PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 81 



thirsty. He thought it was the drought last year that gave the barrenness 

 ofbk)ssomsto Mr. Bergen's pUiiits. He said: I don't know but sulphate 

 of potash applied in weak solution will make plants produce runners; but 

 I do know that ashes, although the best kind of manure to make plants 

 produce fruit, are the worst to make them produce runners. To obtain 

 plants in a small way, of choice varieties, my practice is to manure 

 highlj", and strike the plants in thumb pots. It is my opinion that the 

 barrenness of some strawberry beds this year arises from their putting 

 forth so many flowers last fall. 



The Chairman. — That theory will not do, because in California, where 

 they are all grown by artificial watering, they regularly produce two crops 

 a year, and at Los Angelos the strawberry plants are blooming and fruit- 

 ing* all the year. 



Dr. Trimble. — I should like to know how we are to settle the question, 

 whether to plant strawberries in the fall or in the spring, or whether to 

 manure or not, when there are so many conflicting opinions. 



Mr. John Gr. Bergen — I have no doubt that spring is the best time to 

 plant for field culture, where I live, on the light soil of Long Island. I 

 have seen plants set out in summer from the first runners, that produced a 

 good crop the next season, but as a general thing plants set out i)i 

 autumn do not produce a good crop the next year ; so I think it best to 

 plant in the spring, and tend them well that season as long as it is pos- 

 sible to use the plow and cultivator on account of the runners, and then 

 let them be, and next year get a good crop without any more labor, and 

 then plow all under, and at the same time have a new plantation coming 

 on. By this means we can use plenty of manure. I would say that in my 

 young days we used to raise strawberries for market. The Crimson Cone- 

 and Scotch Runner were the kinds approved of in those da^^s. I have had 

 a good deal of experience in growing strawberries for market. If I am 

 using old ground I prepare it thoroughly, as for corn, and then mark off 

 the ground, four feet by four feet, and set the plants two in a hill, and 

 work it both ways as often as two or three weeks. I also believe in hoe- 

 ing strawberries as much as I do corn. I have sold $300 an acre from the 

 first crop, and, when I have tried to preserve the same vines for a second 

 crop, have rarely exceeded $100, unless it was on new ground. 



Mr. Fuller. — I think if you plant strawberries for a field crop, say fifty 

 acres, the plants should last five years. 



Mr. Carpenter. — Some kinds must be cultivated in hills — the Triomphe de 

 Gand, for instance. The Austin grows best in mass. I have always 

 heard that hoeing the strawberry was condemned by most growers, but 

 I think the ground should be kept clean and light. I like the hoe. 



Rev. Mr. Weaver, Fordham. — I set 150 plants last fall, dressing the bed 

 with horse and hen manure, and all lived, and now look remarkably well 

 and full of fruit. 



Mr. R. G. Pardee. — I tried six years and failed to get fruit, using manure 

 freely in a good garden soil, and then by a different course succeeded in 

 growing as fine fruit as I wish. I call a strawberry bed a good one when 

 T can pick quarts of berries five inches around. For field culture, I would 

 first make the soil very mellow by plowing and harrowing and subsoiling, 



TAii Inst 1 6 



