E. W. TOWNSEND SONS • SALISBURY • MARYLAND 



23 



STRAWBERRY 



Cultunz 



DIRECTIONS 



Write us if you are confronted 

 with any special problems. 



Just right 



VARIETY SELECTION. Perhaps the most important 

 task of all is the correct selection of varieties for the 

 particular territory in which they are to be planted. A 

 careful study of the variety recommendations in this 

 catalog, and personal communication with the Town- 

 send Nurseries will eliminate the possibility of the buyer 

 purchasing varieties which have not the greatest profit- 

 making possibilities in his territory. 



SOIL PREPARATION. In the first place, be sure 

 that the land is reasonably fertile and as nearly as pos- 

 sible free of weeds and grass. Plow the land to be used 

 carefully in the fall or spring and spread a liberal coat 

 Df barnyard manure over the plot during the winter or 

 early spring. Potato fields, tomato or cow-pea plots, or 

 any site where the land has been enriched by growing 

 truck crops makes an ideal plot for the strawberry patch. 



If manure is not available, broadcast a heavy applica- 

 tion of commercial fertilizer over the plot just before 

 the plants are set in the spring. (Two or three weeks 

 in advance is just about right). Sheep manure or a 

 mixture of 1500 pounds of tankage and 500 lbs. of acid 

 phosphate is good, distributed at the rate of 1000 lbs. 

 per acre. Raw bone meal will not injure the plant roots 

 and is the only fertilizer recommended for use directly 

 under the plants. 



The soil should be worked up into as good condition 

 as possible before setting the plants. If the ground is 

 manured, drag the soil level, marking 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 for 

 equal width. 



CARE OP PLANTS ON ARRIVAL. Townsends* 

 plants come to you properly cleaned and bunched ready 

 to set. 



If the roots are too long to set in a stony soil, clip off 

 a portion of them cleanly. 



If the plants are received before the soil is ready, open 

 the boxes and take the plants out, dampen the roots up 

 to the string, redampen the moss and repack in the 

 same box, place in a cool cellar and the plants, if still 

 dormant, will keep from 7 to 10 days without injury. 

 Heeling in is permissible, if done by an experienced man 

 but it is slow and tedious and the tops and crowns may 

 get wet. The first method is best. 



SETTING THE PLANTS. For large plantings, a 

 horse drawn transplanter is good to use if a good 

 operator is available. For small plots, or in stumpy new 

 land, the garden trowel is best to use. On stony soils 

 use a spade. Set the plant roots straight down without 

 crowding and pack the earth firmly around them. 



PLANTING DISTANCE POR MATTED ROW 

 SYSTEM. Generally, the matted row system is con- 

 sidered the best and most practical. Plant rows 3V2 to 

 4V 2 feet apart, depending on varieties used. A matted 

 row should be 3 feet wide when the plants are laid by, 

 and sufficient room should be left for the pickers. 

 Keep the space between the rows cultivated as long as 

 the runner plants form. Plants should be set 15 to 24 

 inches apart. Good, rank growing varieties like the 

 Premier, Aberdeen, Blakemore, Dunlap, Howard Su- 

 preme and Jupiter shotild be set 24 inches apart in 

 the row, with rows 4 feet apart. 



EVERBEARING IN HILL SYSTEM. The hill sys- 

 tem is the only way to grow everbearing strawberries 

 successfully. Keep the runner plants cut off, not allow- 

 ing more than five or six well-spaced runner plants to 

 form. This produces large, vigorous plants, each plant set 

 often yielding a quart of berries during the summer and 

 fall. Space these rows 30 inches apart to allow for horse 

 cultivation. The two rows in the bed are spaced 12 

 inches apart, and the plants set 18 inches apart down 

 the rows. With this spacing, 16,000 plants will set an 

 acre. Such spacing allows room to work with a hoe 

 around the plants at all times. Plant food can easily be 

 applied as the cultivation continues through the sum- 

 mer months. Feeding the plants while they are fruiting 

 is easily done without injury by broadcasting fertilizer 

 or chicken manure around the plants. Cultivation is 

 easy, as such spacing affords sufficient room around the 

 plants to keep down all grass and properly mulch by 

 shallow working with the hoe during dry weather. 



