Growing Strawberries for What's in Them— By h. e. Angell 



THINGS THE HOME GARDENER OUGHT TO KNOW IF HE WANTS TO GET THE 

 UTMOST OUT OF THE BERRY PATCH— IT'S ALL VERY SIMPLY AND EASILY DONE 



New 

 York 



TWO hundred dollars a year is a fair annual profit to expect 

 from each acre of strawberries, although $500 clear profit 

 has been reported in a few cases. There are two primary things 

 to consider before going into the strawberry business : (1) The 

 soil should be light and well drained, yet hold 

 plenty of moisture. Sandy loam with a clay subsoil 

 is the ideal. (2) The farm should He close to a quick 

 shipping point — one through which large quantities 

 of berries are going is desirable — this insures prompt 

 shipment. Two or three miles is considered a long 

 enough distance to cart the berries; many, how- 

 ever, are carried successfully, twice as far. 



PREPARATION OF THE SOIL 



When the location has been settled and 

 the land is ready for preparation the 

 first thing to consider is the value 

 of the soil itself. This should be care- 

 fully tested and any fault corrected 

 just as in any other branch of gar- 

 dening. 



Before the plants are set, the ground 

 must be thoroughly pulverized. On a 

 large scale, first a two-horse plow 

 should be used, then a disc harrow 

 should be run over two or three 

 times. This should be followed by 

 a smoothing harrow, which should 

 cover the ground twice at 

 least. After that a "plank' 

 should be run across diago- 

 nally, then the smoothing 

 harrow again and finally 

 the "plank" again, 

 run across its former 

 tracks. This series 

 of operations should 

 put the ground in 

 splendid condition for 

 planting. Frequent spad- 

 ing and turning will do the 

 same thing on a small scale. 



Flat cultivation has been proved 

 to be the most satisfactory. Plant- 

 ing the vines along the top of a 

 ridge has been tried, but as 

 each year the vine sends out 

 roots about an inch higher 

 than the previous, it was 

 found that after the first year 

 the plants could not stand con 

 tinued dry weather. 



PLANTING AND CULTIVATION 



Plants may be set out at 

 any time of the year but best in 

 spring. If ten acres or more are plant- 

 ed a planting machine is practically 

 necessary ; this requires intelligence and no 

 little skill, but is a great time and labor saver. One can 

 be bought for $55. The plants should be set out twelve 

 to fifteen inches apart in parallel rows thirty inches apart. A 

 moist spell should be chosen in which to do this work. It 

 planted by hand, shallow furrows may be turned out where 

 the lines are required, the plants set in and the earth turned 

 back again, tramping the soil firm. 



f 



Cultivation, with a small one-horse cultivator or harrow should 

 begin almost at once. The ground must be kept loose and free 

 from weeds. Here is one of the secrets of success — after having 

 the proper fertility available. 



Cultivate about once a week all through the season from pick- 

 ing time till frost. Some growers advise not cultivating at all 

 in spring, before the fruiting season, arguing that the tender root- 

 lets, which run as far as twelve inches from the plant, will be 

 cut off and the supply of nourishment decreased, with a 

 onsequent loss in the size of the fruit. This sounds 

 plausible and there seems to be no reason why their 

 advice should not be followed. If you can give a 

 mulch in spring, do so. It pays. 



About two weeks after setting, the plants 

 should be fertilized. A high-grade article 

 is well worth the additional cost. 



Some growers place fertilizer 

 under the plants when they are set 

 out, preferably bone meal. This 

 is largely a matter of personal 

 taste. There are no figures 

 to prove that any one 



method £ is better 

 than Mmf another — 



follow the 

 plan that 

 is most 

 convenient 

 to you. 1 1 

 Early in 

 the spring, 

 before the 

 plants begin to 

 blossom, straw 

 should be scat- 

 tered plentifully 

 along the rows, 

 as a mulch. The 

 plants will come 

 up through it and 

 the berries will be kept 

 up out of the dirt, which 

 makes them far better eating. 



THE PICKING SEASON 



This is the busiest time of 



the year for the strawberry 



grower, and preparation must 



be made well ahead of time. 



The necessary number of crates 



should be estimated and bought; 



better have too many than too few. Pickers 



must be engaged and packing sheds constructed. 



Five or six good pickers will be needed per acre. 



They are paid generally a cent for each quart 



picked and they will average 150 to 200 quarts 



a day. 



If you are growing for market, honest packing 

 goes for much; the baskets should be well filled, 

 but not more than three-eighths of an inch above 

 the top of the basket, or they will be mashed in 

 the crates. There are thirty-two quarts to a crate, and from 125 

 to 150 crates will be picked from each acre. 



Strawberry vines will bear profitably for two or three years, after 

 which they should be plowed under and the land devoted to some 

 other crop — cowpeas, for instance, in the South, which can be 



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