OUR CORRESPONDENCE SCHOOL. mflF STRAWBERRY CULTURE 



WHERE THE MEMBERS OF THE 

 SCHOOL AND THE INSTRUCTOR 

 IN CULTURAL METHODS MEET 



PRACTICAL LESSONS TAUGHT 

 PERTAINING TO THE SCIENCE 

 OF STRAWBERRY PRODUCTION 



LAST month we quoted words of 

 cheer from two remote friends — 

 cne away up on the lofty Sierras, 

 the other in the great forests of the Sno- 

 homish country in Washington. These 

 two Pacific Coast friends were most 

 hearty in their expressions of favor for 

 The Strawberry, but no more so than the 

 friend who now writes us from the North 

 Atlantic Coast country a cheery letter 

 from which we quote: 



St. John's N. F., Feb. 14, 1906. 

 The Kellogg Publishing Company: 



Gentlemen — Allow me to congratulate you 

 on the production of The Strawberry. The 

 matter is excellent. I would not begrudge $10 

 for the instruction already given. May con- 

 tinued success be your portion. 



C. R. Steer. 



An Ohio subscriber places his estimate 

 of the value of The Strawberry even 

 higher than does our New Foundland 

 reader. Here is what he says: 



Bellefontaine, Ohio, Feb. 20, 1906. 

 The January and February numbers of The 

 Strawberry surely are worth many times the 

 price of the paper. I would not take $25 for 

 the information I have received from the tno 

 copies. J. J. HoBSON. 



And one advertiser in pleased surprise 

 writes us of the e.xtraordinary results he 

 is receiving from his advertising in this 

 magazine, saying: 



St. Joseph, Mich., Feb. 7, 1906. 

 We are continually receiving inquiries brought 

 through our "ad" in The Strawberry, and we 

 also notice the stretch of country through 

 which you circulate. We have received in- 

 quiries from Nova Scotia to Oregon. We 

 cannot endorse your magazine too highly as 

 a medium for advertising our articles. 



Mullen Bros. 



The universal application of the an- 

 swers given in this department is referred 

 to in many letters, but one letter in par- 

 ticular is most suggestive on this point. 

 "I had prepared a list of questions for you 

 to answer when The Strawberry came," 

 says this subscriber. "In it I found an 

 answer to nearly every one of them, and 

 so I shall await, before sending the re- 

 mainder, the coming of the ne.vt issue, 

 believing that they will be answered in 

 that number." This brings up another 

 matter — the importance of asking ques- 

 tions. You may depend upon it that you 

 are serving others as well as yourself 

 when you ask anything relating to straw- 

 berry production; for there is so ''ttle in 



print concerning thi;^ great subject as to 

 make it matter of universal surprise. So 

 let the members of this circle of inquiring 

 students — a circle so large as to include 

 the Florida Keys, Hudson's Bay, San 

 Diego, British Columbia and New 

 Foundland — let the members send in 

 their inquiries, both for their own sakes 

 and the good of others as well, assured 

 that it gives us pleasure to answer them 

 so clearly that all may comprehend and 

 utilize the instruction thus given. 



J. S., Stanton, Neb. How shall I handle a 

 patch of ground that is now in alfalfa to get 

 it in the best possible condition for a straw- 

 berry bed? It is bottom land but not wet. 

 2. How will stable manure, mixed with 

 chicken droppings, do for strawberries.' Or 

 will it be better to use them separately? 



\. The first thing to do is to turn the 

 alfalfa sod under just as early in spring as 

 you can work the soil. Be sure and 

 throw the furrow flat, so that the sod will 

 be turned completely under. Alfalfa is 

 one of the best leguminous crops. It 

 fills the soil with humus and supplies 

 an abundance of nitrogen. Therefore, 

 it will be unnecessary to apply any ma- 

 nure at all. If the soil is made too rich 

 in nitrogen it will make the berries soft 

 and salvy. 



2. The chicken droppings and stable 

 manure may be mi.xed together and ap- 

 plied very lightly on some other soil to 

 good advantage. 



J. G. B., Townsend, Tenn. Enclosed please 

 find $1 for The Strawberry, and please an- 

 swer the following in the Correspondence de- 

 partment: Should I raise my own strawberry 

 plants to set new beds? If so how should they 

 be managed? If not, why not? 



Everyone who grows strawberries on a 

 large scale should propagate some of his 

 own plants. 'Fo prepare a propagating 

 bed, get your soil well filled with humus. 

 This is best furnished by growing a crop 

 of cowpeas or some other legume, which 

 should be chopped up and worked into 

 the soil. After this is done a light coat- 

 ing of stable manure should be applied in 

 the winter months. In the spring this 

 should be turned under and thoroughly 

 incorporated with the soil. After the 

 ground is perfectly fine mark your rows 

 four feet apart and set plants two and a 

 half to three feet apart in the rows. 

 When the mother plants become well es- 

 tablished in the soil, they may be permit- 



P4ge 91 



ted to make runners at once and to ma- 

 ture as many strong runners as they will. 

 But never allow any mother plant to 

 start making runners until it is strong and 

 vigorous itself. And don't, under any 

 circumstances, try to grow fruit and plants 

 on the same bed. 



■^ ^ 



T. H. , Austin, 111. Is there any way I can tell 

 by the thermometer in the evening if there 

 will be frost during the night? 2. Will 

 smoke destroy the injurious effect of frost 

 upon bloom, and how may I make a smudge 

 to prevent frost? 



1. There is no way in which to tell 

 by the action of the thermometer what is 

 to come; it merely registers conditions of 

 tem'perature as they are. 



2. Smoke is effective as a preventive 

 of injurious action by frost, as it forms a 

 cloud over the plants. In making a 

 smudge you may use tar put on coarse, 

 damp manure. The thing wanted is the 

 heaviest clouds of smoke possible to create. 



G. S. F. , Greensburg, Pa. Have just bought 

 a farm of thirty-seven acres and wish to put 

 out some strawberries, but I am afraid that 

 the field I wish to use is too poor. As I 

 shall not get possession of the farm until 

 April will not be able to put any manure on 

 the ground this spring in time for it to rot. 

 Now I wish you to tell me if there is any 

 way I can get this ground in order to plant a 

 bed of strawberries this spring? 



As you cannot get possession of this 

 farm until April we advise you to break 

 it up, work the soil up finely, then set 

 your plants, and after this is done you 

 may then scatter well-decayed manure 

 between the rows and work into the soil 

 when cultivating the berries. 



F. G. M., Fabius, N. Y. Wish you would 

 tell us some time in The Strawberry what 

 a grower can do to keep the robins from tak- 

 ing so many berries. 



This is not an easy thing to do, be- 

 cause we do not know what one can do 

 to keep the robins from eating the straw- 

 berries. We cannot blame the robins for 

 eating strawberries; they are so good. 

 About the only thing that can be done is 

 to put up a scare-crow, fixing a red flag 

 so that it will keep floating in the air. 

 Sometimes this is quite effective, but not 

 for long. The birds get accustomed to 

 it and they will take the berries in spite 



