THE STRAWBERRY 



A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS 

 OF STRAWBERRY PRODUCTION IN ALL ITS BRANCHES 



Volume II No. 4 



Three Rivers, Mich., April, 1907 



$1.00 a Year 



ONE of the aids of which strawberry growers and all 

 other horticulturists should take advantage is to be 

 found in the mass of literature now being issued 

 both by the Agricultural Department at Washing- 

 ton and by the Experiment Stations and Agricultural Colleges of 

 the several states and territories. Every man who tills the soil 

 should have his name enrolled upon the lists of the Department 

 of Agriculture at Washington, and of the Experiment Station of 

 his own state. The bulletins which are issued very frequently 

 from both of these sources of information and instruction are of the 

 highest practical value, representing the last word that scientific 

 research has spoken, and altogether is invaluable to the man 

 who would keep abreast of the times 

 in his calling. It is little understood 

 how much has been done in the last 

 few years to put the science of agricul- 

 ture in the forefront of the world's oc- 

 cupations. It is only a few years ago 

 since the Experiment Station work was 

 begun. When it was entered upon there 

 was not in the whole country one truly 

 scientific and expert practitioner of soil 

 physict or of soil chemistry whose ser- 

 vices were available. To-day there is 

 an army of intelligent and trained men 

 who are giving all of the enthusiasm 

 of their devoted lives to the study and 

 practiceof these and related subjects.and 

 the results of their researches and ex- 

 periments are embodied in the bulletins 

 to which we have referred. These 

 bulletins are free to all, and no one can 

 afFord to let the opportunity thus of- 

 fered go by. Write to the Director of 

 your State Station and to George Wil- 

 liam Hill of the Department of Agricul- 

 ture at Washington, and see that your name is at once registered 

 as one who desires to receive all of the bulletins issued by these 

 institutions. You will receive much inspiration and an extra- 

 ordinary fund of information at the expense of only a postal card. 



AND to the young man or woman who is contemplating a 

 rural life in which nature study is to form a leading part, 

 we unqualifiedly advise a course in one of the Agricultural Col- 

 leges to which we have referred. During the past month it has 

 been the privilege of both the editor and the instructor in our 

 correspondence school to address classes in agriculture — one at 

 the Michigan Agricultural College, the other at the Illinois Col- 

 lege of Agriculture. To visit these institutions, to observe the 

 extraordinary work being carried on in them, to come in contact 

 with the bright young intellects who are to do the farming and 



NEVER have I enjoyed a fruit publication 

 more than I have enjoyed The Strawberry 

 during the past year. It is full of the cleanest, 

 freshest and best literature and information on 

 strawberry culture, and no one who would plant 

 strawberries either for market or for home use 

 should be without it. I have rais:ed strawberries 

 for nine years and hold the record for the finest 

 patch in this part of the country. I have taken 

 much pride in the thorough, clean cultivation 

 and handling of my berry patch; and no one 

 can more truly appreciate the value and worth 

 of The Strawberry; for if 1 could have had such 

 perfect instruction as your paper affords when 

 I first started in the business, it would have 

 meant success at a much earlier date, as your 

 publication certainly gives the best, most ex- 

 plicit and clearest directions for a new beginner 

 to pursue of anything in that line I have ever 

 seen. I thank you most heartily for your beau- 

 tiful and timely paper, and wish you all the 

 success you so richly deserve for your efforts 

 in presenting a treatise so clear and plain as to 

 enable anyone to succeed. 



gardening and the fruit-growing in the future — is of itself an in- 

 spiration and an assurance of our country's future. There has 

 just come to our hand a little pamphlet containing an address 

 made by a former student at Illinois. It was delivered by 

 DeWitt C. Wing, now assistant editor of Breeder's Gazette, 

 Chicago, before the Illinois Live-Stock Breeders' Association at 

 its 1907 meeting held at the Illinois institution in January last. 

 He pays a just tribute, not only to the institution under dis- 

 cussion, but to the spirit which to-day characterizes agricultural 

 education and the work of the national and state departments 

 devoted to its advance. We take pleasure in quoting from 

 that address Mr. Wing's suggestive and encouraging experience. 

 He entered the Agricultural College 

 six years ago, having in mind chiefly 

 the financial results likely to accrue 

 from securing an education and training 

 in that department of work. He con- 

 tinues: 



Palisade, Colo. 



FRED BAISCH. 



From the outset I was surprised at 

 the practical turn of the instruction 

 received. I could see money in it for 

 me as a farmer or as an editor. I de- 

 lighted in the fascinating discovery of 

 reasons for certain developments in 

 plant and animal life, for doing or for 

 not doing certain things. From a sort 

 of mental chaos there emerged a sem- 

 blance of order. Explanations of un- 

 derlying principles, capable of profitable 

 application in every-day farming, gave 

 me a new, virile faith in agriculture. 

 Never before had farming appealed to 

 my better-self. Its beautiful complex- 

 ity, its orderly confusion, became an 

 undying in,«piration. Animals and plants 

 became interesting as forms of life aside from their pecuniary 

 value. Common objects assumed charms and aspects that in- 

 vested old-time farm drudgery with zestful interest. A com- 

 forting if feeble insight into life itself was granted me. More 

 satisfying philosophies than I had ever known were revealed. 

 Poetry got into things, including the span of blind mules with 

 which I cultivated some seventy-five-bushel corn up at Sibley 

 on a torrid Fourth of July. An instinctive bent toward farming 

 became a positive love for it. After a year's experience I awoke 

 in a new world, full of splendid possibilities and rewards. I am 

 sure this conser%'ative confession cannot mislead, for I believe 

 that an agricultural course at this university will repay others 

 as generously as it did me. All the returns that I realized as a 

 result of my study have been of value in cash and satisfac- 

 tion. I have been selling them every day, and still have the 



