jo Strawberry Culture 



Mulching 



However widely growers may differ in regard to the manage- 

 ment of bearing beds in the spring, it is generally conceded 

 that a mulch is a necessity during the fruiting season. It pre- 

 vents the escape of moisture at the time it is most needed; it 

 keeps the fruit clean ; it helps to prevent the growth of weeds; and 

 it keeps the ground cool. It is to the bearing bed about what 

 cultivation is to the new bed that is being grown for the next 

 season. What is best to use for this mulch must be decided by 

 each grower for himself. StravV is the most common material, 

 and is generally obtainable. I have seen cornstalks, swamp hay, 

 tanbark, lawn clippings and other things used. Sometimes the 

 winter covering is left on the bed to serve as a mulch. Shall 

 the mulch be applied early or late ? If put on too early, it 

 keeps the ground cool, retards growth, makes the crop late in 

 ripening, and causes a late frost to be much more injurious than 

 it would otherwise be. The mulch prevents the warming of the 

 soil, and when a frost comes there is no warmth coming up from 

 below to keep it off. Removing the winter covering early and 

 leaving the surface unbroken hastens the warming of the soil 

 and promotes growth. When the first berries are half grown, 

 the weeds may be shaved off and the mulch put on. Leaving 

 the surface unbroken during April allows an immense waste of 

 moisture, but this may be offset by the earliness of the crop. 



Treatment of Old Beds 



The strawberry is a perennial and under favorable conditions 

 it will bear year after year. Some varieties bear more the sec- 

 ond year than they do the first. And yet it has become quite 



