THE STRAWBERRY 



A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS 

 OF STRAWBERRY PRODUCTION IN ALL ITS BRANCHES 



Volume II No. 6 



Three Rivers, Mich., June, 1907 



$1.00 a Yeir 



THE preparation of the strawberry bed for a second crop 

 is one of the interesting and important features of 

 June work. It should be done as soon as the last 

 picking of the berries is made. The best way to do 

 this work where all the conditions are favorable is first to go 

 over the field with a common mowing machine, allowing the 

 horse to walk astride the row, and mowing off one row at a 

 time, being careful to see that the mower does not get too close 

 to the crown, although there is very little danger of doing this, 

 as the crown usually is well protected by the surface to the soil, 

 or a scythe may be used for the purpose. The mowing ^'^ " 

 should be done in dry weather, and 

 when the indications are that no 

 rain will fall until after the field 

 is burned over. If this dry 

 weather continues for thirty-six 

 or forty-eight hours after the 

 mowing is done, the fields 

 will have become suffi- 

 ciently dry to burn very 

 readily. In the event a 

 heavy rain should fall 

 between the mowing 

 and the burning, the / 

 vegetable matter f 

 would be so wet as 

 to make it dangerous 

 to burn over at all, as a smoul- 

 dering fire would be sure to destroy 

 the crowns of the plants. 



But assuming that the 

 plants are thoroughly dry, 

 select a day when the wind 

 is blowing quite briskly, and 

 set fire to the plants In doing 

 this you should go to the windward side of the 

 plants, and set the entire bed on fire as quickly as it can be done. 

 Five or si.K acres frequently have been burned over in a space of 

 time not exceeding fifteen minutes. If the mulching has been 

 put on quite heavily, it is best either to remove part of the 

 mulching or to loosen it up, a work which may be done with a 

 hay tedder if the field be a large one. If the patch is not large, 

 the work mav be done with a fork. 



Narrowing down the rows should be done immediately after 

 the burning over is completed. To do this take a common 

 breaking-plow or bar-shear, and throw a furrow from each side 

 of the row into the center. This will leave a ridge directly be- 

 tween the rows, which may be leveled down or thrown back to 

 place by the use of a one-horse five-tooth cultivator. After the 

 cultivator has been run through, a reversible harrow with the 

 teeth thrown slightly backward, drawn across the rows, will 



level the surface nicely. It also will draw fine soil o\et the 

 crowns and bury them completely, a very important work b" 

 the way. 



One strawberry reader asked the other day why the crown was 

 covered in preparation for second crop, whereas, when we set 

 out the original plants, we leave the crown above the surface of 

 the soil. The reason for this is that after the plants have fruited 

 a crop, the original roots are entirely exhausted, and have be- 

 come a lifeless mass of wire-like vegetation. By covering the 

 crowns, a completely new root system will be encouraged. This 

 new root system is established just above the old roots, 

 and beneath the crowns of the plants. If we fail to 

 cover the crowns of the plants at this 

 time with soil, the roots will grow 

 very sparsely, the plants will send 

 out no runners, the foliage will be 

 small, and the fruit-yield insignifi- 

 cant. But where the crowns 

 are covered as described, the 

 plants will come up through 

 the soil in a few days, 

 and in a short time 

 \ the foliage will 

 ' have the bright, 

 glossy appearance 

 of health, and the 

 bed will be as vigorous 

 and capable of producing as 

 fine a crop of fruit as would be the 

 case with newly set plants. 

 After the plants have started to 

 growing again, go over the field 

 very carefully, looking for the 

 weak ones that should at once be 

 cut out v\ith a hoe, leaving nothing 

 but strong healthy plants to act as mothe 

 plants in this old-new field. The mother plants should be leti 

 about sixteen inches apart, and if you have adopted the double- 

 hedge row, allow four runners to form and layer them the same as 

 you would do in settmg out the new bed. In cultivating the field 

 for second crop, follow the same general plan as that observed 

 in cultivating young plants, carrying forward this work until the 

 early fall. Keep the runners in check, never tet the weeds and 

 grass get the start of you, and your second crop will be a bumper. 

 Many of our readers doubtless grow strawberries among their 

 orchard trees. Wherever this is done we advise most emphati- 

 cally against burning o\er the bed. Simply mow off the vines, 

 then rake up the litter and haul it away, narrowing down the 

 rows in the same way as if the bed had been burned over 

 While the excellent eff^ects of the fire is lost upon beds grown 

 in orchards, one cannot afford to take the risk of destroying the 



