1740 



STRAWBERRY 



use of certain fertilizers, such pliint-food may be safely 

 and profitably used for Strawberries. It is better to 

 fertilize heayily the crop that precedes Strawberries 

 than to apply in large ([uantities to land occupied by 

 this plant. In no case should heavy applications of 

 strongly nitrogenous fertilizers be made .just before the 

 blooming period nor during the hot summer months. In 

 the first instance, an over-vigorous vine growth at tlie 

 expense of fruit will be the result; in the second, the 

 plant is rendered too tender and too sappy to resist tlie 



2425. Shuster Gem Strawberry (X i-il. 



long and sometimes hot and dry summers. The south- 

 ern cow-pea is possihly the best crop to precede the 

 Strawberry. This leaves the ground clean, mellow and 

 in the very best condition for any crop that follows. 



The soil is usually prepared in slightly elevated rows 

 or beds 3M-4 feet broad. In making summer and early 

 fall plantings with the view of securing a large yield 

 the following spring, plants are set only 8 or 10 inches 

 apart along the line of the row. The distance in the 

 row for spring plantings ranges from 12-30 inches, 

 depending on the tendency of varieties set to multiply 

 runners. For heavy yields the properly matted row is 

 best. In the ideal matted row each plant should be 

 5-7 inches distant from its nearest neighbor, and a space 

 of 18-2-t inches along the top of the rows should be so 

 occupied with plants. Season, soil and treatment at the 

 hand of the cultivator greatly modifies the degree of suc- 

 cess in securing this ideal stand. Where irrigating 

 facilities are to be had, the desired results may be ob- 

 tained with certainty. In spite of the best efforts on the 

 part of the grower, however, varieties like Michel, 

 Downing and (Jloud may set too many plants during wet 

 seasons. In such cases any runners that encroach on the 

 spaces between rows are treated as weeds, and such 

 places along the line of the rows as become too thickly 

 matted should be properly thinned on the advent of 

 cool fall weather. 



With spring setting, cultivation begins shortly after 

 plantings are made. The plow, cultivator and hoe are 

 the implements most used, and these are employed in 

 cultivation often enough to keep the ground in good 

 tilth and free from weeds. Cultivation usually ceases 

 early in the fall. Any weeds that interfere with the 

 proper development of plants or fruits from this time 

 until the end of fruit harvest are pulled out or clipped 

 off with sharp hoes without breaking the surface soil. 

 Very little winter protection is necessary. It is well to 

 delay mulching until after midwinter, or until there 

 has been sufficient cold to drive insects into winter 

 quarters. On clay soils inclined to heave during frosty 

 weather a thin covering of l>arnyard litter or of short 

 straw (pine straw is excellent) placed around and be- 

 tween rather than over plants is of advantage. For 

 keeping fruit clean and, at the same time, adding al- 

 most, if not quite, its purchase value in plant-food. 



STRAWBERRY 



nothing is better than cottonseed hulls. It is a fact 

 worthy of note that as one goes soutli the picking sea- 

 son lengthens. Florida, southern Louisiana and other 

 sections near the Gulf frequently begin shipping late in 

 .January or early in February and continue to market 

 berries for four or five mouths. In latitude 32° the 

 writer has during several seasons in the past twenty- 

 five years shipped Strawberries from about April 1 to 

 .Inly 1. In latitude 34° the picking season rarely lasts 

 more thati five or six weeks. 



In recent years the rapid strides nutde in methods of 

 picking and packing, in the construction, loading and 

 icing of fruit cars, in shortening the time between 

 grower and consumer, and in vastly better means of 

 distributing fruits among different markets and of 

 reaching all classes of consumers in the several markets, 

 — all these things have made southern-grown Strawher- 

 ries common in almost every city, town and village iu 

 more northern latitudes. a. B. McKay. 



To the foregoing advice may be added a sketch of 

 some of the rotation practices in Georgia. Four systems 

 rif rotation exist ; the annual, biennial, triennial, and 

 what may be termed the perennial or permanent system. 

 These terms are frequently, though quite unnecessarily, 

 confused, and some growers, while practicing, techni- 

 cally, a biennial rotation, call it annual, because they 

 establish a new plat annually, although each plat, when 

 plowed under or destroyed, is two years old. 



To illustrate : A plat planted in July, August or Sep- 

 tember makes a good, strong growth by winter along 

 the isotherm of the Carolina and Georgia coast, where 

 summer planting and the system of annual rotation 

 are almost exclusively practiced. In fact, the plant 

 continues to grow, especially under ground, through 

 the entire winter, setting in the spring a heavy and 

 profitable crop, which is marketed. The plat is seldom 

 worked out, but used to reset another plat in the late 

 summer, and then turned mider. Such a rotation is 

 strictly an annital one. Logically, it could be nothing 

 less, nothing more. If, however, this plat were culti- 

 vated through the season following its crop, suffered to 

 bear a second crop the next spring, then used as before 

 to reset a succession plat and turned under, such a pro- 

 cess would be a biennial rotation, and, logically, could 

 be nothing less, nothing more. Equally as logical 

 wotild it be to call the rotation biennial had the plat 

 been planted in November— instead of July, August or 

 September — cultivated through the following summer 

 and carried into the next year, bearing its main crop- 

 its "money" crop — the second spring. The fact that its 

 first crop was light and scattering would not make the 

 rotation an annual one; for the essence of the differ- 

 ence between an annual and a biennial rotation con- 

 sists in the plat, in the first instance, flowering but 

 once, while in the second instance it passes two flower- 

 ing seasons. In the first case, no cultivation is given 

 after fruiting; in the second the plat is cultivated after 

 fruiting, or after the fruiting season, whether it fruits 

 or not. These two distinctions cause a rotation to fall 



2426. Leaf-bUght of Strawberry IX Ji). 



uudfU- the head of biennial even when the plat is set 

 out as late as February or March, cultivated through 

 the summer following and fruited the next spring. 



The bicnniiil rotation (though often under the errone- 

 ous title of annual) is much the most common, and is 

 almost universally employed, except on the coast, where 

 the light, sandy soil, the humid climate and more 



