GROWING FANCY MARSHALL STRAWBERRIES. 



lily of the valley, phlox, peony, lily, 

 tulip, gladiolus, etc. 



Annuals also should be cultivated, if 

 we would have a succession of bloom 

 throughout the season. We depend on 

 them for fall flowers. The seed should 

 be sown in the hotbed, or in boxes 

 placed in the wmdow in early spring. 

 As soon as there is no danger from late 

 frosts, they are transplanted into beds 

 on a rainy day. The soil should be 

 clean of weeds, well and deeply worked 

 and rich. All the plants of one kind 

 should be massed together to secure the 

 best effect. Experience will tell us how 

 far apart the young plants should stand. 

 The larger kinds such as stocks, asters, 

 verbenas and petunias should be about 

 one foot apart, while phlox, pansies, etc., 

 may be put at six inches in distance. 



The pansy does best in a partial shade. 

 After the first year's purchase of seed, 

 you will not need to spend much, as 

 you can save seed that will produce 

 almost as good flowers as their parents. 

 I generally buy new seed every year as 

 it does not cost much, the bloom is 

 better, and it takes some time and 

 trouble to save the seed. There is 

 another item in outside home adorn- 

 ment that I must refer to, viz , paint. 



The fences and outside woodwork, 

 such as cornice, windows and doors are 

 often allowed to go unpainted until their 

 original hue is almost gone. They be- 

 come unsightly and rotten. It pays as 

 well as improves the appearance to re- 

 paint oftener. All I have aimed to do 

 is merely suggestive and elementary. 



GROWING FANCY MARSHALL STRAWBERRIES, 



Cy\ ns^HE berries were grown by the 

 ordinary matted-row system. 

 After taking out plants for re 

 setting, we left a row about lo 

 inches wide, and mulched this well with 

 marsh hay. Last year, we bedded in 

 runners and mulched in the spring. 

 This year, we are using the narrow-row 

 system. We set plants with a spade, 

 and cut the roots to about three inches 

 in length. A man uses the spade, and 

 a boy follows with a basket of plants, 

 and puts each plant in back of the spade, 

 spreading the roots fan-shaped. We use 

 a small handful (about 400 pounds lo 

 the acre) of commercial fertilizer costing 

 about $38 to $40 per ton, about ten days 

 after the plants are set. We use a tool 

 made by ourselves especially for putting 

 on the fertilizer. It consists of a long 

 tube and two funnels, one within the 

 other. The inner funnel sets over the 

 plant, and when the fertilizer is dropped 



through the tube, it falls in a rim around 

 the plant, and none of it touches the 

 foliage. In the Fall, we use 500 pounds 

 of ground bone, and 250 pounds of sul- 

 phate of potash to the acre. We don't 

 use muriate ; it will burn them. 



After the plants are set, we use a 

 garden rake about them to stir the soil, 

 and Breed's weeder till July ist. I set 

 berries this year 2^x3 feet apart. I 

 use a marker made of flexible board, 

 with shoes underneath. If the surface 

 is uneven, the thin ash board will bend 

 and reach every depression. I set plants 

 at the intersections of the marks, keep 

 off all runners till the middle of July, 

 and cultivate both ways till the runners 

 are rooted. I allow four runners to root 

 from each parent plant, and place them 

 at regular intervals between the old 

 plants. It costs about $10 to keep the 

 runners off, and I think that it pays well. 

 I put on nearly four tons of straw to the 



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