E. W. TOWNSEND & SONS, SALISBURY, MARYLAND 29 
BRIEF CULTURAL DIRECTIONS 
FOR GROWING STRAWBERRIES 
In growing strawberries your success depends 
more on securing good plants than on any other 
one item of expense. 
It is of course necessary to secure the right site 
for the berry patch. The land should be reasonably 
fertile to grow good berries. It is preferable to 
plant strawberries in a spot where the land will be 
as free from weeds and grass as possible. Old sod 
land should not be used if any other site can be 
secured. Fall plowing while not absolutely necessary 
is much to be preferred over spring plowing. 
Most any soil by fall plowing deep and spreading 
a good coat of any barnyard manure after plowing 
any time during the winter or early spring makes a 
good soil for strawberries. Another good plan is to 
follow the potato field. Where either white potatoes 
Or sweet potatoes are grown, strawberries grow well 
as a usual thing. Tomatoes, cowpeas, or most any 
site where the land has been made rich by growing 
truck crops will be found ideal spots for the straw- 
berry patch. 
Where home manures are not convenient it is a 
good plan to broadcast a heavy application of com- 
mercial fertilizers just before the plants are set in 
the spring (two to three weeks in advance is not too 
much). Sheep manure is good. A mixture of tank- 
age and Acid Phosphate, half and half, is another 
good mixture, 1000 lbs. per acre. Pure raw bone 
meal broadcast or applied in the drill directly under 
the plants is safe at the rate of 600 to 800 lbs. per 
acre. Raw bone meal will not injure the plant roots 
no matter how heavy you apply it, and is about all 
the fertilizer I can recommend to use directly under 
the plants. 
It is desirable to have the soil worked in as good 
condition as possible before setting the plants. 
Where the manure has been broadcast, we prefer 
dragging the soil level, and marking off the rows 
with a light marker, setting the plants on the side 
of the mark, using the same side of the mark on 
each row so as to have the rows the same width. 
In large plantings a horse-drawn transplanter where 
good operators are obtainable can do a good job set- 
ting the plants. Where small plots are set or in 
stumpy new land, we find the garden trowel the ideal 
tool to set plants. On stony soil it is best to use a 
spade. Just so the plant’s roots are set straight 
down and firmly packed they are all right to grow. 
Never set the plants on a ridge under any consider- 
ation. You cannot properly work a bed of straw- 
berries when set that way. Keep the bed level the 
entire year, always working them shallow and with 
small teeth on the cultivator. Work at least every 
ten days and keep all weeds and grass hoed out or 
pulled out. It is preferable to hoe them every time 
before they need it. 
TIME TO SET. This is another very important 
thing on success. Early plantings are always the 
best. No matter how cold it gets after planting is 
done it does not injure the plants in the least. When 
the land is got almost in shape in the fall, planting 
can be done the first thawed days in early spring 
if plants are obtainable. Plants can be set in New 
England states in early April, and sometimes March. 
same in Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio and in every 
important strawberry state early in April as possi- 
ble, and when the ground is not frozen set in March. 
We have been recommending the early setting of 
strawberry plants for over a quarter of a century, 
and this fact has led our customers to make bigger 
ers. 
May Queen 
Townsend’s Big Late 
An Imperfect Blossom, 
Mating Varieties 
MATING VARIETIES. Some of the best varie- 
ties of strawberries are of imperfect blossom, of 
female, and must have a perfect flowering variety 
set near it in order to polenize the imperfect flow- 
When the female or imperfect sort is to be 
set for the main part, one row of perfect flower- 
ing to every three rows of imperfect is 
When the field is divided equally to each variety, 
set two rows of each kind, selecting a mate for 
the imperfect sort that ripens at same time. 
WE OFFER FOUR IMPERFECT FLOWERING 
VARIETIES IN OUR LIST 
profits from their berries than most any advice we 
could have ever given them, with the possible ex- 
eeption of obtaining better quality plants and better 
varieties. Fall setting is practiced in several states 
with some success, but not highly recommended out- 
side the southern states. 
TOWNSEND’S PLANTS come to you 
cleaned and bunched ready to set. 
Some varieties may have roots too long to get 
into stony soil. In this event it is necessary to take 
the shears and clip off a portion of the roots, making 
them shorter. 
If the plants are received a few days before the 
soil is ready, it is a good plan to open the boxes, 
take the plants out and dampen the roots up to the 
string, redampen the moss and repack in same box, 
place in a cool cellar, and the plants if dormant will 
keep for a week or ten days in good order. Healing 
in is all right if done by an experienced hand, but 
it is slow and tedious, and the danger is getting 
the tops and crowns wet when handling and water- 
ing, and for this reason we prefer to keep the plants 
in the box packed in moss. 
NEVER WATER STRAWBERRY PLANTS. Please 
take this seriously, for that is what we mean. The 
worst thing that was ever done to a strawberry plant 
while setting it or after it was set is to try to water 
it by hand. I am unable to explain why, but it is a 
fact, and proven over and over thousands of times. 
Millions of plants have been killed by this sort of 
kindness. No matter how dry the soil, never use 
water when setting the plants. Just brush off the 
top of the soil with the trowel if the soil is sandy 
and dry enough to run in the opening when made. 
Set the plant straight down. Press the flat foot di- 
rectly over the plant with full weight, and the mois- 
ture will rise sufficient to keep the plant alive. until 
rainfall. We guarantee our plants to be hardy enough 
to stand any treatment reasonably made except wa- 
tering when planting, or after planting, by hand. 
PLANTING SYSTEMS. For most sections of the 
country, the matter row system is considered the 
best and most practical of all. Rows three and a 
half to four and a half feet, depending on varieties 
used. Usually a matter row should be three feet 
wide when plants are laid by, and sufficient room 
should be left for the pickers. It is always best to 
keep the middles of the row cultivated out as long 
as the runner plants form. Plants should be set 
from 15 to 24 inches apart. Good rank growing 
varieties like Premier, Aberdeen, Blakemore, Dunlap, 
Howard’s Supreme, Jupiter, should be set 24 inches 
apart in the row, with rows four feet apart. For 
Hill Culture, rows three feet each way, or three 
and a half feet by three feet. Allow six to eight 
plants form in the hill. A Kruegers runner cutter 
is the tool to keep plants well formed in the hill. 
This leaves a 14 inch circle of plants to each hill, 
and fancy berries are grown that way. The bed can 
be grown cheaper than by the matted row system, 
as the cultivator can be used each way for several 
months. If plenty of land is at hand, three and a 
half feet each way is the best method. The old style 
as directed by some strawberry experts advised 
leaving just the mother plant to grow in a hill. 
This is not the ideal way. At least six to eight 
plants should be allowed to form in the hill. It 
requires from 6000 to 8000 plants to set an acre. 
Planting Chart will be found on page 30. 
properly 
used. 
Howard’s Supreme 
Sample 
A Perfect Blossom. 
