SQUARE DEAL NURSERY 



Selecting The Site, Setting The Plants, Working Out The Old 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 

 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 

 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 suflQcient 

 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 youi* 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 cult-irator 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 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 

 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 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 patch, when se^ 

 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 

 fruit 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 wull 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 makinc: of the crop of nerfect-shaned 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 ways in forming 

 strawberries, and I also find that a variety 

 that is good in one locality is not always good 

 in another. 