Too deep 



Too shallow 



CULTIVATING. Tillage in newly set strawberry 

 fields should be thorough in the early part of the season, 

 in order to preserve moisture so that plants can become 

 established thoroughly in the soil and later in the season 

 to conserve moisture so that the plants can develop run- 

 ners. Weeds and grass should be kept out of the fields 

 at all times, as they will take the moisture needed by the 

 strawberry plants. Most successful growers use the cul- 

 tivator as often as once each week throughout the first 

 growing season, and during periods of drought even 

 more frequently. Hoeing should be done as often as it is 

 found necessary to clean out all weeds and grass. Culti- 

 vating should be shallow near the plants, both because 

 of the danger of loosening them in the soil and because 

 if too deep the roots near the surface will be broken. 

 The teeth on each side of the cultivator should be short- 

 ened, so they will not stir the soil near the row to a 

 depth of more than 1 or 2 inches, as many kinds of 

 weeds continue to grow in late autumn and start to 

 grow in early spring. We advise working the plants until 

 hard frosts occur. The field will then be free from weeds, 

 and in the following year very few will have time to 

 grow before the harvest season. 



• ONE OF THE SECRETS IN 



GROWING STRAWBERRIES 



While there should be no secrets in the growing of 

 Strawberries when every grower is exchanging ideas with 

 his neighbors, there seems to be one point that has not 

 been given enough publicity by the neighbor, journals 

 and nurserymen. With the majority of the plant growers 

 in the North it has always been a practice to hold off 

 setting plants until all frosts and freezing is over. On 

 low springy type soils this probably is a logical practice. 

 However, on land with a good drainage and which dries 

 out early in the spring this practice should not be fol- 

 lowed. Strawberry plants, when properly grown and 

 hardened, will stand considerable cold weather after set- 

 ting. „. 



MULCHING STRAWBERRIES 



In regions of heavy snowfall Strawberries should have a 

 mulch to keep the ground from freezing and thawing in 

 early winter and in the spring. In the Northern part of 

 the Middle West all varieties should be protected in the 

 winter against the severe drying winds which occur in 

 those regions. A mulch conserves moisture in the spring 

 and in certain localities the crop may be increased from 

 one-third to one-half by its use. 



The mulch should be applied as soon as the ground 

 is frozen from one to two inches deep. In some localities 

 growers have found it unsafe to await freezing weather 

 because of the danger of severe storms or heavy falls of 

 snow which remain throughout the winter, muich being 

 put on as soon as active growth has ceased. The mulch 

 should be scattered over the fields so that some will fall 

 on the plants, but more of it between the rows. In the 

 spring the plants will grow up through the straw and 

 the berries will be kept clean. If mulch is put on heavy, 

 some of it should be raked off into the middle of rows 

 at time growth starts. Wheat, rye. oats and buckwheat 

 straw are more commonly used. From 3 to 5 tons of straw 

 is required per acre. Marsh hay is also used to advantage 

 when obtainable, 1 to 3 tons per acre being required. 



^NUMBER PLANTS REQUIRED TO SET AN ACRE 



^^ Number Flints 



Pl.ints Spacing 



Strawberries, Field Culture 8000 3'jxl 1 ^ 



Strawberries, Garden Culture 



Everbearing Strawberries. Field 8000 3 ' _-xl ' a 



Everbearing Strawberries. Garden l'.-xl 



Everbearing. Double Row Hill System .... 16000 2' jxl '.-X12 



Blackberries 1700 Sx3 



Red Raspberries. Hedee Row 2400 6x3 



Red Raspberries. Hill System 1800 



Black Raspberries 1 TOO 7x3 ! .- 



Dewberries. Solid Rows 2400 



Grapes 490 9x10 



Asparagus 3200 7X3 



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