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BUD-REMOVING SCENE ON A LARGE COMMERCIAL STRAWBERRY FARM 



Removing bloom from newly set plants. Every bloom should be carefully picked off before the pollen takes effect. This is 

 best done by pinching or cutting the fruit stem off before buds open, thus reserving all the strength for the mother plants. 



Some Work for May in The Strawberry Field 



THE miracle of spring has been 

 wrought, and once more the warm 

 and life-giving sun and gentle 

 winds and soft showers have come 

 to bless the earth and fructify it. Man 

 and beast and plant, all feel the stimulus 

 of a new joy, and hope springs fresh and 

 buoyant, laying hold upon enterprise and 

 labor with fresh grip and stronger purpose. 

 Even the earth itself, once thought to be 

 cold and inanimate, joins in the universal 

 chorus of praise to spring, and hastens to 

 lend her powerful aid to the perfection of 

 mother Nature's plans. 



The call of Out-of-Doors is insistent, 

 and lovers of nature respond gladly to 

 that call. None is more delighted to so 

 respond than he who knows the pleasures 

 of strawberry culture, or the one who, 

 not yet knowing, but looking longingly 

 for the time when he, too, may be at it, 

 welcomes the approaching day. May 

 has its days that are quite as rare in their 

 soft loveliness as Lowell's "day in June, " 

 and the inspiration of sixh a day in the 

 strawberry patch is one its true lover 

 never forgets. But there is the practical 

 side of strawberry culture without which 

 we may never enjoy to the full its esthetic 

 charm, and our mission here is to point 

 out some of the things that must be done 

 at this season if one's high hopes are to be 

 realized. 



ON E of the first things to have in mind 

 is the necessity of removing all the 

 bloom from your newly set plants just as 

 fast as it appears. This is ven,' import- 

 ant, and if neglected until pollen takes ef- 

 fect and are then removed, the plants are 

 bound to be weakened, and it will require 

 several weeks to get them under good 

 growing condition. Therefore, we urge 

 you to do this work right on time, and 

 thus be sure of securing the best growth 



possible. "A stitch in time saves nine," 

 is more than true in strawberry produc- 

 tion — it will save anywhere from ten to a 

 hundred. 



The work of removing bloom is a very 

 trifling matter. Simply pinch them off as 

 you walk through the rows, enjoying the 

 beauty of the foliage, with its rich and 

 varied shades of green, and contemplate 

 in anticipation the splendid crop of ber- 

 ries you are to have if you do your part. 



AND don't neglect the young plants at 

 the time you are picking this year's 

 crop. So many growers, overwhelmed by 

 the rush of business in marketing time, 

 neglect the young plants that must be 

 oared for if they are to give off big yields 

 during the seasons to follow. We have 

 seen v\hole fields of newly-set plants left 

 to take care or themselves while the 

 grower was marketing the present crop, 

 and though the young plants grew under 

 this neglect, weeds and grass, which never 

 require encouragement from man, grew 

 still faster, and by the time the crop was 

 harvested the new bed presented a sad ap- 

 pearance and required double the work 

 and expense to get it clean that it would 

 to have kept it in perfect condition. In 

 addition the plants themselves received a 

 severe backset by being compelled to as- 

 sociate with inferior plants and to divide 

 the plant food with their more voracious 

 neighbors. 



No matter how satisfactory the returns 

 from the present crop, the grower is 

 bound to be disappointed and humiliated 

 by the conditions of the new bed, and his 

 pleasure in his work, and the profits from 

 the crop are lessened proportionately. It 

 is no play to get down on one's knees and 

 dig weeds after a hard day's work, where, 

 had you employed one man to look after 

 a new bed while you were marketing the 



Page 105 



crop, all this excessively hard and very 

 costly work would have been avoided 

 and the plants themselves greatly advanced 

 in productive power. You never saw a 

 calf that was neglected or ill-fed until it 

 was two months old develop into a big, 

 healthy animal. Infancy with plants, as 

 well as with animals, is the time to lay broad 

 and deep the foundations of a vigorous 

 system, capable of standing up under the 

 work required. Keep your plants on the 

 jump from the time they go into the 

 ground. Don't let them lag for a minute. 



TT isn't a good sign when you see rusty - 

 *■ tools lying about a berry grower's 

 place. Rust doesn't gather on tools that 

 are in use. And when they are being 

 polished by contact with the earth you 

 also are putting a fine polish on your 

 plants, and the higher polish you get on 

 your plants the brighter the fruit will shine 

 in the market places. We are sure that 

 Strawberry readers are going to see to it 

 this year that everything, from setting 

 plants to picking berries, is done in the 

 best and most approved manner. This is 

 what we hope we may help you all to do. 

 Now there's the hoe that needs exer- 

 cise, and nothing will pay bigger returns 

 on the labor invested. It is an easy tool 

 to use if you know how, but it is amus- 

 ing to see some folks use that simple im- 

 plement. The\' tie themselves up in a 

 knot, grab the handle up close to the 

 blade so hard that it cramps the hands, 

 and proceed to hack at everything in 

 sight. The proper way to hoe is to stand 

 almost erect and draw the hoe through 

 the soil with perfect ease and deliberation. 

 By doing this the soil falls directly back 

 into place, leaving a perfect dust mulch 

 all about the plant, and at the same time 

 killing weed seeds during germination. 

 The easiest time to kill a weed is just 



