THE STRAWBERRY JULY 1906 



water to make it about the consistency of 

 thin cream and stir in the icettle of berries 

 just enough to get the corn starch sohition 

 all through the fruit, being careful not to 

 mash the berries. Let it thoroughly boil, 

 then promptly can, filling can to over- 

 How'ing so that no air is left in the can. 

 If Mason jar is used, be careful to tighten 

 cover occasionally as fruit cools. You 

 will find the berries will be held evenly 

 all through a thick or almost jellied juice 

 and they also retain their color and true 

 berry flavor, and no taste of the corn starch 

 is perceptible. Keep cans in a dark closet. 

 Corn starch used in a similar way in cook- 

 ing prunes for table use makes them much 

 richer. 



Please pardon a correction in your quo- 

 tation on first page of cover of your ex- 

 cellent magazine. "Fruit" should be 

 substituted for "thing." It was Henry 

 Ward Beecher who said: "The Lord 

 might have made a better fruit than the 

 strawberry — but He never did." Of 

 course the woman that He made to help 

 Adam raise strawberries in his Eden patch 

 (and "apples,") was a higher creation than 

 the strawberry. 



Richmond, Indiana. 



We are under obligations to Mr. 

 Charles for his valuable suggestions that 

 will not fail to be read with interest and 

 profit by our housekeepers, and especially 

 grateful are we for his correction of The 

 Strawberry's motto line. This for several 

 reasons — one because we desire to have 

 the quotation correct; another that the 

 correct quotation is infinitely better Eng- 

 lish and truer to facts than the incorrect 

 one. However, our correspondent's 

 statement that Henry Ward Beecher is 

 the author of the saying that "1 he Lord 

 might have made a better fruit than the 

 strawberry — but He never did," is not 

 accepted by all of the authorities. One 

 attributes the saying to Izaak Walton, 

 the angling philosopher, another says that 

 Thomas Fuller is its author, and the best 

 authority we can find declares that the 

 famous Dr. Boteler, the popular sermon- 

 izer of the seventeenth century said, 

 "Doubtless God might have made a bet- 

 ter fruit than the strawberry, but doubt- 

 less He never did." So it will be seen 

 that the saying is quite ancient and comes 

 from an excellent source. 



SOUTHERN nurserymen will meet 

 on Lookout Mountain, Tenn., August 

 15-16, and talk "shop" for two whole 

 days. The program is a long and inter- 

 esting one, and the members are warned 

 that no long-winded speeches will be 

 permitted, but that five minutes will be 

 given to everybody. 1 his rule doubtless 

 will be broken in a good many places, 

 however. We note that one of the sub- 

 jects to be discussed is, "What is the 

 proper treatment of the strawberry for 

 growing of plants.^" This is a subject of 



importance alike to nursery folk and pa- 

 trons, and calls for full and free discussion 

 and an intelligent comprehension of the 

 principles involved. The Southern Nur- 

 seryman s Association is a growing insti- 

 tution, and this year's meeting promises 

 to be especially valuable. Orlando Har- 

 rison, Berlin, Md., is its president. 



Reports From the Field 



WHETHER there are great 

 changes going forward in the 

 meteorological world that disturb 

 the equilibrium of things and give us 

 more irregularities than our forefathers 

 sutTered from, is a matter we shall leave 

 for the "oldest inhabitant" and the 

 weather man to dispute about. That the 

 removal of thousands of miles of timber — 

 something which some day we shall 

 recognize as a crime against both present 

 and future generations — that this razing of 

 the forests has had some considerable 

 influence appears reasonable. But what- 

 ever may he true in this particular, the 

 fact remains that the present season has 

 been an unusual one, and reports indicate 

 that serious results ha\e followed a spring 

 as remarkable for coldness in its early 

 days as it was for its heat and drought 

 later on. 



Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Ohio, Missouri, 

 Kentucky and Tennessee — all these states 

 report suffering and loss in the strawberry 

 fields consequent upon the hot, dry 

 weather of May and the early days of 

 June. Michigan berries that were slow 

 in developing early in the season came on 

 with such rapidity that they were on the 



Chicago market — in limited quantities, to 

 be sure — May 30, fully one week ahead 

 of the record, we believe. One result of 

 these conditions, however, was the stiffen- 

 ing up of prices all along the line, which 

 in some measure compensated for short- 

 age in crops. 



The loss was not confined to the crop, 

 however, as reports come from all over 

 the field of the difficulty experienced in 

 getting new-set plants to take a firm grip 

 on the soil. The lack of winter precipi- 

 tation is held to be responsible for this 

 condition. 



IN our neighbor, whoever he be, lies 

 hidden or revealed a beautiful brother. 

 The neighbor is just the man who is next 

 to you at the moment. This love of our 

 neighbor is the only door out of the dun- 

 geon of self. — George MacDonald. 



<^ '^ 

 Why Jones Fixed the Fence 



JONES kept fowls; his neighbor 

 Dixon had a promising garden. 

 Jones did not think much of Dix- 

 on's garden, and Dixon's opinion of Jones' 

 fowls would not appear well in print. 



The fence was dilapidated, and a long, 

 wordy warfare had v\'aged as to who 

 should repair it. Dixon had repaired it 

 last; but Jones declined to do so now. 

 His chickens were getting too plump on 

 Dixon's good garden stuff for him to in- 

 terfere. 



Then the gardener resorted to strategy. 

 He erected a row of nests in his garden, 

 ptit a nest-egg in each and after a few 



STRAWBERRIES NEXT A FIELD OF COWPEAS, WHERE NEXT SPRING PLANTS WILL BE SET 



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