OUR CORRESPONDENCE SCHOOL- Si^OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE 



WHERE THE MEMBERS OF THE 

 SCHOOL AND THE INSTRUCTOR 

 IN CULTURAL METHODS MEET 



PRACTICAL LESSONS TAUGHT 

 PERTAINING TO THE SCIENCE 

 OF STRAWBERRY PRODUCTION 



WHILE to the person accustomed 

 to growing strawberries the in- 

 quiries made by beginners may 

 appear to be unnecessary, it 

 remains true that there are thousands of 

 people whose lives have been so placed 

 that they never have had opportunity to 

 learn the first thing about strawberry cul- 

 ture; perhaps, indeed, they have been 

 brought up on a city street where even 

 grass was permitted to grow sparingly. 

 Thus they are compelled, when engaging 

 in the work of strawberry production, to 

 ask questions of the most rudimentary sort. 



Then there are people who have grown 

 strawberries all their lives who do not 

 know the first thing about some of the 

 most essential principles of their growth 

 and culture. Within a month the writer 

 was in a patch of Warfields with the 

 owner. The yield was small and there 

 were many "nubbins . 



"What bisexual have you set with your 

 Warfields?" we asked. 



"What's that?" inquired the grower 

 who had been in the business for forty 

 years. 



Well, you may imagine the surprise 

 with which we learned that this grower 

 knew absolutely nothing about sex in 

 plant life ; that to him a Warfield or a 

 Sample or a Bubach were no different from 

 a Dornan or a Bederwood or a Pride of 

 Michigan. So we are glad sometimes 

 when a beginner has the courage to ask 

 us questions that are rudimentary. If the 

 professionals are inclined to scoff at it, all 

 right; but we believe that many people 

 will be glad to read the questions asked 

 by a woman who has the true instincts of 

 the Yankee and whose right to that title 

 is proved by the fact that she writes us 

 from Boston, and perhaps the answers 

 that follow may help some others to un- 

 derstand certain points not clear to them 

 before. She has asked her questions by 

 "steps" as she calls them, so we repro- 

 duce them just as they came to us, al- 

 though the answers do not follow in 

 numerical order; 



1. I order plants from nursery spring of 1906. 



2. Put these in two separate beds — a, fruit; 

 /), propagating. 



3. Allow h to grow as many strong runners 

 as the plants will, while keeping off all bloom. 



4. These runners are the plants to transplant 

 for a new fruit bed? 



5. When should they be transplanted, fall of 



1906 or spring of 1907.' 



6. When will they bear their first crop of 

 fruit' 



7. If they are transplanted in the spring of 



1907 should they be allowed to bloom that sum- 

 mer.' If in fall of 1906, when.' 



8. Are tfie mother plants (those bought and 

 placed here in b to form runners) to be left un- 

 moved and should they be allowed to bear fruit 

 in 1907.' 



9. Why should not these runners be allowed 

 to bear just as much as those which were layered 

 beside original mother plants in fruiting bed ir.' 



10. What does the nitrate of soda do for the 

 plants and is it wise to apply it alone while plants 

 are budding for bloom in the spring following 

 the original planting (1907) plants put in in 1906? 



11. When should bone meal and wood ashes 

 be applied during this season (1907) to plants 

 put in in 1906 — before blossoms form, or after 

 fruit is set? 



12. Is if true that wood ashes soften the fruit? 

 Would it matter if the berries are not going to 

 be shipped and only peddled and which of these 

 fertilizers heightens color? 



13. Do you mow and burn off plants after 

 the first fruiting season or the second? 



If you wish to grow your own plants 

 you should take some plants of each va- 

 riety and set them in a bed by themselves, 

 which should be called your propagating 

 bed. The bloom from these planes should 

 be removed the same as in the fruiting 

 bed. When the runner starts forming you 

 should lay soil on the runner wire, just 

 back of the node, or little leaf that forms 

 on the runner, spreading the runners out 

 so that each plant will have abundance of 

 room to develop in. This work should 

 continue until about the first of October, 

 and the plants that form after this should 

 be pulled off, as plants that form so late 

 in the season will not make good plants 

 for resetting, unless growing weather con- 

 tinues until very late. In the winter the 

 propagating bed should be covered with 

 mulching of some kind. In the spring of 

 1908, after you have your ground all ready 

 to receive the plants, you should then go 

 to your propagating bed and dig up the 

 plants and set them where you wish your 

 fruiting bed, keeping all bloom off. The 

 plants which are set in the fruiting bed in 

 1908 will produce their first crop of ber- 

 ries in 1909. If you leave the mother 

 plants in the propagating bed, these can 

 be allowed to produce fruit, but while 

 digging up the runner plants the mother 

 plants will be injured considerably and 

 will not give a full crop of fruit. 



The runner plants in a fruiting bed 

 will produce berries the same as the moth- 

 er plant, and so would the runner plants 

 in the propagating bed produce fruit if 

 they were not transplanted. 



Nitrate of soda is what might be called 

 a stimulant of foliage growth, as it stimu- 

 lates and increases vegetative growth of 

 plants. The best time to apply nitrate of 

 soda is in the spring, and it should be 

 sprinkled thinly around the plants. Bone 



meal, wood ashes, and all kinds of fertil- 

 izer which becomes available slowly, 

 should be applied early in the spring, and 

 thoroughly worked into the soil before 

 plants are set. Wood ashes have a ten- 

 dency to make the fruit firmer. Also 

 gives them a higher color. 



After the first crop of berries is picked, 

 the plants should be mowed off and the 

 dead foliage destroyed by fire. T his 

 should also be done for the second crop. 



D. G., Anaheim, Calif. 1 have a patch of ber- 

 ries from which I am now picking my first 

 crop, but the blight or rust or whatever you 

 call it is causing them (the leaves) to dry up. 

 Will ', hese same plants be any good for the 

 second crop if mowed off and treated in the 

 usual manner and sprayed after new growth 

 starts? Would fertilizer help them? 



Burning over your strawberry bed will 

 kill all the fungous spores on your plants 

 and the new roots will start new plants as 

 fresh and free from diseases as were the 

 plants when originally set. Fertilizer 

 would be no help in this case. As soon 

 as the new plants begin to appear after 

 the burning over, keep a careful lookout 

 and upon the first appearance of any form 

 of fungous disease begin to spray with 

 Bordeaux mixture in accordance with the 

 instructions given in The Strawberry. 



S. M. P., Woodside, Minn. As my plants are 

 just beginning to blossom it will be the last of 

 July or the first of August before I could mow 

 the vines and cover them with dirt. Would 

 they have time to get sufficient growth before 

 cold weather in this latitude, and if not what 

 shall I do with them? 



2. Would it be all right to mow the vines 

 and not cover with dirt? Or not to mow them 

 at all, but as soon as through picking berries 

 to start the cultivator as at first? 



Your plants should make fine growth 

 within six weeks from the time they are 

 burned over and although you say . the 

 season v.'ill be late there is no reason or 

 doubt but that the burning over will do 

 just as well under the conditions which 

 exist this year as they would in a more 

 normal season. 



2. It would not be well to simply mow 

 them over and leave them uncovered. 

 Covering the crown with dirt is very es- 

 sential, as it is this which causes the plants 

 to develop a new system of roots. If you 

 will pull up one of your plants after fruit- 

 ing time, you will see that it is a mass of 

 dry, wiry fibres. The development, there- 



