STRAWBERRY 



3267 



ing without irrigation results either in failure or only 

 partial satisfaction and the venture is seldom to be com- 

 mended. It is usually so easy, however, to secure the 

 small amount of water necessary for home production, 

 and the plant when fairly treated is so highly produc- 



3725. Shuster (Gemj strawberry. ( X }^) 



tive, that a general exhortation to strawberry-growing 

 on an irrigation basis is fully warranted. 



There are several species of strawberries indigenous 

 to California, and they are of both littoral and alpine 

 types. Albert F. Etter, of Ettersburg, Humboldt 

 County, California, has worked continuously with these 

 species for more than twenty-five years, by selecting 

 seedlings, and by crossing the species among themselves 

 and with the leading cultivated varieties. He has 

 established an Ettersburg group of new varieties, which 

 for vigorous growth of plant, resistance of drought and 

 true everbearing habit are very notable. Some of them 

 have strictly evergreen .foliage under California con- 

 ditions. For abundant fruiting and for firmness of 

 fruit, some of these varieties have shipping and canning 

 characters new to the strawberry. Etter describes his 

 work in detail in the Pacific Rural Press of San Fran- 

 cisco for March 4, 18, and April 1, 1916. 



The varieties chiefly grown in California are different 

 from those popular at the East. New varieties from 

 the eastern states and from Europe are freely tried, but 

 few are successful and they retain local popularity 

 after abandonment in their birthplaces. A striking 

 instance of this fact is the continued popularity of 

 Lpngworth Prolific, Sharpless, Monarch of the West, 

 Wilson, Albany, and the like. Longworth has survived 

 more than fifty years' continued growing. Other pop- 

 ular varieties are Melinda, Jessie, Dollar, Brandywine, 

 Marshall, and Lady Thompson. Brandywine (Fig. 

 3730) is the most widely approved variety in the state 

 and is standard in southern California, Excelsior and 

 Klondyke standing next in popularity as early varieties, 



and Americus and 

 Iowa as autumn- 

 fruiting varieties. In 

 the central regions of 

 the state, the Dollar 

 and Marshall lead 

 among the newer 

 kinds and the Ban- 

 ner is exclusively 

 grown by some pro- 

 ducers for the San 

 Francisco market. 

 Jessie and Dollar are 



shipment to interior states and to the northern coast 

 before the local fruit ripens. 



The growth of strawberries is almost wholly in 

 matted rows, the rows usually occupying low ridges only 

 sufficiently elevated to allow the slightly depressed 

 intervals to serve as irrigation ditches and as walks dur- 

 ing picking. The slight elevation of the plants also 

 assists in surface drainage, when heavy rains fall during 

 the early part of the fruiting-season, and this promotes 

 early growth and fruiting of the plants. Where the soil 

 is too coarse to permit free rise of water from the 

 depressed ditches, the conditions are reversed and low 

 levees are made to inclose blocks of plants which are 

 irrigated by flooding the inclosures. In the chief com- 

 mercial regions a fine loam is used and irrigation from 

 the small ditches on both sides of the ridges, which are 

 about 2 feet wide, is the ruling method. Nearly level 

 land is selected and grading is done before planting to 

 reduce dry knolls and fill low places so that the water 

 will flow slowly and will evenly moisten the whole field. 

 Subirrigation by tile has been often advocated but 

 never has been employed to any extent. 



One of the chief strawberry-shipping districts in 

 central California is characterized by a shallow loam 

 underlaid by an impervious indurated clay or hardpan, 

 which prevents the percolation of the irrigation water 

 and enables growers to maintain a large acreage by 

 means of the small water-supply secured by windmills. 

 In this case water is applied very frequently, even 

 oftener than once a week in some cases, but the total 

 amount for the season is small. Quite in contrast to 

 this is the growth on light deep loams where water 

 sinks so rapidly that the plants suffer, although water 

 is almost constantly running in the ditches. In such 

 cases mulching and sprinkling are the price of success, 

 and these are too costly except on a small scale for 



3726. Leaf-blight of strawberry. 



207 



largely grown for 



3727. Fancy packing of strawberries, each quart wrapped 

 in paper; a picking-stand on the left. 



home supply. The largest producing districts have 

 soils midway between the extremes above noted, viz., 

 deep retentive loams, situated rather low in the valleys 

 and with irrigation available either by ditch system or 

 by wells both flowing and pumped. The pump wells re- 

 quire usually only a short lift, and abundant water is 

 secured cheaply by the use of modern pumps and 

 motors. 



In addition to supplying the home markets, which are 

 very good, California strawberry-growers find a good 

 outlet for the fruit all through the region west of the 

 Missouri River. Southern California supplies the south- 

 ern portion of this district, while the growers in central 

 California, chiefly near Florin in Sacramento County, 

 make large shipments eastward as far as Colorado and 

 northward to all the great interior states and to Oregon, 



