274: THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



fectly straight and regular, as it will save much hard work in 

 cultivating them. Remove all blossom buds from the newly set 

 plants as fast as they appear, as the plant will not have vigor 

 enough to produce a crop of fruit and a healthy, vigorous growth 

 at the same time, and as the fruit will at best be inferior in 

 quality, it is better to allow the plant to get all the strength, 

 rather than divert a part of it to the fruit. 



I would not advise any one who must buy plants from a 

 distance to set out strawberries largely. It will be better to defer 

 the general planting a year, and grow your own plants. 



Be sure you obtain plants true to name from some reliable 

 nurseryman. I think more farmers have made a failure from 

 getting plants of some worthless variety than from any other 

 cause. Because they can get them for the digging, farmers will 

 sometimes go to an old, run-out bed, and dig spindling, weak 

 plants of perhaps several varieties mixed, and because they do 

 not succeed in growing a crop, they conclude there is some 

 mystery about strawberry growing. 



The next point necessary to success is winter protection. 

 This is necessary, not to keep the plants from freezing, but from 

 the alternations of freezing and thawing. Whatever material is 

 used should be prepared beforehand, but is better applied after 

 the ground has frozen. When the plants are kept in hills, less 

 material will protect them. Be sure that there is no seed of 

 any kind in your mulch ; old, half-rotted straw, the bagasse from 

 the sorgo mill, leaves, second crop hay, or any waste material 

 will answer. 



If you want the very best results, work thoroughly in the 

 spring as soon as the soil is in good condition, and then mulch 

 so as to keep the land moist. A very small bed treated in this 

 way will furnish a liberal family supply of the finest fruit. I 

 have known sixty quarts gathered from a square rod, and much 

 larger crops are often grown. E. P. Roe, who is a very suc- 

 cessful strawberry grower, recommends this plan of high ma- 

 nuring and cutting off runners, and calls it " Stimulation and 

 Restriction," and claims that we need not fear too much stimu- 

 lation by manuring and deep and thorough culture, if we prac- 



