Big Strawberries for Everyone 



THIRTY years ago, when a boy living on the 

 homestead farm, I planted the first straw- 

 berry bed in that locality. The plants were the 

 old Charles Downing, in many ways one of the 

 best varieties that I know. The berries possessed 

 so much of the true strawberry flavor that I did 

 not care for anything else for family use. Since that 

 time we have every year enjoyed an abundance of 

 the best varieties grown in our own garden. 



The strawberry, when left to fully ripen on the 

 plant, is so sweet that little or no sugar is needed. 

 It has, to a large degree, the flavor of the wild 

 strawberry, and is of good size. The vines are 

 hardy and fairly productive, and the berries, of 

 fine color, are sufficiently firm to keep well for a day 

 or two if picked when ripe. Nearly every one can 

 have a fair crop of the Crescent or Warfield type 

 of berry, for they can be grown nearly as easily 

 as potatoes. Among the best dessert strawberries 

 we have now are the Marshall, Wm. Belt, President, 

 Bubach, Gandy, and the Goldsborough, if one can 

 grow it. There are other good varieties, but it is 

 best not to try to grow too many. The ones I 

 name are as good as any and can be grown in most 

 localities. Before setting out a strawberry bed, it 

 is a good plan to learn which varieties are succeed- 

 ing well in the locality. 



By growing your own plants you are of course 

 sure to get good ones; from long experience, I would 

 not lose time in establishing a satisfactory bed by 

 growing the plants in my own propagating bed. 

 I would buy strong, freshly dug plants from the 

 nearest grower, in lots of 50 or 100. When rightly 

 transplanted, they will suffer but little check. It 

 might be well to set a small plot for fruiting with 

 plants taken from the nursery or from a neighbor's 

 bed. 



Make the propagating bed, perhaps a rod or 

 two square, where the soil is well drained, mellow, 

 and fairly rich. Set the plants in rows three feet 

 apart, eighteen inches apart in each row. Cut off the 

 first small runners, but about July first, when they 

 have become strong, spread them out so that they 

 cover the ground, and bed them. In the fall the 

 plants should stand three or four inches apart all 

 over the bed, with all the small weak plants cut out. 

 Give clean cultivation, and mulch the bed with 

 straw in the fall. As we continue to grow straw- 

 berries year after year, 

 we find the greatest re- 

 sults are obtained by 

 making a new propa- 

 gating bed each year 

 with plants selected from 

 the fruiting bed. The 

 hills that show the great- 

 est number of good 

 points at fruiting time 

 are staked and num- 

 bered, and a memoran- 

 dum made of the names 

 of the varieties. Run- 

 ners are bedded from 

 these hills, and the 

 plants removed to the 

 propagating bed the 

 following spring. 



For New York, and 

 all states in the same 

 or a more northern lat- 

 itude, there is but one 

 right time to set plants 

 in the fruiting bed and One quart of berries 



that is when the leaves first start in the spring, 

 and before they are more than one or two inches 

 long. If your own plants from the propagating bed 

 are transplanted, there should be no failure in 

 getting a bed well started. 



One advantage in growing one's own plants is 

 that it allows time to properly prepare the soil, 

 though of course the clover sod is about the best 

 place for all plants to grow. One of the most 

 successful growers takes a year to prepare the 

 soil for his bed. He plows early in spring, applies 



Give plenty of room for the roots and be very 

 careful to have the crown exactly on the surface 

 level. Deep planting prevents fruiting 



a light coat of stable manure with some fresh ground 

 phosphate rock, or South Carolina rock, muriate 

 of potash or wood ashes. He in fact, summer- 

 fallows the land.. In midsummer, more manure 

 and chemicals are applied. Light applications of 

 manure, and aeration by frequent harrowing, 

 prevent fermentation of the soil. 



to each plant is the proper yield. Give hill culture 



94 



A one-fourth-acre fruit garden of good corn land 

 that was planted to some cultivated crop the pro- 

 ceeding year will do very well for the average family. 

 The soil should be put in good tilth, i.e., so well 

 drained and the particles so finely separated, that 

 a handful of soil will fall apart in fine particles 

 and not pack or cling together in lumps. It should 

 not be over-rich with nitrogen, for that would cause 

 too rank a growth of foliage. If strong stable 

 manure is used supplement it with ground South 

 Carolina phosphate rock, and potash in the form 

 of either wood ashes or muriate of potash, so as to 

 make a balanced fertilizer and use less manure. 

 Make the soil just rich enough to yield a large crop 

 of corn. Pulverize six or eight inches of the surface 

 soil, by plowing in the spring as soon as the soil 

 will cleave from the plow and harrowing several 

 times. The last harrowing is followed with the 

 roller or plank drag. 



If pistillate varieties are set, plant every third row 

 to bisexuals. I try to transplant from the propa- 

 gating bed to the fruiting bed in April. If you use 

 a horse and a narrow cultivator, that can be nar- 

 rowed down to twelve inches, set the plants in check 

 rows twenty inches apart each way. If the culti- 

 vation is to be done with wheel and hand hoes, set 

 the plants sixteen inches apart. Use a garden line, 

 stretching it tight across one side of the plot. A 

 hand-made marker, having three or four teeth, can 

 be drawn along the line so as to get the first rows 

 straight; then continue with the marker until the 

 plot is marked one way. Next stretch the line 

 across the marks, beginning at one end, and set 

 the plants where the line crosses the marks. Dig 

 a few plants at a time, with a little soil adhering to 

 the roots. If the roots are long, shorten them 

 somewhat, but if the plants have been properly 

 grown in the propagating bed, each should have a 

 bunch of fibrous roots. Two men are necessary for 

 rapid planting — one having a sharp spade, which 

 he presses down into the soil, making an opening, 

 in which the other man, who carries a basketful 

 of plants, places a plant with roots fan-shaped and 

 sticking straight down. Then the spade is drawn 

 out, and the soil falls in around the plant, which 

 should be set just level with the surface of the 

 ground. When a row is set, walk back over it 

 and press the soil close around the plants with the 

 feet, so that the plant cannot be pulled out without 

 breaking the stem. I will repeat that this work 

 should be done when 

 the foliage first starts, 

 and the leaves are not 

 more than two inches 

 long. 



Begin cultivation with 

 the horse or wheel cul- 

 tivator almost as soon 

 as the plants are set. It 

 will be easy to keep 

 plants clean if the cul- 

 tivation is done before 

 the weeds appear. I 

 usually cultivate as close 

 to the plants as I can 

 without disturbing them 

 with the horse cultiva- 

 tor, next go over with 

 the garden wheel hoe, 

 and if any weeds are 

 left very close to the 

 plants they are taken 

 out with a narrow 

 onion hoe. 

 for finest specimens (Continued on page 96) 



