TQl I 



BETTER FRUIT 



Page 21 



line of ilie greau-^l inipi irtaiKc. Tlu- 

 bisexual plant has both anthers and 

 pistils, and will therefore pollenize itself, 

 although experiments made on our farms 

 indicate that even bisexuals will be more 

 perfectly fertilized when set near other 

 bisexuals of the same season. The pistil- 

 late varieties have no anthers — make no 

 pollen — and, therefore, will yield no fruit 

 except when properly mated with bisex- 

 uals. The fact that the pistillate exhausts 

 none of its vitality' in pollen production, 

 and, therefore, is enabled to develop to 

 the full its fruiting powers, makes the 

 pistillate, as a rule, a heavier yielder than 

 the bisexual. However, in setting pistil- 

 lates it is absolutely necessary that they 

 shall be set near enough to bisexuals of 

 the same blooming period to insure per- 

 fect pollenization. The grower inay 

 place one row of pistillates between 

 flanking rows of bisexuals, or two rows 

 or three rows of pistillates, as the pollen 

 will carry readily over three rows of 

 pistillate from the flanking rows of bisex- 

 uals. One excellent plan is to set plants 

 in the following order: Row one, early 

 bisexual; rows two, three and four, 

 medium pistillate; row five, late bisexual. 

 In this way the bloom of the early 

 bisexual will fertilize the earliest bloom 

 of the medium pistillate, and the late 

 bisexual will do the same for the latest 

 bloom of the medium variety. 



Having selected the plants, the grower 

 will proceed to get his soil in condition. 

 Over a large portion of the country — and 

 we believe this is likely to be true of the 

 Pacific Coast and the Intermountain 

 states as well as in the states east of the 

 Missouri — the very best preparation for 

 strawberries is a liberal coating of barn- 

 yard manure, spread over the land at any 

 time previous to plownng. The strawy 

 part of the manure adds humus to the 



I-//,. 



Company 



;lossoms 



Copyrighted igio by R. M. K 



PLANT SHOWIXG HOW TO RKMOX E 

 When setting your plants see that the crown stands above 

 the soil, as shown here. About two weeks after the plants 

 are set they will start sending out fruit stems. As soon as 

 the buds begin to open pinch or cut off as shown by the 

 dotted lines in the illustration. Don't let a blossom fruit. 



W arfield 

 plant 

 Photo 

 .April 7, iniO 



soil, and the plant-food elements con- 

 tained in the other portions of the fer- 

 tilizer will supply the needs in that direc- 

 tion. Do not plo-w too deeply, but deep 

 enough for a soft, friable place for the 

 roots of the plants to develop in. Just 

 as soon as the plants are in the ground 

 cultivation should begin, and the plants 

 should be cultivated once every ten days 

 during the first season, and in case of 

 rainfall they should be cultivated just as 

 soon after the rain as possible, or as soon 

 as the soil will crumble in the hand. 

 Cultivation performs very many valuable 

 functions. It prevents the formation of 

 crust; it creates and maintains a blanket 

 of dust over the surface of the ground, 

 which aids in holding moisture in the soil 



LAST SPRAYING 



Copyrighted 1910 by R. M. Kellogg Company 



OUR SPKAYIXG MACHINES AT WORK 

 The R. M. Kellogg Company's (Three Rivers, Michigan) thoroughbred plants are kept continually coated with boideau.x 

 mi.xture and arsenates during the entire growing season, which guarantees the plants to be perfectly free from insects 

 and fungous diseases. An Idaho state inspector recently ordered a fruit farmer to destroy all the nursery stock which 

 he had just set out on a twenty-acre tract because everything he had set was diseased. The insurance you have against 

 such disease when you purchase R. M. Kellogg Company's pure-bred plants is worth many times wliat you pay for the 

 plants, and you cannot afford to take the risk of possible loss. 



and in preserving a normal degree of 

 temperature; it supplies bacteria with the 

 necessary quantities of air; it destroys 

 weed seeds while in the germinating 

 stage; it mixes the fertilizer with the 

 soil, so that the bacterial germs may 

 work up the fertilizer into more readih' 

 available forms of plant food; it keeps 

 the strawberry runners from overflowing 

 into the spaces between the rows. And, 

 as we have pointed out above, in the 

 case of the orchards it actually aids in 

 the development of the orchard trees. 



Very soon after the plants start grow- 

 ing they will begin to put forth runner 

 plants. In the orchard we should favor 

 the single-hedge row. Under this sys- 

 tem only two runners are permitted to 

 develop, and these are layered 

 in line with the mother plant 

 in the rows. Where this plan 

 is followed the rows should 

 be thirty-six inches apart and 

 the plants set twenty-four 

 inches apart in the row. After 

 the two strong runner plants 

 have been formed all addi- 

 tional runner plants should 

 be promptly pinched off, so 

 that the mother plant may 

 proceed in the development 

 of a powerful fruiting s^'Stem 

 without further exhaustion in 

 production of runner plants. 

 Then there are the blossoms 

 which also must be removed 

 the first season, so that seed 

 exhaustion shall not weaken 

 the fruiting power of the 

 mother plant. Never permit 

 a blossom to mature during 

 the season in which the plant 

 is set. The next season, how- 

 ever, every blossom should 

 be encouraged to develop a 

 big red, ripe strawberry. 



Whether the grower lives 

 in a region of frosts or not, 

 he should mulch his plants 

 with straw or coarse hay. 

 Where frosts are severe the 

 mulching should be applied 



