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STATEMENT OF STRAWBERRY CROP, J. WEBB BARTON,. 

 DANVERS, MASS. 



The piece of- land which I enter, bore a good crop of 

 strawberries in 1890 and again in 1891, and after picking, 

 was phmted to cucumbers for pickling. The next spring 

 (1892) the plants bearing the present crop were set out. 

 The land is moist, somewhat heav}^ but free from stand- 

 ing water. 



The stable manure, bone and potash, were harrowed in 

 just before setting the plants. The rows were four feet 

 distant from each other and the plants two feet more or 

 less, in the row. For the most part runners were allowed 

 to grow freely. A few rows were set out in August and 

 kept in ''hills" and these were very satisfactory — yet to 

 be successful in getting a good crop of fruit the next year 

 from plants set so late, all things must be favorable for a 

 good growth, and above all, good plants to start with. 



A covering of meadow hay was put on in December, 

 removed the middle of April and immediately 437 lbs. of 

 home-made fertilizer applied directly upon the vines. 



The first picking was June 19th and the last for market, 

 July 15th. Upon land similar to this many varieties will 

 blight or rust badly. An experiment in spraying with 

 Bordeaux Mixture to prevent this rust did not prove suc- 

 cessful. I made two applications with a Knapsack ma- 

 chine and I regret to say I could see no difference between 

 sprayed and unsprayed vines, yet there may have been 

 some good reason for this, and I hope others may not be 

 discouraged from similar experiments. 



The varieties were Belmont, Beverly, Haverland, Cres- 

 cent, Downing, Babach No. 5, Beder Wood and Warfield 

 No. 2. Of these Beverly in " hills '' and Haverland in 

 matted rows were very satisfactory. There were also a 

 few plants of perhaps ten other varieties for testing. 



