How One Amateur Finds Joy in His Patch 



VIEW NO. 1 SHOWING NEWLY SET BED 



ABOU1" ten years ago my father 

 had a big bed of selected straw- 

 berry plants. It was my pleas- 

 ure to get up in the morning at 

 four o'clock and work till eleven a. m. 

 hoeing, taking half an hour for breakfast. 

 I had the idea the ground should be cul- 

 tivated as soon as possible after a rain, 

 waiting just long enough to get somewhat 

 dry on top, but not letting the hoeing go 

 a week or so, looking for another rain. 



I pinched off all the blossoms. (My 

 father wanted some to grow, so he could 

 see what they were like.) The runners 

 were just getting started and I was won- 

 dering how many to let set in the row, 

 when my father told me there was no use 

 doing anything further; that I had killed 

 all the plants. His 

 continual talk along 

 that line discour- 

 aged me and I did 

 no more work on 

 that bed afterward. 

 In August of that 

 year father hired an 

 old man to go 

 through the patch 

 with a spade and 

 garden line to mark 

 out the rows. It 

 looked as if I had 

 killed everything, 

 did it not.' 



Now I have a 

 little place of my 

 own and though it 

 is rather a damper 

 to have your wife 

 ask you if you 

 e.xpect the plants to 

 come up through 

 that dirt (after mow- 

 ing and covering) still I try not to 

 mind it, but just go ahead, following The 

 Strawberry way as nearly as I can arrive 

 at it. In the spring of 1905 I had a man 



By Robert Allen 



niiistratlons Fr..m PliutoLTulilis Tiikoii Hy th.- Author 



plow my plot for strawberry plants. After 

 he was done, just for the curiosity of it, I 

 e.xamined to see how many inches of 

 loose soil I had. It was so very little 

 that I went over the whole with a spad- 

 ing fork, going the full depth. The 

 plants did finely, many having eight 

 crowns. I kept all blossoms and runners 

 off. My soil was not so rich as I had 

 thought, so the plants did not do so well 

 as they might. 



Last fall I spaded up another plot, 

 covering it afterwards with good manure. 

 This I spaded in the spring, setting the 

 plants sixteen inches apart, letting each 

 plant produce another, then keeping off 

 all runners. I wish now 1 had set even 

 more plants, so they would have had 

 longer time to grow and build up crowns, 

 instead of depending upon half new plants 

 to fill the beds. 



I dipped the roots in tobacco-stem tea 

 before setting, so am not bothered with 

 ants this year. But the currant worm 

 was in evidence, eating holes in the leaves. 

 I fixed them with hellebore. I find now 

 the leaf roller. I sprayed once with 

 Paris green, but must give them another 

 dose. 



I use a pointed hoe and now cultivate 

 lightly near the plants going deeper be- 

 tween the rows. I believe that last year 

 I injured the roots at times, though the 

 plants did well and were never watered, 

 except as it rained. 



I mowed last year's plants off June 26, 

 and now the remaining plants are nice 

 and green, most of them with good fo- 

 liage, apparently starting crowns nicely, 



VIEW NO. 3 SHOWING MOWED-OFF PLANTS 

 With the youngest member of the family taking a hand 



ing time all the plants were sending out 

 runners without end. My plants stand 

 up about a foot high and look as big as 

 most plants do in the fall or spring. 



I am sending you three views of my 

 strawberry bed, taken by myself. It was 

 set out in 1905 and 1906. 



I set four varieties last year, two rows 

 each, in hills two feet apart each way. 

 View No. 1 was taken in June, 1905. 

 They were Texas, Wolverton, Midnight 

 and Arizona. View No. 2 was taken the 

 first week in June, 1906. It shows the 

 old bed in hills, with the cornstalk mulch- 

 ing, the newly set plants farther over. I 

 set these in April of this year. 



View No. 3 shows two rows of last 

 year's plants mowed off and dirt thrown 

 over the crowns. 

 They have not 

 sent out runners yet 

 (except one plant) 

 but the crowns are 

 beginning to show 

 up well. 



My calculation 

 was that each plant 

 should produce one 

 more plant, forming 

 a single-liedge row. 

 But some died out 

 from the very dr\' 

 weather. I am pre- 

 paring to fill the 

 by starting 

 in berry 

 These I 

 near t h e 

 plant and 



VIEW NO. 2 SHOWING OLD BED IN HILLS WITH CORNSTALK MULCHING 



but why is it that they are so slow in 

 starting runners.? Only one plant (Texas) 

 seems to be attending to business. It has 

 half a dozen or so fine runners. In fruit- 



Pa£e 179 



gaps 

 plants 

 boxes. 

 imbed 

 mother 



leave till the new 

 plant is well devel- 

 oped. It is then no 

 trouble at all to 

 transplant it to any place I wish, even in 

 dry weather. I wet the earth in the 

 box a few hours ahead, then break 

 away the box and set the chunk in a hole 



