THE STRAWBERRY MARCH 1906 



nature that it was compelled to pay for 

 the lost fruit. But that did not save the 

 fruit, which was bad for the consumer, 

 and the same circumstance might arise 

 in a great number of cases where the 

 transportation company could not be held. 

 And too, that represents but one element 

 in the case. Suppose the car company had 

 been prepared to transport every crate of 

 berries offered it; if they had been taicen 

 to glutted markets, where prices were de- 

 moralized, the car company would have 

 escaped, but the growers could not have 

 done so, and would have been compelled 

 to pocket their losses. 



And this is the danger that threatens 

 every strawberry growing district where 

 there is no central organization whose 

 business it is to see that the markets are 

 properly supplied — neither under-supplied 

 or over-supplied — but so supplied that 

 while its reasonable wants are satisfied, 

 there shall be no surplusage to throw away 

 or demoralize prices. The latter too 

 often happens under our present unscien- 

 tific and uneconomic methods of handling. 

 It is wholly unnecessary. A local organ- 

 ization, each grower being a member with 

 equal voice in its direction, and having a 

 secretary or general manager who, on the 

 one hand, has the courage to make each 

 member do his full duty in contributing 

 only marketable berries, graded uniformly 

 to a certain standard; and possessed of a 

 thorough knowledge of markets, on the 

 other — such an organization with such a 

 manager would add inestimably to the 

 profits of every grower belonging to it and 

 would contribute greatly to the general 

 success of the business everywhere. 



Now such an organization is within 

 reach of every community where straw- 

 berry growing is done on a commercial 

 scale, and the individual members of it 

 are willing to work cooperatively together. 

 And now is the time for growers to get 

 together and organize for the season of 

 1906. It is not a new idea, it is not an 

 untried method, it is no experiment. It 

 has been done, it is being done, and it may 

 be done, and with large success, in your 

 own community. If there is no organ- 

 ization in your community, we hope that 

 you, as a reader of The Strawberry and 

 interested in its work of advancing the 

 strawberry ihdustry in all ways and every- 

 where, will at once call a meeting of your 

 neighbors who are in the business and 

 take steps to effect an organization along 

 the lines suggested here. 



HUNDREDS of letters have come to 

 The Strawberry of a congratula- 

 tory nature. Some of them we have 

 quoted from in another place in this issue. 

 The object of this paragraph is to say to 

 our friends that there is a way they may 

 make their good wishes felt, not only m 

 our own behalf, but in the interest of 

 their friends, and that is by calling to the 



attention of their neighbors the value of 

 this magazine to everybody interested, 

 largely or moderately, in the production 

 of strawberries. Send us in the names of 

 your friends whom you think would like 

 to have the magazine and, if you have 

 opportunity, show them copies of it. 

 Just consider yourself a committee of one 

 to extend the circulation of The Straw- 

 berry in your neighborhood. 



Advantages of Double Hedge-Row 



By M. N. Edgerton 



OF the several different systems of 

 strawberry culture tried by us the 

 double-hedge row has proved to 

 be the most satisfactory. For years we 

 were experimenting with different plans 

 but not until recently did we hit on the 

 right thing. Our first berries were grown 

 on the thinly matted row plan, the rows 

 being four feet apart and the young plants 

 layered until the row was filled out. 

 Eighteen inches were reserved for a path 

 and no plant in the row was set closer to 

 its neighbor than six inches. The objec- 

 tion to this system was that the plants 

 were too crowded, to do their best, and 

 there was difficulty in maintaining the de- 

 sired surface mulch. 



Next we tried the diagonal-hedge row, 

 the plants being set in rows three and one- 

 half feet apart. This we found to be an 

 improvement over the other, yet it came 

 short of our ideal. 



The single-hedge row, with rows three 

 feet apart, admitted of working the entire 

 surface of the bed with horse-drawn tools. 

 But there was this objection: the rows 

 were too far apart. All the ground could 

 not be occupied with the feeding roots 

 from the strawberry plants, and at two 

 feet apart the rows would have been too 

 close. The path would not be wide 

 enough at picking time. 



With the double-hedge row we have 

 an average distance between rows of 

 twenty-four inches, and yet between the 

 rows which make the paths of the pick- 

 ers, there is a distance of thirty-four 

 inches from center to center of the row 

 of plants. This leaves the other rows 

 sixteen inches apart. By having an ex- 

 tension on the horse cultivator to which 

 is attached a knife-like arrangement, one 

 wide and one narrow row may be worked 

 at each passage. In picking, the picker 

 usually goes up and back in the same 

 path, taking one of the double rows each 

 way. This system of culture reduces to 

 a minimum the labor required to keep a 

 bed clean, as well as that required to 

 clean out a bed after fruiting, 



The photo-engraving on the preceding 

 page shows one of our beds grown upon 

 the double-hedge row plan. We set the 

 plants three feet apart in the row, which 

 admits of our cultivating both ways over 

 the field until the plants are layered. We 



P*«e 50 



aim to space the plants in the rows at 

 from eight to ten inches apart. 



Petoskey, Mich. 



We heartily indorse Mr. Edgerton's 

 method of growing strawberries. His 

 plan is what we call twin double-hedge. 

 To grow plants in this system, first make 

 two marks sixteen inches apart for the 

 twin rows and set the plants twenty-four 

 inches apart in each of these marks, and 

 make the twin rows three feet apart. 

 This three-foot space is for cultivation 

 and also furnishes a path for pickers at 

 fruiting time. Any good blacksmith can 

 arrange an attachment on the side of your 

 cultivator to reach over between the twin 

 rows for the purpose of breaking up the 

 crusi so as to hold moisture and lessen 

 the work of hoeing. — Editor Strawberry. 



^ -^ 

 Reasons for My Faith 



By Mrs. Emma Flora 



FOR fifteen years I have been in the 

 strawberry business, but no previ- 

 ous year ever gave me such abund- 

 ant returns as last. Until 1894 I had 

 been getting my plants from friends and 

 neighbors. But in that season I made 

 up my mind I was going to try some 

 thoroughbreds, and secured 1500 plants 

 that spring. They set nearly half an 

 acre. It was a hard spring as to weather; 

 our neighbors lost all their berries through 

 heavy late frosts. But my plants bore 

 profusely and netted me $150. 



Not only so, but I had the satisfaction 

 of having the best and most beautiful 

 berries ever seen here; people came from 

 long distances to see my berries and de- 

 clared they never saw such plants and 

 such clusters of strawberries. Certainly 

 I never did myself — and I am counting 

 on doing even better next year. 



I wish I had a photograph of that 

 patch; but that is out of the question now. 

 Next spring, when I get my new plants 

 set out and they get to growing, I shall 

 have a photograph of both the new and 

 the old taken so that you may see how 

 very fine it is. Do you wonder that I 

 am committed to the pedigree idea.' 



Bowling Green, Ohio. 



ONE ffiend fears that if too much en- 

 couragement is given to people to 

 engage in strawberry growing it will hurt 

 the business, saying that there are always 

 a number of persons engaging.in that line 

 in his neighborhood who continue in it 

 just long enough to demoralize prices and 

 then quit the business. Doubtless true; 

 we observe the same phenomenon in ah 

 sorts of vocations. But that is the fault 

 of the men, not the business. And our 

 interest and yours is in the one who does 

 stick it out and compels success, who 

 overcomes all difficulties and in whose 

 lexicon "there's no such word as fail ! 



