 Milwaukee, Peoria, and other cities Fri- 

 day morning. The fruit is picked ripe. 



Strawberries are grown in cultivated 

 rows four feet apart. The plants thrive 

 in a well-drained clay or silt soil that 

 is not too rich. A soil slightly sandy, 

 surh as you find in the Michigan berry 

 region, also produces good fruit. The 

 standard method of production in Ed- 

 gar county is to set out the plants in 

 April about two feet apart in the row. 

 It takes 4,000 to 6,000 plants per acre, 

 costing $2.75 to $3.50 per 1,000. Ex- 

 perienced growers cultivate to keep 

 down the weeds, and mulch with straw 

 after the first frost in the fall. The 

 vines start bearing the following spring 

 and usually produce their best crop the 

 first year. 



Farmers say it costs from $75 to $125 

 an acre to buy the plants, prepare the 

 ground, kill weeds, cultivate, mulch 

 and get the vines up to bearing age. 

 Well-tended patches are hoed often and 

 the weeds pulled by hand. Growers 

 who specialize in strawberries but do 

 little other farming, such as J. O. 

 Wood of Vermilion, ordinarily have 

 higher-yielding patches comparatively 

 free from weeds. But this care is ex- 

 pensive and it's a question whether it 

 pays every year. Farmers who grow a 

 patch of berries as a sideline along 

 with dairying, wheat raising, cattle 

 feeding, corn and soybeans, have less 

 time for cultivation and usually get 

 lower production as a result. 



The Edgar County Growers Asso- 

 ciation, set up by the Farm Bureau and 



GOVERNMENT INSPECTORS 

 "Determine the grade." 



lAA, handles 40 to 50 per cent of the 

 500 acres of berries produced in the 

 county. The Illinois Fruit Growers 

 Exchange does the selling, but more 

 about that later. Most of the growers 

 are Farm Bureau members. Chester 

 Boland, secretary of the Association, is 

 one of the larger growers. He has 

 several patches totaling 15 acres. This 

 year Boland estimated that his straw- 

 berries would yield about 150 cases per 

 acre. Had the rain come a week or two 

 earlier, he said, the crop would have 

 been substantially heavier and of better 

 quality. 



On Decoration Day, Chester had 157 



fickers out in the patches working 

 rom 4:15 to 9:00 A.M. They har- 

 vested 171 cases of 24 quarts each. The 

 next day a smaller number picked 82 

 cases. A good yield is 200 cases an acre 

 although in exceptional years some 

 growers will get 300 cases. Last year, 

 Edgar county strawberries yielded only 

 about 60 cases an acre, which is approx- 



imately the state average for good and 

 bad years. Late frosts cut the crop 

 nearly 75 per cent in 1938 but prices 

 were good ranging from $3.25 to $4.25 

 a case with an average of $3. 56 on the 

 Boland farm. 



Ben Reel harvested eight acres of 

 berries this year, mostly Premiers and 

 Blakemores. These two varieties pre- 

 dominate because they are heavy yield- 

 ers and ship well. They do not com- 

 pare favorably in tastiness with Dun- 

 lap, Klondike and others, but they are 

 a better commercial variety. 



Wilt is one of the strawberry grow- 

 er's worst enemies. Reel had a two 

 acre patch practically destroyed this 

 year. Other growers have suffered as 

 much. How does wilt affect the plants? 

 "It's just like you poured hot water 

 over them," said Ben. The leaves, 

 stems, roots and berries turn brown . 

 and shrivel up. The disease works fast. 

 No means of controlling it has been 

 discovered except to plant disease-free 

 varieties. Despite these obstacles Ben 

 Reel is enthusiastic about his strawberry 

 patches. He says that growers occasion- 

 ally will net $200.00 an acre when 

 prices and yield are both good. 



The University of Illinois experi- 

 ment station has been working with 

 the growers to control wilt. Prof. Kel- 

 ley of the horticultural extension staff 

 and V. A. Ekstrom of the state experi- 

 ment station were visiting the growers 

 and loading sheds during the harvest 

 to secure information on yield, wilt, 

 acreage, prices and marketing methods. 

 A variety known as Pathfinder has been 

 developed that is strongly resistant to 

 the disease. Hundreds of acres of Path- 

 finder plants were set out this spring, 

 in fact, estimates indicate approximate- 

 ly 1,000 acres of new plantings in and 

 adjoining Edgar county, a substantial 

 increase over the acreage heretofore 

 harvested. 



The strawberry harvest is a colorful 

 affair and an interesting sight to a new- 

 comer. It demands the time of all mem- 

 bers of the family. A standard method ■ 

 of harvest is to put a "row boss" in [ 



(Continued on page 10) 



A RACK LOAD OF BERRIES 

 from a distant field bound for the 

 packing shed. 



PROF. VICTOR W. KELLEY 

 of the state college horti- 

 cultural staff. 



BEN REEL 

 "Occasionally $200 

 acre not." 



NEW LOADING SHED 



IN PARIS 

 Where the trucks take off 

 for market. 



■^ ■., 



rMNriJffMW^K} 



