E. W. TOWNSEND, Strawberry Specialist 



Selecting the Site 

 SETTING THE PLANTS, WORKING OUT THE OLD BEDS, ETC. 



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 plants 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 roily or hilly, select the southern side. Most all commercial grow- 

 ers 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, potatoes 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 draers, 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 highest of your land where you desire to plant, as the early varieties will usuallv do 

 better on this kind of soil than the later ones. Most late varieties that have come to my atten- 

 tion do better on low. springv soil when it is well drained. In setting plants we use a small 

 garden trowel or dibble, making plenty of room to get the roots down straight and flattened 

 out in fan. shape; pressing the ground firmly around the plants, setting the plant as near as pos- 

 sible 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, work- 

 ing very -.shallow. Often and shallow cultivation should continue as long as the grass stows. 

 and in the East with vis we usually work them with the horse cultivator well 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 

 commenced 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 destroy all 

 insects that might have accumulated in the late vines and growth. If the vines cannot 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 mid- 

 dle. 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 mid- 

 dles 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, caus- 

 ing them to take on new roots and bringing out new crowns. The old natch should be fre- 

 quently worked and. hoed same as the new patch until latp 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 ane w . Plants should not be set in the same plot 

 for at least four years. 



One of the most important things in growing strawberries is the selecting of plants, tor 

 your success denends on the ouality of the plants set. Usually eood plants cost a trifle more 

 than the ones that you can pick uo around your neighborhood, "which are often mixed, run-down 

 runts, having been taken from the middle of the rows for generations, and in manv r^ses are 

 almost barren. It costs no more to work th° natch, when set to the h^f TT 1 TO"PrtTTaTT"RRF"n 

 plants, than it does when set to the noor field-grown plants, and the T'HO'ROTTGITRREDS will 

 often double and treble the onnntity of fmit pp-r aore. and fruit that will sell on vour markets 

 for double. The uo-to-date fellows of today are for growing 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 

 nick 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 makinar of the crop of perfect-shaped berries. 

 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 imoerfect. I would set four rows of Sample and 

 on one side I would set Parson's Beautv or Dunlap; the other side, one row of Mascot 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 ways in forming 

 strawberries, and I also find that a variety that is good in one locality is not always good 

 in another. 



FALL SETTING 



Plant the strawberry in the spring, the earlier the better, when the plant is fully grown, 

 matured and dormant, while the soil is moist and cool and when there is more favorable weather 

 generally., 



Most growers refuse to sell plants in the fall, because for every plant big enough to sell 

 others are destroyed that would be good ones later. They are safe enough to set, however, 

 when there _is plenty of rain or where they can be irrigated. 



"We can usually supply them in small quantities by September 15 at our listed rate per dozen 

 and at one-half more than listed rate per 100. If wanted in larger quantities later in the season, 

 write for prices on varieties and amount desired. 



Page Twenty-eight 



