OUR COIESPONDENCE SCHOOL; Sk^OF 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 



I ONLY wish I had known The 

 Strawberry sooner," writes one of 

 our more recent subscribers, "for if I 

 had had the benefit of its teachings 

 in the spring I should not have made the 

 fatal mistakes I have done. I already 

 have learned many things from the maga- 

 zine, and it is invaluable to everybody 

 who grows strawberries." 



And the associate editor of the famous 

 Breeder's Gazette of Chicago, De^Vitt 

 C. Wing, who has the whole range of 

 the agricultural and horticultural press at 

 his command, writes us: " The July 

 Strawberry is a strong number, especially 

 the Correspondence School Department. 

 This feature is capable of great enlarge- 

 ment and educational efficiency. No 

 other publication has anything like it. 

 ^'our Mr. Beatty clearly is a pastmaster 

 in strawberry culture, and he has the 

 knack of presenting information so that it 

 will go to the spot." 



From all along the line come encourag- 

 ing words of this nature, and The Straw- 

 berry steadily forges to the front as the 

 only representative of the strawberry in- 

 terest, an interest growing year by year to 

 be among the big and splendid industries 

 of our country. One grower of small 

 fiuits wants to know if we can tell him of 

 a publication so helpful to raspberry and 

 blackberry growers" as is The Strawberry 

 to the man who grows that popular fruit. 

 Sorry we couldn't tell of such a one, but 

 the fact is, The Strawberry is unique, not 

 only in its chosen field, but in its character 

 and style, and this fact members are 

 month by month coming to appreciate. 

 And we do not forget for a moment that 

 it is to our interested and interesting 

 members of the school that much of the 

 value of the magazine is due. Let us, 

 instructor and member together, work to 

 make it of increasing value to its large 

 and growing constituency. 



G. R. E. , Alba, Tex. I have a strawberry 

 patch set out this spring, and I am thinking 

 of fertilizing it with stable manure this sum- 

 mer. Would this be the right time to apply 

 the manure or should I wait until some other 

 season of the year? 2. Will Pride of Mich- 

 igan do well where Lady Thompson does? I 

 have a piece of land that I have taken hickory 

 timber off of and it is virgin soil. Will Pride 

 of Michigan do well on it? 



As a rule, it is very dry in Texas at 

 this time of the year, and for this reason 

 it would be entirely safe to scatter well- 

 decayed stable manure between the rows 



of plants in August. This should be 

 thoroughly worked into the soil with the 

 cultivator. The plants would receive no 

 benefit from the manure until the rains 

 had fallen in sufficient quantity to leach 

 the fertilizing elements out of it. In a 

 country where there is much rain in 

 August we should not recommend the 

 application of manure because the plants 

 would start feeding upon the liquid ma- 

 nure made by the excessive moisture, 

 and as this is rich in nitrogen it would 

 start a new vegetative growth, which 

 would discourage the formation of fruit 

 buds. In short, the central purpose 

 should be to encourage fruit-bud devel- 

 opment at this time of the year, and to do 

 this vegetative growth should not be 

 stimulated. 



2. Pride of Michigan is a very vigor- 

 ous grower and has an adaptable disposi- 

 tion which makes it easily accommodate 

 itself to any. locality. One Mississippi 

 grower wrote us when the Prides of 

 Michigan were in bloom on his farm that 

 his bed looked more like a flower garden 

 than a strawberry patch. It may be well 

 to test it on a small scale before setting 

 largely to this variety — advice to be fol- 

 lowed with advantage in the case of any 

 new variety. 



S. B. G., Viroqua, Wis. We have a bed of 

 berries set last year, and while we did the 

 best we could to keep the weeds down they 

 got the start of us. Is there any way we can 

 get rid of the weeds? We do not dare mow 

 close and burn on account of so much growth 

 of weeds and berries, for fear it will kill the 

 plants. Will it harm the plants to throw 

 some dirt over them with cultivator after I 

 mow and rake otf? We have 1,000 set this 

 year that look well and are clean as a whistle 

 to date, but I cannot see how the ordinary 

 land can be kept clean of weeds after runners 

 start unless the land has been cultivated until 

 there is no weed seed in the soil. 



The best plan to follow is to mow off 

 the strawberry vines and weeds after the 

 fruit is all picked. After this has been 

 done, if you think there is too much litter 

 to make burning safe, you may rake it up 

 and haul off the larger part of it and burn 

 the balance. One reason we urge burn- 

 ing in this case is because it will destroy 

 a large amount of weed seed, but if con- 

 ditions are such that you cannot burn at 

 all, then the litter should be raked up 

 clean and hauled away. After. this is 

 done narrow down the rows with a com- 

 mon breaking plow. This will leave a 

 row of plants about six inches wide. 



Page 167 



These plants will set on a ridge and you 

 should go over them with a hoe, cutting 

 out all the weeds and thinning the plants 

 so the hills will stand about sixteen to 

 twenty inches apart. Now take a five- 

 tooth cultivator and run it on the ridge 

 the plow has made between the rows. 

 This will level the soil hack to its place. 

 After this has been done the fine soil can 

 be drawn up close to the plants with 

 hoes or garden rakes, and the light soil 

 should be thrown over the crowns of each 

 hill. We prefer doing this work with the 

 hoe, as the cultivator sometimes throws 

 clods or too much soil on the crowns. It is 

 an easy matter to keep all weeds and grass 

 out of the plants after the runners start, 

 providing you do not allow them to g t 

 the start of you. Frequent cultivating 

 and hoeing will keep them perfectly 

 clean. 



P. R. S., Machias, Me. This spring I set out 

 some strawberry plants. If I allow these 

 plants to make four runners each, next spring 

 at fruiting time shall I allow the mother plant 

 only to produce fruit, keeping all blossoms 

 off the four runner plants? If this is the way, 

 I will get only one crop of fruit from the 

 runner plants and two crops from the mother 

 plant. 



Both the mother plant you set this 

 season and the runner plants which spring 

 from it will produce berries next season, 

 and it will be unnecessary for you to re- 

 move any of the bloom. The removing 

 of bloom is done only in the season in 

 which the plants are set. 



E. L. L. , South Easton, Mass. I am growing 

 an early variety of strawberries for home mar- 

 ket, and though it pleases my customers, yet 

 the berries are very soft and inclined to rot 

 badly. Now if these were grown in hills 

 fifteen by thirty inches apart, instead of single- 

 hedge rows, would it not overcome this diffi- 

 culty? If so, would not the yield be fully as 

 large, and would not the berries ripen earlier? 



What you should do with such a va- 

 riety as you have mentioned is to grow it 

 in hills and keep them far enough apart 

 so that the sun's rays may be beat upon 

 every leaf and air circulate freely all about 

 the plants. A dressing of wood ashes — 

 forty or fifty bushels to the acre — thor- 

 oughly worked into the soil before plants 

 are set, would add much to the firmness 

 of the berries as well as to their flavor 

 and color. Berries will very seldom mil- 

 dew or rot if the sun and air have free 



