34 state: POMOLOGICAI, SOCIETY. 



And how these plants grow. We set them in drills about 

 three feet apart and about eighteen inches apart in the drills, 

 and then we begin to cultivate them. And we cultivate 

 them if we have to neglect every other crop on the place. 

 Why? Because the strawberry is a plant that must have 

 this petting and constant care. It has got to be petted; it has 

 to have every want supplied. If we set them out we must take 

 care of them and push them along. Along about the first of 

 September T would give them another dose of six or seven hun- 

 dred pounds of the same fertilizer. You may think I am extrav- 

 agant in using one ton to an acre of strawberries but as I have 

 said, "you may have less chicken but you will have more darkey." 

 You cannot raise these great strawberries unless 3^ou feed the 

 strawberry plant. You must put the food right exactly where 

 that plant needs its food. 



Mr. J. H. Hale of Connecticut says this : "Put on all you dare 

 to, then tell the hired man to shut his eyes and put on more, and 

 then tell your neighbor who wants to see you ruined to put on 

 more." 



Why don't I wait till spring and put my fertilizer on then ? I 

 will tell you why. I believe that the fruit buds of the strawberry 

 plant are already made and started before the plant goes into 

 winter quarters. Right now the fruit is already, provided for. 

 You can make the strawberry a little larger by applying nitrate 

 of soda in the spring, but the fruit buds were made during the 

 months of August, September and October. It is then that the 

 fruit buds arc developed, I believe the time to fertilize the straw- 

 berry is then, when the buds are being produced. Scientists tell 

 us that with some fruits the bud is made and matured a whole 

 year before it is developed, and you can change your fruit but a 

 little, possibly in shape, possibly in color, by spring fertilizing. 

 The time to put your fertilizer on is during the summer and fall. 

 I would no(- use anything but possibly nitrate of soda in the 

 spring. Never use potash or phosphoric acid at that time. Two 

 or three hundred pounds of nitrate of soda used in the spring 

 will give you more foliage and a little larger berry, but if you 

 use too much it will ruin your fruit by making it soft and mushy. 

 The time to fertilize the strawberry is when the plants are set 

 out. If they look drooping and you are not exactly proud of 

 them, put on a little more about the first week in September and 



