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BRINGING IN THE STKA'* \XITH WHIUH TO .MULCH IHH PLANTS ON THE FARM HOME OF "THL SlRAWliEkk'i 



berry. He was told that this was most 

 improbable; and we do not see why sea- 

 weed in the maritime provinces of Can- 

 ada and along our own coast, which may 

 be had in limitless quantities by those 

 who live beside the sea, should not be 

 used as freely as are the needles that 

 cover the ground in the great pine forests 

 of the South. 



We hope that all of our readers in the 

 North have mulched their plants ere this, 

 but should they have failed to do so, it 

 is not yet too late to secure very import- 

 ant results by mulching at once. Indeed, 

 it is not too late to get the very best re- 

 sults, as the season of alternate freezing 

 and thawing is not yet here, and that it is 

 which so severely tests the vitality of the 

 strawberry plant. 



From every point of view the mulching 

 of the strawberry bed is of first importance. 

 It protects from freezing and thawing, it 

 aids to retain moisture in the soil, it adds 

 to the richness of the earth — all these are 

 important. But to the man who has ber- 

 ries to market the fact that the mulch has 

 kept his fruit free from grit and sand and 

 that they may be put before the fruit- 

 hungry world in all their rich beauty of 

 color, their flavor and fragrance undimin- 

 ished by any "cleaning" process — to such 

 a one the mulching of his strawberry bed 

 is second only in importance to the bed 

 itself, for upon it in large part depends 

 the size of his profits and the measure of 

 his success. Let the grower succeed 

 never so well in producing a line, healthy, 

 highly colored, richly flavored berry, if he 

 fail to put them on the market sweet and 

 clean, he has failed at the crucial mo- 

 ment. Study the question of mulches 

 and mulching, and do not fail, under any 

 circumstance, to mulch your beds in the 

 most approved manner, whether you have 

 a patch in the corner of a city yard or broad 

 acres given up to the culture and pro- 

 duction of strawberries. 



ONCE in a while we are reminded 

 that the old superstition concerning 

 the "full of the moon" still exerts an in- 

 fluence over certain minds. One patron 

 writes that he would set his plants only 



when the moon is at the right stage; an- 

 other urges the importance of observing 

 the lunar phases if success is to be sure. 

 As we set plants for six weeks continu- 

 ously and have uniform success with 

 them year aftet year, we agree with the 

 scientists that the m'>on theory of plant- 

 ing and cultivating is a bugaboo that no 

 longer should scare folk. 



■^ ^ 

 Starting a Farm on Little Capital 



EVERY man possessed of ambition 

 desires to be independent. In this 

 age when free arable land is prac- 

 tically a thing of the past, it is more dif- 



MICHAEL MAYER 

 Covington, Ind. 



ficult to achieve this independence than 

 it was a quarter of a century ago when 

 our fathers pioneered the West. One of 

 the most attractive features about the 

 strawberry business is the fact that it may 

 be begun and carried forward on a small 

 tract of land and with very little capital. 

 The enterprising young man who really 



Page 8 



has made up his mind to attain industrial 

 liberty and manage his own business, will 

 be sure to find in almost any community 

 land owners glad to sell him on his own 

 terms sufficient land to start a berry farm. 

 One instance of this kind we have very 

 good reason to remember. Fifteen years 

 ago a young man in an Indiana town re- 

 solved that he would have a business of 

 his own. He was without capital and 

 without experience, but he was not with- 

 out standing as a man of honor in his 

 community, and when he reached the 

 point where he was ready to do business 

 he called upon an old German friend of 

 his whose kindly face is shown herewith, 

 who promptly sold him a tract of land on 

 contract, the price being fixed at $100 an 

 acre, and he started off in his career as a 

 strawberry culturist. 



The land was common pasture land, 

 without a fruit tree or bush or roof of any 

 kind upon it. The young man, knowing 

 nothing of the work, made a bad start. 

 He took his plants from a neighbor's 

 fruiting bed, mostly pistillates and badly 

 run out. The results of that first setting 

 were consequently very small and very 

 discouraging. The second season was little 

 better, for he bought his plants of a 

 grower who doesn't believe in breeding 

 and selection; bought them because they 

 were cheap. Thus three years were 

 spent in getting a start which might have 

 been accomplished in one. For at the 

 end of the second year he had learned 

 where to get plants and advice of the right 

 sott, and from that day his success was 

 rapid and large. 



With his first crop of big red berries 

 hope and ambition were revived, and he 

 went to work with a will to make his 

 farm the leader of its kind. A team was 

 set to work hauling manure, plans were 

 made for broad and graceful driveways 

 and a pleasant lawn, and a handsome 

 home was built, thus making the land 

 more valuable and satifying the man from 

 whom it was purchased that it was safe 

 to renew notes as they matured. 



Within five years from the day the 

 young man took possession of this raw 

 land, and notwithstanding his early mis- 

 takes, he had made his place the best and 



