E. W. TOWNSEND (Strawberry Specialist) 19 
SELECTING THE SITE, SETTING THE PLANTS, WORKING OUT THE OibD BEDS. 
In selecting a site for your berry patch, it 
is best to select a place that has been grown 
to some leguminous crop the season before, 
such as cowpeas, tomatoes or potatoes, as 
pmnts do much better when set in this kind 
of soil. Never set plants over a sod if it can 
be helped. If your land is rolly or hilly, select 
the southern side. Most all commercial 
growers prepare their land for their berry 
fields a season in advance by planting such 
crops as mentioned above, for to have the 
best of success in berry growing it is essential 
to have the land rich with plant food. Any 
ordinary soil when properly manured and 
worked will grow good berries. In other 
words, land that will grow good corn, pota- 
toes or tomatoes will grow good berries. In 
preparing the land before setting plants it 
should be thoroughly plowed to a depth of 
at least eight inches. This is preferable in 
the fall. Again in the spring (when plants 
are set in spring) then thoroughly harrowed 
and leveled with drags, until the surface is 
entirely level. For field planting I advise 
rows forty-two inches apart, setting plants 
twenty-four inches in row usually is sufficient 
with most varieties. Some sorts will give a 
good matted row when set even thirty inches 
apart, better than others when set fifteen 
inches. Select for your earlier sorts the high- 
est of your land where you desire to plant, as 
the early varieties will usually do better on 
this kind of soil than the later ones. Most 
late varieties that have come to my attention 
do better on low, springy soil when it is well 
drained. In setting plants we use a small 
garden trowell or dibble, making plenty of 
room to get the roots down straight and flat- 
tened out in fan shape; pressing the ground 
firmly around the plants, setting the plant 
as near as possible as it came from the ground. 
Too deep or too shallow setting will greatly 
hurt your crop. Plants should be worked 
with small tooth cultivator, giving shallow 
cultivation almost as soon as they are set. 
In ten days from time they are set they should 
be given a hand cultivation with the hoe, 
working very shallow. Often and shallow cul- 
tivation should continue as long as the grass 
grows, and in the East with us we usually 
work them with the horse cultivator \ ell up 
in the fall months, especially if the season is 
a dry one. 
Preparing and working out the old beds for 
the second crop, this should be done, or com- 
menced immediately after the last fruit is 
picked from the vines. Start by mowing 
off all growth that has accumulated and a 
portion of the vines. If there should be 
much growth it is best to burn same on the 
patch, catching a dry day when the wind is 
blowing strong down the rows, so as the fire 
will soon sweep over the patch. This will de- 
stroy all insects that might have accumulated 
in the late vines and growth. If the vines 
eannot be burned successfully they should be 
hauled from the field. The rows should then 
be bar plowed, leaving the beds about eight 
to ten inches wide, throwing the furrow in 
the middle. The old mother plants and lots 
of the new ones should be cut out at once 
and dragged from the beds. The five-tooth 
cultivator should then be run down the rows 
and the middles thoroughly worked up, and 
a great many growers after running down 
the row with the cultivator run across the 
rows, dragging new earth over the crowns 
of the plants, causing them to take on new 
roots and bringing out new crowns. The 
old patch should be frequently worked and 
hoed same as the new patch until late in the 
fall. Two seasons is long enough for the 
strawberry to stand, as it costs more to work 
out the old beds than to work the new. For 
this cause I prefer planting anew. Plants 
should not be set in the same plot for at least 
four years. 
One of the most important things in grow- 
ing strawberries is the selecting of plants, 
for your success depends on the quality of 
the plants set. Usually good plants cost a 
trifle more than the ones that you can pick 
up around your neighborhood, which are often 
mixed, run-down runts, having been taken 
from the middle of the rows for genera- 
tions, and in many cases are almost barren. 
It costs no more to work the pateh, when set 
to the best THOROUGHBRED plants, than it 
does when set to the poor field-grown plants, 
and the THOROUGHBRED will often double 
and treble the quantity of fruit per acre, and 
frnit that will sell on your markets for double. 
The up-to-date fellows of today are for grow- 
ing only the best and they find that it pays 
them the best. 
One more word in regard to setting the 
plants and I will close the subject. If you 
should pick for your main variety one with an 
imperfect blossom, I recommend setting two 
perfect blossom sorts with it instead of one, 
as is usually done, especially so if the variety 
is mid-season or late. 
My reason for this is for the imperfect one 
to catch all the pollen necessary to make its 
full crop, which it has to depend upon for 
the making of the crop of perfect-shaved ber- 
ries. Where I have tried this method I have 
always had the best of success. For instance, 
take the old Sample variety, which is late and 
imperfect. I would set four rows of Sample 
and on one side I would set Parson’s Beauty 
or Dunlap; the other side, one row of Mas- 
cot or some variety equally as late as the 
Sample, and so on across the patch. 
I trust that the foregoing will be of some 
use to some of my customers, new beginners, 
especially, for I am asked the above questions 
hundreds of times during the year and many 
times it is not convenient for me to answer 
promptly. Most of the old growers have their 
own way and work out their own salvation, 
which many times is the best. 
I find in traveling through the country that 
there are many different wavs in forming 
strawberries, and I also find that a variety 
that is good in one locality is not always good 
in another. 
