THE STRAWBERRY AUGUST 1907 



when they should be growing in a tem- 

 perature of from sixty to sixty-five degrees. 

 From the time pollination begins, the 

 house should range from sixty-five to 

 seventy; and while the fruit is swelling, 

 the heat should never be allowed to fall 

 below seventy degrees. One of the ac- 

 companying cuts Fig. 3 shows very clearly 

 the necessity of heat to insure a crop. 



The Maturing Period 



As to the length of time required to 

 mature a crop of strawberries, the work 

 carried on here leads to the conclusion 

 that from eight to ten weeks are necessary 

 for the best results, although the season 



ature on forced strawberries, six plants of 

 four varieties used for forcing in the win- 

 ter of 1903-4, were placed on a bench in 

 a carnation house where the temperature 

 was held as near fifty-two degrees F. as 

 possible. These plants, four each of 

 Marshall, Glen Mary, Brandywine and 

 Dunlap, were of the same stage of growth 

 as the same varieties that were given the 

 usual forcing temperature, and had been 

 grown and treated identically until the 

 plants were in full bloom, when they 

 were moved to the cool house, while the 

 remainder of the plants were placed in the 

 usual warm house. From that time until 

 the berries on the plants in the warm 

 house were ready for market, the treat- 





FIGURE 3 INFLUENCE OF TEMPERATURE IN FORCING 



may be hastened by hard forcing (push- 

 ing the crop) during the last four weeks. 

 It is absolutely essential that the plants 

 be grown slowly during the first half of 

 the forcing period, allowing new roots and 

 tops to form in about the same manner 

 that they do throughout the spring weeks 

 in the open. 



After root growth is well established, 

 heat may be gradually increased and forc- 

 ing hastened. If rapid forcing is the order, 

 great care is necessary in the application 

 of liquid manure, as the combined stim- 

 ulus of excessive heat and quick-acting 

 plant food has a tendency to de\elop soft 

 flavorless fruits. Heavy firing calls for 

 high temperature and means danger of 

 red spider, the one dreaded trouble of the 

 forced strawberry. Daily syringing of the 

 plants and frequent wetting of the walks 

 must be resorted to in order to hold this 

 enemy in check. It is always safer on 

 this account to bring the crop along with- 

 out undue haste, allowing the fruits to 

 swell normally, retain their flavor and 

 remain solid. 



In order to test the question of temper- 



ment of both lots was precisely the same 

 with the exception of the temperature. 

 This covered pollination, application of 

 liquid manure and attention to spraying 

 foliage when needed. 



At the time the photograph was taken, 

 three plants bearing an average number 

 of fruits were selected from the two lots, 

 growing one in the warm and the other in 

 the cool house. In every case where fruit 

 had set on the plants grown at the lower 

 temperature, they were small and hard, 

 only in a few instances growing to the size 

 of an acorn, but uneven in form and poor 

 in coloring. 



It may be of interest in this connection 

 to say that while these plants were in this 

 condition, a demand arose for a few pots 

 of berries to be ripe in about four weeks' 

 time; and these same plants among others 

 were cleared of the immature fruits, taken 

 to the warm house, plunged in soil that 

 registered from seventy-five to eighty de- 

 grees, and in the required time were 

 ripening from three to five fair sized berries 

 to each plant. Fhe experiment demon- 

 strates that a cool temperature can be em- 

 Page 171 



ployed to retard strawberries, but compar- 

 atively high temperature is necessary to 

 a regular normal development. 



Look Out for the Cowpea Seed 



STRAWBERRY GROWERS who 

 find the cowpea their favorite soil 

 restorer and nitrogen producer will 

 be interested in a circular just published 

 by the Department of Agriculture at 

 Washington, and will do well to follow 

 carefully the instructions it contains. The 

 circular follows: 



The continuous wet weather of the 

 autumn of 1906 worked an especial hard- 

 ship to farmers in connection with the 

 various kinds of agricultural seeds set aside 

 for this year's planting. This is particu- 

 larly true with reference to seed of the 

 cowpea, the principal leguminous, hay, 

 and green-manuring crop in the States 

 bordering on the gulf and along the At- 

 lantic coast as far north as Virginia, the 

 excessive rainfall causing the seeds to 

 mould and soften. 



During ordinary seasons cowpea seed 

 sells for from .$1.50 to .$2 a bushel, but 

 this year it has readily brought from $3 

 to .1>3.50 a bushel. Notwithstanding this 

 high price, the farmer has found that the 

 vitality of the seed has beceme so impaired 

 that only a very small percentage has 

 germinated, and in consequence of this 

 poor quality of seed the crops grown have 

 been thin and most unsatisfactory. 



As red clover and alfalfa are not gener- 

 ally grown in the South and the main- 

 tenance of profitable agriculture and soil 

 fertility is largely dependent upon cowpeas, 

 this condition has entailed very serious 

 consequences on many southern farms. 



The Seed Laboratory of the Bureau of 

 Plant Industry of the United States De- 

 partment of Agriculture has recently col- 

 lected samples of cowpea seed from the 

 states of North Carolina, South Carolina, 

 Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, 

 Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee, to 

 the number of 3,706 packages, and these 

 samples have been carefully tested for vi- 

 tality. The results obtained have been 

 startling. 



While a good grade of seed should 

 show a germination of from 95 to 98 per 

 cent, the seed from four states only — 

 Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana, and 

 Florida — showed an average germination 

 of as much as 60 per cent, and only four 

 varieties of cowpeas contained as many as 

 sixty live seeds in each hundred — -the Iron, 

 Taylor, Whippoorwill, and New Era va- 

 rieties. In the remaining five States from 

 which samples were secured and with the 

 ten or more staple varieties of cowpeas 

 not named above, the average percentage 

 of germination reached from 49 to 59 per 

 cent only. 



In these tests the Iron variety, which 

 stood first, showed a general average of 

 79.2 percent, while the Unknown variety 



