BuEBAu OF Agbicultuee 491 



$2.55. Now, in the eight years in which we have been growing we 

 have had six good years and two bad years, which is a very good 

 record indeed, and it looks like we have made a reputation which 

 we feel justly proud of. 



Now, as to the growing of strawberries. In the first place, 

 any land that will make 40 bushels of corn will make Aroma straw- 

 berries, 60-bushel land will grow ideal berries. There is such a 

 thing as having the land too rich to grow the best of Aroma berries. 

 We have to have plenty of nitrogen in the soil. We put 200 to 1,000 

 lbs. of fertili7er to the acre, and get the best results from the acid 

 phosphates. We do not need any potash. We are trying not to put 

 on too much nitrogen, so we are using mostly phosphate. If the land 

 if- not good, we put on some barnyard manure. We plant these 

 berries in the spring of the year. We try to get them in by the 

 middle of March, but usually by the first of April. We make a good 

 seed bed. We lay it off three feet .each way, which takes about 

 5,000 plants to the acre. We buy the plants co-operatively and 

 have been getting very good prices — $2.00 a thousand, delivered at 

 Bowling Green. We bought 4,000,000 plants from one firm in 

 Chattanooga at $2.00 a thousand. Many growers have grown their 

 own plants. 



(Question: Is there any difference between the southern and 

 northern grown plants? Ans. No.) 



Later on, we cultivate (using the Planet Jr. or small harrows), 

 and take a row at a time. We cultivate the berries both ways, 

 until the middle of July, when we discontinue cultivating both ways 

 and cultivate only one way, allowing the strawberries to make a 

 matted row. We first made wide matted rows, but we decided we 

 got most of the berries off the edges and we found also the wide 

 matted rows were difficult for the pickers to pick in. So we allowed 

 the matted rows to be eight or ten inches wide. In the fall of the 

 year we leave them about ten inches wide, but in the spring they 

 spread out to 12 or 14 inches. We have to cultivate them through 

 the season, and we must keep them clean. Sometimes it takes con- 

 siderable work. It takes anywhere from two to five hoeings during 

 the summer to keep the plants clean, and it is considerable labor. 

 Some men who have kept a record, have decided that it takes about 

 25 days' labor to make an acre of strawberries. Sometimes, during 

 the winter, we mulch these plants, preferably with wheat straw. 

 Once when wheat straw got scarce, some of the men mulched with 

 broom sedge. It is not very desirable, but it has some qualifica- 

 tions that are very good indeed. We were bothered with cheat and 

 wheat in the straw. The first year there was no trouble with the 

 broom sedge, but we had trouble later with it coming up in the 

 strawberries. But with the many cultivations, we got it out readily. 

 We mulch to keep the berries clean, as there is no danger of the 



