SUCCESS WITH SMALL FRUITS— STRAWBERRIES 



Hozv Long Should 

 a Patch Be Fruited ? 



Sex in 

 Strawberries 



One Mascot berry fills a wine-glass 



There is some difference of opinion in this. In the far South 

 it has become the general practice to take but one crop of 

 fruit. Others take two crops, and some even take three 

 crops before turning the plants under. Where the land is kept clean it is possible, 

 but seldom profitable, to take three crops, for the white clover and grass get so strong 

 a hold that it pays better to plant a new plantation every year than to keep an old bed 

 clean. In hill-culture in gardens it is easier to take the three crops, but in the matted- 

 row system two crops should be the limit. I have found that the best plan is to always 

 have two plantations, one with its first crop and one with its second, and after the 

 second crop to turn the growth all under for a late crop of vegetables. This means 

 of course the making of a new plantation every year. 



The Strawberry plant is botanically a member of the rose family, 

 and its blossoms are constructed just like those of the wild single 

 rose. But in some varieties of the Strawberry the male organs or 

 stamens are largely aborted, and the flower has pistils only. The edible part of the 

 Strawberry is simply the enlarged receptacle on which the flower rests. The true 

 fruit, or what botanists regard as the fruit, is the ripened ovary with its seed at the base 

 of the pistil. These are scattered all over the enlarged mass commonly called the 

 fruit, and it is found that unless the pistils are fertilized by the male pollen, and the 

 seed set, the receptacle does not enlarge into the edible fruit. Hence, it is necessary 

 with those varieties that make only pistils in their flowers, that some plants with perfect 

 flowers be set near by, so that the bees can carry the pollen to the pistils. 



Some of these pistillate varieties are the most productive that we have when they 

 are supplied with pollen. They are not always entirely devoid of stamens, but not 

 with enough to set a large crop unless aided by those that form an abundance of pollen. 

 Hence in planting the pistillate varieties I have found it best to plant a row of a strong, 

 perfect-flowered sort every sixth to eighth row. (While one row of perfect-flowered 

 varieties in six or eight would usually be enough, many commercial growers are planting 

 and recommending one ro win three, or one in four of the perfect-flowering sorts. W. F. A. 



