204 
TH He @ A RED ENaC ame 
The Pational Agricultural Society 
Was founded by a group of far-seeing men of national reputation. 
Their aim is a high 
one—to weld together the various agricultural interests and make the organization a 
strong factor in national development. Every patriotic farmer should give his support. 
be as follows: 
concern. 
Reduced facsimile, size of page 9x12¥%4 inches 
America’s Quality Farm Monthly 
Is one of the strong arms through which the Society reaches 
out tohelpits members. It is big, beautiful, practical. The 
methods of successful big farmers, the news of the great, 
international pure-bred animal lovers’ fraternity. “THE 
ANNUAL OUTFITTING NUMBER” contains 100 pages 
and 76 practical illustrations; also Christmas ‘““THE IN- 
TERNATIONAL LIVESTOCK ANNUAL.” Worthy the 
man who grows the best, breeds the best and reads the best. 
The Field Illustrated, alone, per year, is $1.50 
W hat The Society Can Do for Y ou 
In addition to the advantages that come to you as a 
member of a society of such high standing, there are two 
distinct, tangible benefits. The Field Illustrated and 
The Agricultural Digest will be sent without further 
expense. 
Tear off blank at right, fill in name and address and 
mail with currency, check or money order for $2.00. 
Constitution 
Article J] 
The objects of this Society shall 
(a) To effect an organization non- 
partisan and non-political which by 
its unquestioned sponsorship and 
membership shall command gen- 
eral confidence and afford a com- 
mon mouthpiece for the varied and 
diversified agricultural interests of 
the country on matters of National 
Reduced facsimile, size of page 9x12¥4 inches 
All Its Name Implies and More 
The other strong, helpful arm of the National Agricultural 
Society is THE AGRICULTURAL DIGEST. The first 
issue ready March 15, 1916. It analyzes and summarizes 
the best farm literature monthly for the progressive, think- 
ing farmer. It skims the cream for you and panes you the 
very best in condensed, readable form. THE AGRI- 
CULTURAL DIGEST fills the greatest need in agricul- 
tural literature today. 
The Agricultural Digest, alone, per year, is $1.50 
he Mational Agricultural Society 
Dept, 7, 17 WEST 42nd ST., NEW YORK 
I herewith apply for membership in THE NATIONAL 
AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY and enclose $2.00 annual 
dues, to include THE FIELD ILLUSTRATED and THE 
AGRICULTURAL DIGEST without further charge. 
INGINE so-so esroi0 5ie eR oosoas shale deal A EEO 
7: C11 COCRR ERASE DORI OU COOOL OCC LE GARAGE Go.° 
Have a Business of Your Own 
Are you secure in your position; do you know your future ts 
assured, or are you and your family going to suffer uf 
you are some day replaced by a younger man? 
You do not 
need capital to start; only ambition to be independent. 
There are several men in our subscription organization, 
Prevent this by owning your own business. 
who are making from $1,000 to $10,000 a year. 
The 
difference in the earnings is the difference in the time and 
energy put into the work. We are publishers of four 
magazines, some one of which should be in every home. 
If you will break away and start in business for yourself, or 
if you merely want to lay up a reserve fund for the inevitable 
rainy day, write us now for full particulars. 
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 
Garden City, New York 
If you wish information about dogs apply to the Readers’ Service 
APRIL, 1916 
A, f See Ae 
Preventing Frost-Blasting of 
Strawberry Blossoms 
FTEN a cold snap may occur just when the 
strawberry plants are in full flower, with 
the result that there is a partial or total loss 
of the crop due to the blasting of the bloom: 
When the thermometer registers below 32 de- 
grees the pollen grains and the cells of the pis- 
tils and the stamens upon which fertilization 
of the blossoms depend are generally ruptured 
by the formation of ice crystals inside them; 
when the freezing point is not reached, but 
when the temperature continues below 40 de- 
grees for several days and nights, the damage 
may be just as great, but in this case be due to 
what may be designated a paralysis of the re- 
productive parts of the flower, a condition 
which no subsequent warm weather seems able 
to correct. 
As a general rule strawberry plants are pro- 
tected during winter by mulches of marsh hay, 
straw, corn stalks, etc., from damage due to 
alternate freezings and thawings. When spring 
opens these mulches are removed to the inter- 
rows or sometimes taken from the field alto- 
gether. The former is the better plan, especially 
as it fits in with the protective practice, which 
consists simply in covering the plants should 
the temperature fall below 45 degrees, for the 
few days they continue in bloom. Should the 
straw have been removed from the plantation it 
may be spread fairly qui from wagons or 
carts. As soon as the danger is passed it must 
be raked off the plants. While it covers the 
plants it checks the radiation of heat from the 
plants themselves and also from the ground, 
and helps to form a warmer layer of air around 
the plants. In one plantation where the straw 
was three times spread by hand because the 
owner feared frost each time the cost was less 
than ten dollars an acre. 
An improvement on the hand method, which 
is a plicable only to comparatively small areas, 
would be to use a hay tedder run crossways of 
the rows: To be sure this would not do as good 
a job as the hand method, but it would have 
the merit of getting over a very considerable 
area in a comparatively short time and at a 
very much reduced cost. 
In cases where the ground is bare, as when | 
the mulch is carted off the plantation, shallow | 
cultivation toward nightfall would probably 
prove helpful, since it would fill the air with | 
moisture which, on deposition, would raise the 
dew point and thus prevent ‘frost injuries. 
Spraying with water in the evening would have 
the same effect. In small areas these latter 
methods might be combined very advantage- 
ously with the mulch method. 
Penna. M. G. Karns. 
Blackberry Raising Made Easy 
ie THE spring a few years ago I decided to | 
plow under an old blackberry plantation in 
one of my young apple orchards. The orchard 
needed better culture than I could give between 
the berry rows, and the blackberries themselves 
had ceased to yield their former large crops of | 
big juicy berries. ; 
After mowing and raking off the old canes, I 
plowed the entire piece to a depth of about 
eight inches in April and immediately gave the 
land a thorough working with the cutaway har- 
row. I continued to harrow at intervals until 
new shoots began to come up from the black- 
berry roots all over the piece, but thickest along 
the lines of the old rows. These new shoots 
