70 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



tMay, 



leases, they do not find it to their advantage 

 to set out trees, grape vines or bushes that 

 will produce berries. Many persons living in 

 villages regret that they have so small an 

 amount of land that they cannot raise the 

 larger kinds of fruit. Now, all these persons 

 can raise the most delicious fruit that grows 

 in any elimate. That fruit is the strawberry, 

 and the plants are hardy and productive in 

 every State and Territory in the country. 

 In fact, it is extremely difficult to decide 

 which offers the most advantages for produc- 

 ing this most delicious fruit. The strawberry 

 does exceedingly well in those parts of the 

 country where oranges, lemons, flgs, bananas 

 and pineapples abound, and does equally well 

 in regions so far north that the most hardy 

 apples will not mature. But a very small 

 amount of land is required to raise enough 

 strawberries to support an ordinary family. 

 A square rod, if treated properly, will produce 

 as many strawberries as a common family 

 will require during their season. The plants 

 multiply very fast. Every plant set out in 

 the spring may be made to produce from ten 

 to twenty plants during the season. By man- 

 uring the parent plants the young ones will 

 be strong and stocky. Strawberry plants 

 come into bearing very quickly. If they are 

 rooted in pots in the summer and set out ear- 

 ly in the fall, they will produce a fine crop 

 the following year. No other fruits except 

 melons and tomatoes, which are generally 

 ranked with vegetables, can be produced so 

 quickly. 



A person who does not wish to lay out much 

 money in commencing with strawberries can 

 procure early in the spring a dozen strong 

 plants of some good variety and raise from 

 them plants enough to set a square rod of 

 land. By rooting the young plants in small 

 pots like those used by florists they will be in 

 condition to set out in September, and by 

 mulching they will produce a good crop next 

 season. The plants set out for propagating 

 purposes should be planted in very rich soil, 

 at considerable distance apart, and well culti- 

 vated. Runners will appear about the last of 

 .June. They should be allowed to spread in 

 all directions. At the points where rudimen- 

 tary plants should appear on the runners the 

 little pots should be sunk in the ground and 

 the runner held in place by a small stone, a 

 forked stick, or a piece of wire bent like a 

 hair-pin. The pots must be filled with rich 

 earth, in which the roots will spread. Several 

 good plants may often be obtained from the 

 same runner. After they have all become 

 established in the pots the runner may be cut 

 and the original plant left to grow itself. The 

 plants rooted in this way may be put into per- 

 manent rows without interfering with their 

 growth. A hole being made with a trowel the 

 pot is inverted and thumped on the bottom, 

 the plant being caught in one hand. When 

 placed in the ground it should be pressed 

 firmly around the roots. The same pots may 

 be used for rooting plants for several years. 

 Good, strong plants may be raised by setting 

 the propagating plants as directed above and 

 allowing the young plants to take root in the 

 ground. If carefully taken up when the soil 

 is damp, as after a rain they may be removed 

 some distance without injury. Plants raised 

 near where they are wanted for setting do 



much better than those obtained from a dis- 

 tance. 



For garden culture the soil for strawberry 

 plants should be well prepared. The spade is 

 preferrable to the plow for pulverizing it. 

 Unless it is naturally very rich considerable 

 well-rotted stable manure should be applied 

 and incorporated with the soil while spading. 

 Most of it should be buried quite deeply. The 

 roots should be induced to penetrate the soil 

 as far as possible. The plants will suffer less 

 from drought if the soil is spaded deeply. If 

 ground is scarce the rows may be sixteen 

 inches apart, and the plants stand at the same 

 distance, in the rows. Next every fourth row 

 a space two feet wide should be left for a path 

 for convenience in cultivating the plants and 

 picking the berries. If the plants are set out 

 in the spring they should not be permitted to 

 produce fruit that season. The flower stems 

 should be citt off as soon as they appear so as 

 to throw all the sap into the plant. For the 

 same reason the runners should cut ofl. The 

 stalks and runners may be easily pinched off 

 when they are young and tender. If they are 

 allowed to become tough it will be necessary 

 to cut them. A sharp spade may be employed 

 to cut runners. Little other attention will be 

 required except to keep the ground free from 

 weeds. With a favorable season the plants 

 will cover about half the ground by fall. On 

 the approach of winter the plants should be 

 covered to the depth of three or four inches 

 with long hay or straw. It can be held in 

 position so it will not be blown away by the 

 wind by laying rails along the paths. As the 

 frost leaves the covering should be removed. 

