3262 



STRAWBERRY 



STRAWBERRY 



times loose strawy manure is used, and the mulch adds 

 fertilizer to the soil as well as affords protection. Corn 

 fodder, leaves, brakes, seaweed, evergreen boughs, and 

 other wild herbage are used occasionally. Cowpeas and 

 sorghum are grown for mulching material when straw 

 is scarce. The practice of growing oats, barley, or some 



3718. Sexes of strawberry flowers: at the left a perfect flower; at the 

 right a pistillate flower; in the middle, stamens few. 



other small grain between the rows of strawberries, to 

 fall down and mulch the berries, is not generally 

 advisable. Under ordinary conditions the mulch is 3 or 

 4 inches deep over the plants after it is fairly well 

 packed down. It is not always possible, however, to 

 mulch as heavily as this, since the material is likely to 

 be expensive when one has a large area. The mulch 

 is usually applied late in the fall after the ground has 

 frozen, and, if the material is abundant, both the plants 

 and the intervening spaces are coverea. In the spring 

 the mulch is raked from the plants as soon as they 

 begin to start. Some persons allow it to lie between 

 the rows as a cover to retain moisture and to keep the 

 berries clean. The most expert growers, however, 

 prefer to take the mulch from the field and to till the 

 plantation once or twice before the plants are in bloom ; 

 the material is then returned and spread on the loose 

 soil between the rows and beneath the vines. In the 

 northern prairie states, heavy mulching is essential. 

 For western Minnesota and Dakota a covering of at 

 least 6 inches of straw is advised. This mulch is easily 

 provided, since straw is so abundant in that country 

 that it is often burned as the readiest means of getting 

 rid of it. When not mulched in that region, the plants 

 are likely to be killed outright or to start with a very 

 weak growth. Mulching for winter protection is not 

 necessary south of Virginia and Missouri, but mulching 

 to keep the fruit clean is as profitable in the South as 

 in the North. The fruiting mulch is applied after the 



Giants begin to bloom. Pine "straw" is used most. A 

 irge handful is dropped upon each plant; the leaves 

 soon push through. Rarely is it desirable to cover the 

 entire area between the rows. On the Pacific coast, 

 strawberries are not mulched, as it is not necessary for 

 winter protection, and it would interfere with irrigation. 

 Strawberry flowers may be either perfect or imperfect, 

 and the nature of the flower 

 is characteristic of the vari- 

 ety. In some kinds, the 

 flower is perfect or hermaph- 

 rodite (having both stamens 

 and pistils) and is conse- 

 quently self -fertile. These are 

 commonly called staminate 

 varieties. In others it is pistil- 

 late, producing little or no 

 pollen, and requiring a pollen- 

 bearing variety to pollinate 

 it. (Fig. 3718.) There are 

 3719. Strawberry nubbin, no modern varieties bearing 



only staminate or sterile flowers, although such forms 

 were common abcut 1840. The perfect-flowered varie- 

 ties differ greatly in the amount of pollen they produce. 

 Some, as the Crescent and Glen Mary, bear so few 

 stamens that they are practically pistillate or sterile. 

 Any variety will fertilize any other variety if it bears 

 sufficient pollen and if the two kinds bloom at 

 the same time. The variety used as a pollinizer 

 does not affect the shape, color, and quality of 

 the fruit of the pistillate sort, as was once 

 thought. It is preferable to plant an early- 

 blooming pollinizer on one side of the rows of 

 the pistillate sort, and a late-blooming polli- 

 nizer on the other side. When planting pistil- 

 late varieties, every third row should be a 

 pollen-bearing kind. Pistillate varieties as a 

 class are somewhat more productive and hardy 

 than staminate varieties as a class; but this 

 fact has little weight, since some staminate 

 sorts are fully as prolific and hardy as the 

 best pistillate varieties. It is an inconvenience 

 to be obliged to mix varieties for pollination; 

 hence pistillate varieties are steadily declining 

 in popularity. In time, all North American 

 varieties will be staminate, as is now the 

 case in England. The horticultural bearing of 

 the sexual characters of the strawberry flower was first 

 clearly explained in this country by Nicholas Long- 

 worth, of Cincinnati (see page 1585; also his essay on 

 the subject in his "Cultivation of the Grape," 1846, and 

 the "Strawberry Report" of the Cincinnati Horti- 

 cultural Society, 1848). When many of the achenes or 

 "seeds" of the strawberry are not fertilized or are killed 

 by frost or other means, the berry fails to develop at 

 that point and a "nubbin," or imperfect berry, is the 

 result (Fig. 3719). Nubbins are usually most abundant 

 late in the fruiting-season, when the pollen-supply is 

 small and when the plants are relatively exhausted. 



Ordinarily the common varieties bear but once a 

 year, in the spring. Under certain conditions of tem- 

 perature and moisture they may become "double 

 croppers," and give a fall crop, also. In the South, 

 particularly in southern California, the bearing season 

 may be extended over several months; but no varieties 

 were consistently everbearing in the North until 1898, 

 when Samuel Cooper, of Deleyan, New York, found the 

 Pan-American in a row of Bismarck. European ever- 

 bearers, which are hybrids of the common strawberry 

 and the Alpine, do not succeed here. The numerous 

 descendants of the Pan- American are true everbearers; 

 they yield a small quantity of berries throughout the 

 season from spring-set plants. It is better, however, 

 to cut off all blossoms until midsummer; then there 

 will be considerable fruit from August until frost, but 

 not so much as a good crop from a spring-bearing 

 variety. The culture of the everbearers does not differ 

 materially from that of other sorts, save in the cutting 

 of the blossoms weekly, which is a heavy expense. They 

 require rich soil and an equable supply of moisture; 

 they fail in a dry season. The market for berries in 

 late summer and fall is limited, and the cost of picking 

 is heavy. The following spring, a year from the time 

 they were set, the everbearers produce a good crop, 

 perhaps equaling that of single-bearing sorts. This is 

 one point in which the North American everbearers 

 are distinctly superior to those of Europe. The ever- 

 bearers have little commercial future merely for supply- 

 ing summer and fall berries, but their habit of bearing 

 a heavy spring crop, also, may make them useful to 

 some growers who cater to personal or near markets. 

 They are not likely to find favor with those who grow 

 strawberries for the wholesale market. The everbearers 

 are valuable mainly for the home-garden. 



The cost of growing an acre of strawberries under 

 commercial conditions in Oswego County, New York, is 

 approximately as follows: 



