1897 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



461 



Tho strawborrios ar(> jfrown in matted rows, 

 just about acv-ordiua; to Terry's directions.; The 

 ground was well mulehed with straw in the 

 fall, and there has been no cultivation since, 

 except to pull the weeds; and just now they do 

 not even do that very much, because the weed 

 brings up a lot of dirt, and that is pretty sure 

 to make the berries gritty. 



The first row I struck was our old frieud War- 

 field, that I have just been talking about ; but 

 the Warfield berries were larger than we have 

 ever grown them here in Medina Co. This is 

 owing to having the plants not too thick in the 

 rows, to the rich gravelly loam on the hills, and 

 to the great amount of stable manure or other 

 fertilizer used. Almost every grower I visited, 

 however, threatens to stop putting stable ma- 

 nure on strawberries, on account of the weed 

 seeds. 8ome are using phosphates ; but the 

 greater number, I think, are using bono dust 

 and ashes, or some other preparation of potash, 

 in place of stable manure. 



L' I felt anxious to know how many of the vari- 

 ties we have been advising and recommending 

 were flourishing there ; and my good friend 

 Ashton smiled when Bro. Smith told us that 

 one of their best berries was the Warfield. Now, 

 they have around Barnesville the very berries 

 we have settled down on, and but only a few 

 other kinds. The Jessie has been partially 

 dropped, although a few growers still stick to 

 it; and the same with the Parker Earle. Mi- 

 chel's Early they grow for extra early, but for 

 no other reason. Bubach takes the lead for a 

 large strawberry. Where Bubachs are grown 

 with the plants far enough apart, so as to have 

 plenty of room, they select choice specimens for 

 fancy city trade. Such berries bring from 2.") 

 to 40 cts. a quart. Where you can get, say, ten 

 berries that will fill a quart basket, it i^* not 

 much trouble to find a purchaser for them, 

 among traveling people on the railways, at 

 from 30 to 40 cts. 



Since my visit I think more of the Bubach 

 than ever before. The Edgar Queen. I believe, 

 is not grown around Barnesville. and it is the 

 only one we catalog that has not found a place 

 there. Brandywine is just beginning to attract 

 considerable attention. It does not bear as 

 many berries as the Bubach, perhaps, but they 

 are so firm they can be handled and shipped 

 almost like potatoes, even when they are well 

 colored all over. This is certainly a wonderful 

 thing in its favor. The Marshall has been 

 grown to some extent, but I believe it does not 

 produce berries enough' for field culture, as a 

 general thing. 



One of the largest berry-farms in the neigh- 

 borhood of Barnesville is managed by the 

 Cowan brothers, one of them having over 100 

 acres devoted to small fruits, and, if I am cor- 

 rect, something like 40 acres entirely in straw- 

 berries. We were a little surprised to find the 

 proprietor a colored man; and it was a surprise 

 indeed to see how he was making berries grow 

 on every foot of the land, hilltop and valley. 

 Even in the ravine back of his house, where it 

 was about as steep as the roof of a house, great 

 rank luxuriant strawberries were growing and 

 bearing there. Mr. Cowan says the .sicle of the 

 hill is much better for strawberries than the 

 extreme top. He thinks this is much owing to 

 the cold winds that strike the summit, while 

 the berries part way down, especially where 

 the hill slopes to the southeast, are protected 

 from the cold northwest winds. It was indeed 

 amusing to see the great clusters hanging over 

 and spread out on the straw mulching on the 

 down-hill side of each row. The Haverland, 

 you know, is remarkable for its long stems, 

 and these wre literally piled up in heaps. The 



day before our visit, they had picked and ship- 

 ped 'tO bushels. 



Mr. Cowan objects, like the rest, to stable 

 manure for a mulch, especially that which 

 comes from the livery-stables in town. I do 

 not know just why manure from livery-stables 

 should contain so many weed seeds, but per- 

 haps it is because they have to purchase large 

 quantities of hay from all sorts of farmers. A 

 man who has a horse and cow of his own, or 

 who grows the feed for his stock, would not be 

 so likely to risk taking weeds on to his premises. 

 Several men told me they had got their ground 

 filled with kinds of weeds they had never seen 

 on their premises until they brought them in 

 by purchasing stable manure for their berries. 

 Now, this is indeed a serious matter. Another 

 source of weed seeds is the straw mulching 

 put under the berries to keep them clean. The 

 small quantity of grain left in the straw makes 

 trouble, but the trouble is not as bad as with 

 pernicious weeds. The prickly lettuce is one 

 of the worst, because it will mature seed, and 

 send it flying about even while the. berries are 

 fruiting. 



Permit me to mention here that Mr. Cowan 

 was using very successfully over a part of one 

 of his fields the refuse from a cane-mill near 

 by. It answers the purpose perfectly, contains 

 no weed seeds whatever, and he said the only 

 objection in his case was the distance they 

 were obliged to go for it. In their work they 

 use two tons of straw per acre, or its equivalent 

 in something else. This, of course, is for 

 mulching, to protect the plants from heaving 

 out in the winter, and to keep the berries out of 

 the dirt in fruiting-timt. 



The berries grown on this piece of 40 acres 

 are mostly those I have mentioned. Warfield, 

 Haverland, and Bubach are sure to be found: 

 then Parker Earle, .Jessie, and Michel's Early 

 are grown more or less. 



I asked Mr. Cowan how often he shipped 

 berries that sold so low as to pay for only the 

 packages, express charges, and cost of picking. 

 He said he had never come out quite as badly 

 as that, even on a single bushel, although he 

 had heard of others who had to advance money, 

 besides the value of the berries, to pay the ex- 

 pense of shipping and marketing. I was some- 

 what surprised at this; but when I became bet- 

 ter acquainted with the man I found that he 

 was unusually bright and wideawake. He is a 

 hard worker himself, and he keeps right along 

 with his help, which, if am correct, is mostly 

 colored people. 



nThere is-a factory at Barnesville for making 

 crates and boxes for berry-growers; and they 

 have certainly got the prices down very low. 

 The cheap gift crates to hold one bushel, or 32 

 one-quart boxes, are furnished at Barnesville, 

 nailed up, for only 133^ cts.; and as the nailed- 

 up quart boxes are sold for $3. .50 per 1000, the 

 whole expense of a package for a bushel of ber- 

 ries is only about 23 cts. 



The raspberries and blackberries were won- 

 derfully luxuriant over those gravelly hills. It 

 reminded me of mv visit to Prof. Grannis, a 

 year or two ago. When I asked how they got 

 along with this matter of wash and gullying on 

 the hillsides when under cultivation, friend 

 Cowan explained that they made their rows of 

 berries around the hill, something on the plan 

 described at the last end of our tomato-book; 

 then when the water gets through, and com- 

 mences to cut a gully, they stop it by tramping 

 in the trimmings of the berry-bushes. These 

 are tramped down in place, and then held there 

 by refuse stones until the ground settles around 

 them so that vegetation gets sufficient hold. 



Our colored friend keeps up with the times, 



