THE STRAWBERRY JUNE 1906 



be of interest to them to know that it was 

 Mr. Staats who firsr called our attention 

 to the value of this system, and led us to 

 investigate it. Mr. Staats advises us that 

 this system not only gives him an inde- 

 pendent water supply that furnishes his 

 house with that essential for all modern 

 conveniences, but supplies him as perfect 

 fire protection as is to be had in any city 

 in the land. He considers his investment 

 in that system one of the most profitable 

 he ever made. 



What Mr. Staats has done in his rural 

 home lies within the power of others to 

 accomplish. 



A formal arrangement of the garden 

 beautiful, which adds so much to the 

 landscape effects of the home is seen in 

 the other illustration herewith. This is 

 the entrance to the garden of one of 

 Three Rivers' merchants, and suggests 

 the combination of the architectural with 

 the natural. 



For the most part, strawberry growers 

 are lovers of nature; they also are home 

 makers and lovers of the home. May 

 not all of us vie one with the other in the 

 development of the home beautiful, re- 

 membering that it requires no big bank 

 account to achieve desired results, but 

 that good taste and an intelligent use of 

 the resources at hand will accomplish it. 

 None may measure the delight such a 

 home affords or estimate its beneficent 

 influence upon ourselves, upon those near 

 'and dear to us, and upon the entire com- 

 munity. 



Read these words of wisdom and coun- 

 sel from John Burroughs, the poet-nat- 

 uralist. None who reads but knows they 

 are the simple truth, and that real happi- 

 ness and the joy of life come to us 

 through faithful adherence to the simpler 

 ways of living. He says: 



'T am bound to praise the simple life, 

 because I have li\ed it and found it good. 



When I depart from it evil results follow. 

 I love a small house, plain clothes, sim- 

 ple living. Many persons know the 

 luxury of a skin bath — a plunge in the 

 pool or the wave unhampered by cloth- 

 ing. That is the simple life — direct and 

 immediate contact with things, life with 

 the false wrappings torn away — the fine 

 house, the fine equipage, the expensive 

 habits, all cut off. How free one feels, 

 how good the elements taste, how close 

 one gets to them, how they fit one's body 

 and one's soul! To see the fire that 

 warms you, or better yet, to cut the wood 

 that feeds the fire that warms you; to see 

 the spring where the water bubbles up 

 that slakes your thirst, and to dip your 

 pail into it; to see the beams that are the 

 stay of your four walls, and the timbers 

 that uphold the roof that shelters you; to 

 be in direct and personal contact with the 

 sources of your material life; to want no 

 extras, no shields; to find the universal 

 elements enough; to find the air and the 

 water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a 

 morning walk, or an evening saunter; to 

 find a quest of wild berries more satisfying 

 than a gift of tropic fruit; to be thrilled 

 by the stars at night; to be elated over a 

 bird's nest, or over a wild flower in 

 spring — these are some of the rewards of 

 the simple life." 



TEXAS is glad to have "something 

 that the cotton-boll weevil won't 

 eat." For delicious as is the strawberry, 

 that fastidious and voracious insect has 

 not as yet cultivated his taste to the point 

 where he can find pleasure in the fruit. 

 The result is that down in the land of 

 King Cotton, where ruination once stared 

 the farmers in the face, disaster has been 

 averted by turning the cotton fields into 

 strawberry gardens. More than that, 

 the profits from one acre of strawberries 



ENTRANCE TO THE GARDEN OF C. G. DEAL, THREE RIVERS, MICH. 



frequently has exceeded that received 

 from fifty acres of cotton. Places in 

 eastern Texas, like Tyler and Jackson- 

 ville, that were practically dead and im- 

 poverished a few years ago, now are 

 prosperous financial and industrial centers, 

 all because fruit and truck have succeeded 

 to cotton, bringing in a steady stream of 

 cash for many months of the year. It is 

 one of the phenomenal things in the life 

 of the South that the fruit and truck in- 

 dustry has all but done away with the 

 old system of credit that kept the com- 

 mon people there in poverty. 



Practical Experience in Strawberry 



Culture 



By A. D. Stevens 



I HAVE studied the nature of straw- 

 berries for at least twenty years and 

 find that each variety needs to be 

 studied very closely and then be treated 

 to suit its nature if success is to be real- 

 ized. For instance, if plants are deficient 

 in foliage but strong in yield of berries, 

 great care should be taken to increase the 

 foliage and to preserve a balanced plant 

 as between fruit and foliage. This kind 

 should be cultivated much later in the 

 fall, which will overcome the defect to a 

 large degree. 



If plants show signs of being weak at 

 this time of the season their first runners 

 should be cut off to give them time to 

 become more firmly established for the 

 work they are about to perform in pro- 

 ducing new plants. 



I have been working on seedling 

 plants for sixteen years and find a great 

 field here for experimentation. I don't 

 allow any plants to go on the market un- 

 til it has been worked on all kinds of soil 

 and been thoroughly tested and proved to 

 be of high quality and perfectly balanced 

 in all respects. After I find a seedling 

 plant that shows a certain number of good 

 qualities I then breed them up by bud 

 selection. 



For growing a fine and large crop of 

 berries labor and manure should not be 

 used too sparingly. The good book tells 

 us that it rains on the just and unjust 

 alike, yet we have our part to perform or 

 nature cannot give us a large crop. 



I am growing strawberries on newly 

 cleared land at present and find it less 

 difficult to keep down weeds than it is on 

 old land. I burn the brush and cut- 

 harrow the land first, then take a five- 

 tooth cultivator and pulverize the soil 

 thoroughly, after which I harrow with a 

 spike-tooth harrow, and then let it lie 

 through the winter. In the spring I pre- 

 pare the soil for setting the plants by 

 this method. I find that berries do bet- 

 ter than they will when one plows the 

 top soil down and turns the wild yellow 

 soil up. 



I have a T-shaped steel which I insert 



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