 Plants treated in this way will produce a large 

 crop of very fine berries the year they are 

 planted out. By forking up the soil between 

 the plants and adding .some more manure and 

 soil, they will continue to produce well two or 

 three years. 



Persons having time and land to devote to 

 strawberry culture can scarcely do belter than 

 to set one or two hundred plants each year 

 and treat them as above directed for the sake 

 of the crop they will have the year after they 

 are set out. The berries produced on young 

 plants are much larger and finer than those 

 on old ones. When each plant stands by 

 itself the berries ripen much better than when 

 the plants are crowded. When ten plants 

 kept in rich ground for propagating purposes 

 the requisite number of young and strong 

 plants can be raised. Strawberries of smaller 

 size and poorer quality can be raised in a 

 much easier way. The soil can be prepared 

 with the 'plow and harrow, the plants set in 

 rows from two and a half to three feet apart 

 and the ground between them worked with a 

 cultivator. If the rows are quite straight the 

 « cultivator may be run close to the plants 

 without injuring them. Of course it will be 

 necessary to use the hand hoe between the 

 plants in the rows, Two or three good crops 

 can be obtained from plants set out and tend- 

 ed in this way. Unless pains be taken to keep 

 most of the lunners cut off the plants become 

 too thick to be strong, and the berries will be 

 small. The soil becomes hard and loses its 

 fertility, as the strawberry plant is a gross 

 feeder. As strawberry plants becomes old 

 new roots appear near the surface of the 

 ground and the pla uts appear to raise. They 



may be kept in fair condition by placing a 

 coating of well-rotted manure on the ground 

 between them and loosening the soil with a 

 fork. Transplanting can be done with a gar- 

 den trowel while the soil is quite damp. It 

 is always best to cut off the dead and lower 

 leaves before setting out the plants. If the 

 roots are very long they should be shortened 

 by the use of shears. It is much better to 

 shorten roots than to double them up in 

 planting.— CWcago Times. 



THE VALUE OF SOILING CROPS. 



All industrial and mechanical progress is 

 marked by an economy of labor. In fact this 

 economy and greater perfection of labor, as it 

 is made possible and practicable by the in- 

 genuity and inventive genius of thoughtful 

 and enterprising men, are the springs from 

 which this progress flows. For, as experi- 

 ence and ability enable a practical man to do 

 so, he is constantly improving his methods, 

 adding a new device, a better plan, a quicker 

 and more effective process, here and there, 

 until, by dividing the labor and securing 

 greater perfection of it, the products are in- 

 creased many fold with either no greater cost 

 or a much smaller expense in proportion to 

 the advantages gained, and thus by gradual 

 steps, and sometimes by a happy discovery 

 which leads to a surprising and sudden ad- 

 vance, have all the industries progressed so 

 rapidly as they have done in the last twenty- 

 five or thirty years. Let us consider just one 

 fact which is of surpassing interest to farmers. 

 This is the invention of the Bessemer process 

 of making steel, by which the cost of steel 

 rails has been reduced to about the common 

 price of iron rails a few years ago, and their 

 useful life has been prolonged about ten 

 times, thus decreasing the actual cost of the 

 rails, in effect, to one-tenth of the cost of iron 

 rails, and the result to farmers has been to 

 double the value of their corn, wheat, beef 

 and other products which come from the 

 West. Old farmers remember when it cost 

 one bushel of corn to get another to market. 

 But now the ruling rates of freight are lower 

 than ever, and ten bushels of grain can 

 carried to the eastern markets for the price of 

 one. In many other ways farmers are now 

 enjoying the benefits of these improved indus- 

 trial methods. But, to use a common expres- 

 sion, they must " follow suit " or they will be 

 beaten after all. It is indispen.sable that they 

 must at the same time cheapen their own 

 product by the same methods, because this 

 cheapening process referred to is general and 

 affects every industry. Farms must be made 

 more productive so that grain and provisions, 

 milk, butter, cheese, fruit, etc., can be oflfi 

 at the reduced prices which are unavoidable, 

 and yet the farmers make more profit than 

 before. 



Just now we call attention to one of the 

 greatest improvements in agricultural prac- 

 tice, viz., the growth and use of soiling crops 

 as a substitute for pasturing. This consists 

 of growing a succession of crops, as rye, 

 clover, corn, millet, oats and peas mixed, and 

 roots, with several others which have local ad- 

 vantages, for the purpose of cutting them 

 green and feeding to stock of all kinds: horses, 

 cattle, sheep and swine, by which the area of 

 ground required to feed the stock may be re- 



