THE STRAWBERRY OCTOBER 1907 



just as we are writing this. It comes 

 from Harry Lavender of Monroe, Mich., 

 and he says: "I have already had an offer 

 of 15 cents a quart for my acre of next 

 season's crop of strawberries, but I have 

 refused it." Mr. Lavender is another 

 novice who is making a big success with 

 strawberries. He will set out 6,000 more 

 plants next spring, and says; "Next spring 

 one acre, and in the following years two 

 acres to the season is my motto. 



Surely, such experiences as these must 

 encourage our friends, and those of little 

 faith need again to be told that "by faith 

 may the mountains be removed" — even 

 those dark and sombre mountains of doubt, 

 that rise sky high in the mind and shut 

 out all the brightness and beauty sur- 

 rounding. Cheer up! The strawberry 

 grower has troubles of his own, perhaps, 

 but he has the best business and the most 

 certain of any man who tills the soil, and 

 the soil tillers are in very truth the salt of 

 the earth! 



'^ '^ 



REPORTS from Oregon indicate that 

 the fruit crop in that state is bringing 

 in much more money to those engaged in 

 the industry this season than it yielded 

 last year. In 1906 Oregon fruits were 

 valued at $2,875,160. Just what the in- 

 crease will be it is not yet possible to de- 

 termine, but the total will be above 

 .$3,000,000. Apples, the chief item in the 

 list of fruits, will bring an average of 50 

 cents a box higher this year than last. 

 This increase applies to all products of 

 the orchard. Bartlett pears netted the 

 grower $2.25 a box as compared with 

 $1.25 last fall. 



Fall Treatment of Strawberry Beds 



By E. L. Keasey 



In Orange Judd Farmer 



UNDER this topic we must take for 

 granted that the plants are already 

 raised and that the methods em- 

 ployed from now on are for winter pro- 

 tection, rather than cultural. Middle and 

 northern latitudes require treatment for 

 strawberries differing from that of the 

 south. The rigors of winter and the 

 heaving frosts of fall and spring force the 

 grower of these plants to seek out a pro- 

 tection. 



Culture in the latitudes mentioned us- 

 ually ends the first weeks in August, at 

 which time the strawberry beds are seeded. 

 This system, it seems to me, is the most 

 sensible, as it is by far the cheapest, and 

 its results are almost always pleasing. 



At the last cultivation oats or barley are 

 sown broadcast over the patch and thor- 

 oughly worked into the soil with a fine- 

 toothed cultivator. Either of these grains 

 should be sown about the same as for 

 regular field culture, using about two bush- 

 els per acre. Those using the barley claim 

 for it a heavier growth, which in itself is 



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an important feature, as the aim of this 

 seeding system is to form a mulch for 

 winter protection of the plants. I, how- 

 ever, use oats, not that they are better, but 

 that I can get them cheaper and easier. 



The object in using these two grains is 

 that they are killed by hard frosts; thus 

 they do not continue through the winter, 

 or in any way interfere with the picking 

 of the crop the following season, as would 

 rye or wheat. If barley is used one should 

 be sure to use spring barley. This cover, 

 or mulch crop, under fair conditions, will 

 attain a growth of from eight to twelve 

 inches before freezing weather comes. 

 When killed, the plants settle down close 

 to the strawberry plants, thus furnishing 

 an excellent protection and leaving no 

 weed seed with which to harass the grower 

 the following season. 



Coarse stable manure is very often rec- 

 ommended as a mulch for strawberries, 

 but one who is posted is almost sure to 

 brand the author of said recommendation 

 as being more of a writer than a prac- 

 titioner. Manure is a prolific breeder of 

 weeds, and the careful grower of straw- 

 berries soon learns the penalty that awaits 

 him who uses stable manure as a mulch 

 for berries. 



There is a better way of mulching 

 strawberries than either of the above, if 

 one can secure the material, and that is 

 with straw. But in the Michigan fruit 

 belt straw is more expensive than is hay, 

 thus this system becomes at once pro- 

 hibitive. Mulching with either straw or 

 manure should not be attempted until 

 after freezing weather sets in, when, in 

 the case of straw, it can be applied to a 

 depth of about four inches over the entire 

 patch. With the manure it must be more 

 sparingly used. 



The straw mulch is to be recommended 

 where the material is obtainable, as it has 



Page 198 



a value beyond the mere protection it 

 gives during the winter. When spring 

 comes the straw can be left on the vines 

 until quite late, thus retarding the blos- 

 soming period, which in turn heads off 

 late spring frosts, also making the crop 

 several days later than would be the case 

 without the mulch. 



Straw has another advantage in that 

 when it is raked off the rows in spring and 

 left between them it conserves moisture, 

 also prevents the dashing of sand upon 

 the berries during heavy rains; but, strange 

 to say, with all that is said and written 

 about the fall mulch for strawberries, not 

 one grower in a hundred e\er resorts to 

 this splendid system. 



MR. KEASEY intimates that any grow- 

 er who is posted would never use 

 stable manure for mulching on account of 

 its containing much weed seed. This, of 

 course, would be true where precautionary 

 measures were neglected, but when prop- 

 erly used the grower never will be troubled 

 with weeds when stable manure is used, 

 any more than he would with straw or 

 any other mulching. When mulching the 

 plants with stable manure the coarse, 

 strawy material should be placed directly 

 over the rows, and the finer parts of the 

 manure should be placed in the spaces 

 between the rows. And it should remain 

 so until growth starts in the spring, at 

 which time the coarse material should be 

 parted so that the plants can come up 

 through it, and the coarsest of the material 

 that lays between the rows should be raked 

 up along each side of the row. Placed in 

 this way the mulch will be heavy enough 

 along the rows to prevent any weeds from 

 coming through it. Then, when all dan- 

 ger of frost is past, the cultivator should 

 be run through the bare space left between 

 the rows. This will mix the finer manure 



