218 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 



month of having the strawberries on the ground two years. Of 

 course, I do not know what the crop before us is going to be. * 



THE EARUEST STRAWBERRY. 

 From Gleanings in Bee Culture, June /, 1899. 



To-day, May 30, we are making about our first picking in 

 the open field; and the Earliest, as before, stands a good way 

 ahead of any thing else. On our grounds we find it even ahead 

 of Darling; but the originator thinks Darling is a little the earli- 

 er of the two. I am surprised this season to find the Earliest 

 bearing good -sized berries, and they are growing in a thick mat- 

 ted row at that. It does not give as many berries as the later 

 ones, and they are pretty strongly acid in flavor, and perhaps 

 rather soft to handle. But they give us quite a lot of berries 

 two or three days before any thing else. L/ast year the Rio crowd- 

 ed close on the Earliest ; but this year they are more behind. 

 Now, another thing must be taken into consideration: Rich soil 

 and close planting makes berries later. Right alongside our 

 row of Earliest are some Warfields. On good ground none of 

 the Warfields are ripe; but on a little piece of yellow ground 

 where the top soil had been removed, the ground is so poor that 

 the plants are scattering, and small at that. Here the sun had 

 got in, and we found quite a lot of dark garnet-like Warfields 

 glistening through the dew-drops in the morning sunshine. 

 You can make any berry earlier by putting it on poor ground 

 and having the plants far apart so the sun can get in easily. I 

 thought once we would not plant any more Earliest, as they bear 

 so few berries; but I have just given the boys orders to put down 

 the runners around the edge of the patch, and before we get 

 ready to plow them up we shall have plants enough to make a 

 row or two for next year; and the plants must be thinned out and 

 given room if you want Earliest to be extra early. 



* At this date, Jan. 23, 1902, I am happy to state that the crop referred 

 to in the above was one of the largest yields per acre I ever had in my life. 

 Some of the berries, and especially the Brandywine, were as nice and fine 

 as any thing we ever picked. The Brandywine pushed its great clusters of 

 beautiful berries clear above the foliage; and it was for all the world like a 

 field of red clover, except that the red heads were berries instead of clover. 



