THE STRAWBERRY MAY 1906 



inches apart in the row, as all of these 

 varieties make runners profusely and may 

 set farther apart than the later varieties. 

 It will require only a few more than 

 5,000 plants. These varieties should be 

 grown in the single-hedge row. 



In preparing your high sandy soil it 

 should be rolled and pressed firmly, and 

 the plants should be cultivated every 

 week, keeping a perfect dust mulch for 

 the purpose of retaining moisture. The 

 low land will not require so much culti- 

 vation, and you may cultivate deeper here 

 than on the sandy soil. 



J. S. A., Prairie-du-Chien, Wis. I had quite 

 a mishap the other day, and would like your 

 advice. Last fall I put quite a heavy cover- 

 ing of straw over my strawberry patch. By 

 accident it caught fire and burned over. The 

 ground is frozen. Will it injure them? 

 Would it be advisable to cultivate them, and 

 continue to do so until they are in bloom or 

 later, and then mulch them? 



If the wind was blowing briskly when 

 the mulching was burned from over your 

 plants, it is hardly probable that the fire 

 did any great injury, but if the fire burned 

 slowly, it is more than likely some dam- 

 age has been suffered. Examine the 

 buds and see if they are green; if so, life 

 is still there and the plants should be 

 mulched again to keep the berries clean 

 while picking. Stable manure would be 

 effective, as the liquid manure would 

 stimulate large foliage growth. Yes, it 

 would be a good plan to cultivate this 

 bed, starting the work after all danger of 

 frost is past, and continue right through 

 the fruiting season, excepting while the 

 plants were in full bloom. Even then, 

 cultivation may be done if the soil is 

 damp enough to prevent dust from flying. 

 If you cultivate, put the mulching along 

 the row merely to keep the fruit clean. 



■^ ^ 



Mrs. N. B., Brighton, Iowa. Should I pick 

 the bloom off my plants the first year they are 

 set out? 2. When picking berries is it best 

 to leave a stem on each berry? 



By all means pick the bloom off your 

 young plants just as fast as they appear; 

 it is an easy job and pays big. The en- 

 tire fruit stem may be pinched off. This 

 stem easily may be identified, as it grows 

 directly from the crown. If you do not 

 pick off the bloom, the plant will become 

 exhausted from pollen and seed produc- 

 tion. A new plant cannot send out its 

 feeding roots while it is being drawn up- 

 on so heavily in the production of fruit, 

 as to do this is to exhaust the native vi- 

 tality of the plant, and by the time the 

 fruit is ripe the plant is virtually exhausted. 



2. You should always pick the berry 

 so that the stem will be from a half-inch 

 to an inch long. This prevents the air 

 from getting into the calyx end of the 



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LE SPECIALIST 



PUBLISHED MONTHLY 



^'The Fruit-Growers Friend" 



It treats of how to SELECT, PLANT, PRUNE, 

 SPRAY and FERTILIZE TREES; extinguish all 

 kinds of ORCHARD PESTS; pick, pack, and market apples; 

 how to raake cider, vinegar, etc. SO cents per year. SEND 

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berry, and they will hold up longer and 

 look much better, and will bring a much 

 better price than when picked without 

 any stem. Even though your berries 

 were to be sold right on the patch, we 

 should advise this method of picking 

 the fruit. 



<^ ^ 



F. D. A., Nelson, B. C. I have some land 

 here facing lake, sloping to the southeast. 

 The land was cleared last year and is virgin 

 soil. I intend to plow it at once and use fer- 

 tilizer analyzing as follows: Nitrogen, 3^ 

 per cent; potash, 11 percent; phosphoric acid, 

 9 per cent. I purpose using 300 pounds to 

 the acre; vvill that be proper? 2. When do 

 I remove the young plants for next planting? 

 3. Please give me a scheme for keeping a 

 patch growing year after year, say with 1,000 

 plants, placed in the twin double-hedge row 

 system; land being unlimited. 



1. This piece of ground should pro- 

 duce good crops of berries as it lies so 

 near the lake and slopes to the southeast. 

 This will be a great protection against 

 frost. The fertilizer you have in mind is 

 well proportioned for this land, as new 

 ground requires a large percentage of po- 

 tassium and phosphorus, with but a small 

 per centage of nitrogen. 



2. Never remove the young plants 

 until you are reaay to set them in the 

 new bed. If possible, they should be 

 taken up while entirely dormant, the roots 

 cut back about one-third, then set out 



Page 122 



with the roots well spread and straight 

 down in the soil. 



3. There is really no way in which to 

 take 1,000 plants and continue to propa- 

 gate from them year after year unless you 

 take a certain number of each variety of 

 the plants and make a propagating bed. 

 Even in this way they will run out unless 

 you are very careful to select the best 

 plants. It always is best to set your 

 propagating bed from a new strain of 

 plants. Never take plants from a fruit- 

 ing bed, as in doing so you are interfering 

 with the plants that are left to fruit, and 

 you also are taking plants that have be- 

 come pollen-exhausted. 



H. C. McC, Red Bank, N. J. I have eight 

 acres of strawberries on my farm to pick from 

 this season. They have been heavily mulched 

 with strong horse manure. Would you ad- 

 vise any further fertilizing this spring to bene- 

 fit the crop? Would my berries be of finer 

 color and firmer if I gave the bed an applica- 

 tion of muriate of potash and wood ashes? 

 Which of these two fertilizers would be the 

 better? 



As you have mulched your plants with 

 stable manure, it will not be necessary to 

 use any other fertilizers on this year's 

 crop. Potash or wood ashes applied to 

 the fruiting bed this spring would not 

 benefit this year's crop because any fer- 

 tilizer must be dissolved by moisture and 

 absorbed by the soil grains before the 

 plants can utilize it. The proper time to 



