THE STRAWBERRY NOVEMBER 1906 



would kick the straw up and turn it over 

 so the wind and sun could dry it thor- 

 oughly on both sides. If your patch is 

 small then a common fork could be used 

 for this purpose. 



2. Your method of taking up plants 

 for next spring's setting from your propa- 

 gating bed is correct, but it will hardly be 

 possible for you to get a good crop of 

 berries from the plants left in the propa- 

 gating bed, because when you take up 

 the plants, you are sure to interfere with 

 the roots of the plants which are left for 

 fruiting purposes. 



3. No; that will not be practical, nor 

 will it be successful so far as fruit is con- 

 cerned. The line of mother plants should 

 be left, as these are the plants which will 

 give you the most fruit. 



4. The first application of nitrate of 

 soda should be made to the fruiting bed 

 in the spring when growth starts, using 

 forty pounds to the acre. Scatter it by 

 hand along the side of the plants and not 

 on the foliage. The second application 

 should be made just before the buds open, 

 or before the plants bloom, using the 

 same amount and applying it in the same 

 manner, aiming to select days just before 

 it rains. The rain will dissolve it, when 

 it immediately becomes available, and 

 the plants will start feeding upon it at 

 once. 



Mrs. R. I... Arenzville, 111. After raising the 

 first two crops of strawberries do I have to 

 start a new bed.' 



2. If the plants are cultivated by a hand 

 plow will that be as good as a cultivator? 



3. What is paid for picking off buds and 

 blossoms.' 



4. What time in the morning should 1 pick 

 berries and how is it conducted.' Are there 

 any rules.' I wish to do everything in a busi- 

 ness-like way and just right. 



5. How many quarts can one person pick in 

 a day? 



6. Will they have to be watered if the season 

 is dry like this one was? 



7. Do I understand that the boxes and 

 crates are to be made; can they not he bought 

 ready to put the berries in? 



8. Will plants have to be sprayed and how? 

 I have a hand sprayer with which a bucket of 

 water could be used at a time — would such a 

 one do? 



After strawberry plants have produced 

 two crops of berries, it seldom pays to 

 allow them to fruit the third year. After 

 the second crop is picked, the vines should 

 be mowed off, and when thoroughly dry, 

 the entire bed should be burned over. 

 Then the ground should be broken up 

 and sowed to cowpeas or some other 

 luguminous crop. 



2. Cultivation can be done about as 

 effectively with a hand tool as with horse 

 cultivators, except where the ground is 

 heavy clay and packs firmly. 



3. It will take one man about one- 

 third of a day to pick the bloom from one 



acre. This would cost about 50 cents. 



4. Berries should not be picked in the 

 morning until the vines are perfectly dry. 

 Berries picked when wet with dew will 

 not keep nearly so long as when they are 

 picked dry. Sometimes rain continues 

 and it becomes absolutely necessary to 

 pick the berries when wet. 



5. The number of quarts picked each 

 day depends upon the quantity of ripe 

 berries, also upon the person who is 

 picking. We have had pickers who 

 would gather 175 quarts in one day. 



6. It is very seldom that it is neces- 

 sary in this latitude to water plants be- 

 cause of a dry season. There is nothing 

 which will hold moisture so well as inten- 

 sive cultivation and hoeing. This year 

 we had a drouth of over two months, and 

 our plants came through it in excellent 

 condition, because we cultivated them 

 every five or six days, and hoed them two 

 or three times each month. 



7. It always is best to buy your boxes 

 and crates knocked down, and make them 

 up yourself. All crate and box factories 

 will make them up for you as cheaply as 

 you could do it yourself, but the freight 

 will be much more when they are made 

 up than if the material was shipped 

 knocked down. 



8. A small sprayer like you mention 

 will do satisfactory work where you have 

 only a small patch. We have made 

 some experimental tests this year. We 

 did not spray at all a trial bed where 

 sixty-five varieties are grown, but in our 

 large propagating beds we sprayed seven 

 or eight times. Where the spraying was 

 done the plants are perfectly healthy, but 

 where the plants were not sprayed there 

 are some signs of rust and mildew. This 

 proves that it does pay to spray. 



^ <^ 



S. S., Ada, Ohio. Am a fruit and berry grow- 

 er, but the strawberry is my favorite, and 

 your magazine certainly is a scientific work on 

 that subject. I have learned more from The 

 Strawberry in the past few months than I had 

 learned in the five years preceding. Am glad 

 I have become acquainted with you. Here 

 are a few questions: 



1. Have set some plants on potato ground, 

 but the wire worm is bothering them. What 

 is the remedy? 



2. Will it be safe to wait imtil the ground 

 freezes hard enough to bear a wagon before 

 covering the vines? 



3. Will it pay to water plants with deep 

 well water that has not caught nitrogen or 

 other elements from the air as rain water does 

 in its descent through the air? 



4. Will it lessen the next year's crop of 

 strawberries if fruit is allowed to grow in the 

 fall on the vines? 



Potatoes are an ideal crop to grow in 

 advance of strawberries, as the tubers 

 leave the ground in loose and fertile con- 

 dition. The treatment recommended for 

 the wire worm is fall plowing, the belief 



Page 228 



existing that the cells in which the worms 

 rest will thus be broken open and the 

 insects perish. Of course, this cannot 

 be done where plants are growing in the 

 ground. 



2. If you will read our article in this 

 issue regarding the time to mulch, you 

 will note that through experiments we 

 have discovered that it is best for the 

 plants that they be covered before the 

 ground is deeply frozen. However, it is 

 far better to cover them after the ground 

 is frozen hard than not to cover them at 

 all. The reason for its being better to 

 mulch before the ground is frozen is that 

 there sometimes is a dry time late in the 

 fall, and alternate freezing and thawing 

 when the ground is dry has an effect to 

 lessen the vitality of the plants, often 

 weakening them so that the crop is con- 

 siderably reduced. 



3. There is no moisture that equals 

 rainfall for plant life, but making furrows 

 between your rows and running water 

 from the well through these furrows, will 

 aid greatly in carrying your plants through 

 an extended drought; but even when this 

 is done you must cultivate for a dust 

 mulch so that the moisture in the soil will 

 not escape. Water from your well will 

 dissolve the plant food in the soil as well 

 as will rain water, of cour.'^e. 



4. In mar»y years' experience we have 

 had varieties fruit quite heavily in the 

 fall, but we never have noticed where 

 this made any difference in the crop the 

 following season. As a rule, a variety 

 will fruit in the fall only when weather 

 conditions are very favorable, and then 

 the few berries come from buds that have 

 matured in advance of the others. If 

 these buds did not fruit in the fall, it is 

 more than likely that they would be so 

 far advanced that the heavy winter freez- 

 ing would destroy them. 



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