1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



721 



ing-tubes tbis fall or in the spring ; but I 

 don't exactly know how to manage it as it is, 

 without a great amount of hand- weeding. 

 ( <an anybody help meV 



If you are going to see how far you can 

 increase one strawberry, or perhaps half a 

 dozen, it will pay you to commence with 

 some of the high-priced new varieties ; and 

 we suggest the Jessie, Bubach, Haverland, 

 or the new Miami. The latter has recently 

 been brought out by one of the bee-friends. 

 See advertisement in this issue. 



You can get a large amount of fruit by 

 letting plants st tnd without any transplant- 

 ing at all; fortius is exactly what they do 

 in the matted-row system. But it is disor- 

 derly, and very apt to be weedy. There is 

 not nearly room enough, especially if you 

 want large-sized berries. I will tell you 

 how we manage to get our large berries. In 

 fact, this 28th day of August (although right 

 in the midst of a tremendous hot dry spell) 

 we are putting out our plants. The ground 

 is where we grew Ford's Early sweet corn. 

 Just as soon as the last ears were picked, 

 the stalks were cut down and taken off the 

 ground ; then we covered it with the best 

 stable manure we could get, until we had 

 on as much as could well be plowed under ; 

 in fact, a boy followed the plow with a stick 

 in his hand, to push the manure out of the 

 way whenever it piled up in front of the 

 coulter. After plowing, it was harrowed 

 first with the Acme, then with the disk har- 

 row, and then rolled down level with the 

 roller. Then we spread on another coat of 

 very line manure with the manure-spreader. 

 This fine manure was " harrowed in " with 

 the grain-drill, while we sowed 500 lbs. per 

 acre of Mapes' ll Complete " fertilizer. Per- 

 haps you think this is a tremendous manur- 

 ing ; but 1 tell you, friends, when you are 

 fixing ground for strawberries, there is a 

 chance for getting your money back, even 

 if you do " manure tremendously." 



Now, then, we are ready to fix the ground 

 for plants. Our ground is heavy clay ; but 

 we get more and larger berries on our heavy 

 clay than we do on the creek-bottom land. 

 The creek bottom is the place for nice 

 plants with great bushy roots ; but the clay 

 hills are the place for fruit. Of course, the 

 ground is underdrained. But this is not 

 enough. We have suffered so much from 

 wet that we plow our ground into pretty 

 high furrows, a great deal as people fix it 

 for sweet potatoes, and plant our berry- 

 plants on the top of the furrows. Of course, 

 for strawberries the furrows are flattened 

 on top. With our disk marker we go over 

 the ground and furrow it until it looks ex- 

 actly like the cut below. 



A 



FIXING THE GROUND FOR STRAWBERRIES ON 

 CLAY LAND. 



Our disk furrower makes the bottom of 

 the furrow concave or trough-shaped, as we 

 see at A. Now, while we mark it for straw- 

 berries we fasten a piece of board between 

 the disks so as to make a small furrow at 

 the top of the ridge, just as you see it at B. 

 This morning, we, by means of hose and 

 several lengths of iron pipe, carried water 



from the hydrant right over to the straw- 

 berry ground. As the ground was baked 

 hard, and dry, the water was first turned 

 on the plants that were to be taken up. 

 When it was wet enough, our transferring- 

 tubes were pushed down over every good 

 strong plant. They were then placed on a 

 wheelbarrow and carried to the new ground. 

 Now they are set just about a foot apart in 

 this shallow trench B. While they stand 

 here, before the tins are taken off, run a 

 Planet wheel-hoe so as to throw the sharp 

 ridges of dirt each side of 15, up against the 

 transplanting - tubes. Now a boy comes 

 along with a watering-pot and tills the tubes 

 with water, as I have explained. When the 

 contents of the tubes become soft, like mud, 

 they are shaken a little, and the tins are 

 withdrawn ; then we go after another load 

 of plants. The tine earth thrown up by the 

 wheel-hoe settles around the plants so as to 

 protect the wet ground from baking under 

 the influence of the hot August sun. With 

 three or four hands that are used to it, the 

 work goes on so rapidly that we do not find 

 it expensive ; and in several thousand 

 plants, scarcely one dies. In our plot, set a 

 year ago in just this way, the losses were so 

 few that we never went over it again to re- 

 place them ; and the crop of Jessies in June 

 abundantly paid all expenses. But a better 

 crop is to come next spring. The cultiva- 

 tion is very simple. Whenever they get 

 just a little weedy, this same disk marker is 

 again drawn through the field, the horses 

 walking in the paths A, and the disk scrap- 

 ing the ground perfectly clean and smooth, 

 at the same time throwing a little hue earth 

 around the plants. All the rest of the work 

 is a little hand-weeding along the narrow 

 ridge where the plants stand, and cutting 

 off the runners as fast as they appear. Now, 

 I think that this matter of watching for 

 runners, and pinching them off, is just the 

 nicest work in the world ; but I can not find 

 a man or boy that seems to like it ; in fact, 

 the greater part of them will say it is all 

 done, when I can see runners starting out 

 here and there all over the patch. It is be- 

 cause they do not love the work as I do. The 

 sight of a runner indicates that the plant 

 is getting hold of the manure and " feeling 

 its oats," as we used to say of a spirited 

 horse. At this stage, pinching off the run- 

 ner is laying the foundation for those great 

 berries that look like peaches in size, and 

 are away ahead of them in flavor. Why, I 

 just wonder that the whole world does not 

 grow happy and healthy in raising berries. 

 Some of you have thought friend Terry a 

 little extravagant in recommending straw- 

 berries instead of patent medicines. Now, 

 look here, friends : I have been in very poor 

 health ; in fact, they had to turn me out 

 —not to "grass," but to gardening and 

 berry-raising, to save my life. I am now 

 exceedingly strong and well, and can work 

 out in the hot sun from daylight till dark, 

 and just laugh. Several have criticised 

 friend Terry because he spoke about eating 

 a quart of strawberries at a meal. Why, you 

 are beside yourselves. I not only eat a quart 

 of strawberries at a meal, but ever so many 

 more, between meals. When I get tired and 



