30 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



STRAWBERRIES FOR PROFIT. 

 II. W. CoLEiNGWooD, New York. 



I am going to tell you how they raise strawberries in New 

 Jersey. In the first place we want a strawberry in New Jersey 

 that is a great, big, firm berry. In our markets you will find the 

 market fairly fiooded with little berries, fairly well colored but 

 too small. When the crop is rushing in from all parts of the 

 country you will find that these little berries can hardly be given 

 away, but when we send our great big, firm, solid berries they 

 are sold before they get there. If a strawberry grower is going 

 to spend his time, if he is going to buy fertilizer, if he is going 

 to put labor on his land, the first principle of crop raising would 

 be to raise these great, big, firm berries. You can do it. We do. 



Our best berries are produced on heavy land. We think we 

 can raise the largest, finest and firmest berries on our heaviest 

 soil. I don't mean dowr in the swamp ; the soil I mean would 

 be a clay loam, containing a fair proportion of clay. The ground 

 is dark in color, that gives us our best strawberries. I don't 

 believe in growing the strawberry plant on the same kind of soil 

 on which we try to grow the strawberry fruit. I mean this, if 

 I could have my choice I v/ould have my strawberry plant grown 

 on the poorest soil on the farm, for there we get a larger and 

 wider root growth. I would set these plants in heavy soil. To 

 illustrate : If I wanted a boy or young man to come to the city 

 of New York or some other large city to take hold of a great 

 business and get the most out of it in a few years, I would go 

 into the country among the hills and get a boy brought up among 

 hard conditions. I should expect that when put into the city 

 the health and strength from his country training would enable 

 him to do extra work. 



I have spent some time in digging up strawberry plants to 

 examine their roots. I think it would do us more good if we 

 would not be satisfied with studying that part of the plant that 

 stands up from the ground. You will have to admit that the 

 most important part of the plant is underneath the ground, for 

 that is where it eats. Most people start out with the idea that 

 the roots of the strawberry plant run out all over the ground. 



