STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 

 By O. M. Taylor, Geneva, N. Y 



Delivered before the Society, March 3, 1917. 



Of all the small fruits which occupy the time and attention of both 

 New York and Massachusetts growers, the strawberry is outrivalled 

 by neither blackberries, raspberries, currants, nor gooseberries, 

 its acreage for Massachusetts more than doubling the combined 

 area of all these fruits, according to the figures of the last GoAcrn- 

 ment census. This position of deserved popularity is held not 

 through any manipulation of real estate brokers or of stock markets 

 or from glowing descriptions of printer's ink and artist's brush, 

 but because the fruit has won its high standing on its own merits. 



It is true that the strawberry is the first of the small fruits to 

 tempt the eye and the appetite in early summer and doubtless this 

 fact adds to the zest with which the fruit is greeted at that time; 

 but few indeed are the people who are not delighted both outwardly 

 and inwardly by the handsome appearance, delicate aroma, and 

 pleasing flavor of this class of fruit. Home-grown fruits begin to 

 ripen about the middle of June or slightly earlier and for about three 

 weeks there is no time when the table should not be supplied in 

 abundance with the choicest berries and if one chooses to gather 

 fruit in July, August, September, and October, and occasionally 

 in November, it may be done by giving attention to some of the 

 fajl-bearing kinds; and we are then in position to echo the state- 

 ment of Brj^ant as to the 



"Fruits that shall swell in sunny June 

 And redden in the August noon." 



A discussion of the culture of the strawberry leads into too many 

 paths and byways to make it at all possible for a full consideration 

 of the subject at this time, and in the attempt to touch upon some 

 of the most important factors of its successful culture it will be 

 necessary to ignore completely many points and to touch others 



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