Catalogue of Thoroughbred Strawberry PlantM. 



17 



Remember 



That you are not treating your children 

 fairly if you do not grow fall-bearing 

 strawberries. I am headquarters for the 

 fall-bearing sorts, one of the oldest and 

 largest growers of them in the United 

 States. If you want nothing else from 



this catalog, let me send you my family 

 collection — 500 plants that will bear fruit 

 almost continuously from early spring 

 until late in the fall, all for $5.00 prepaid 

 to you. This is one of my best offers and 

 one that is pleasing my customers. 



A Few Words to the Beginner 



In selecting a site for your berry patch, 

 it is best to select a place that has been 

 grown to some leguminous crop the sea- 

 son 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 pre- 

 pare 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 essen- 

 tial to have the land rich with plant food. 

 Any ordinary soil when properly ma- 

 nured 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 set- 

 ting 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 ad- 

 vise 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 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 trowel or dibble, 

 making planty 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 

 possible as it came from the ground. 



Too deep or too shallow setting will 

 greatly hurt 3'our crop. Plants should be 

 worked with a small tooth cultivator, giv- 

 ing shallow cultivation almost as soon as 

 they are set. In ten days from time they 

 are set they should be given a hand cul- 

 tivation with the hoe, working very shal- 

 low. Often and shallow cultivation should 

 continue as long as the grass grows, and 

 in the East with us we usually work 

 them with the horse cultivator well up 

 in the fall months, especially if the sea- 

 son 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 accumu- 

 lated 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 destrov 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 drug 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 cul- 

 tivator run across the rows, dragging new 

 earth over the crowns of the plants, caus- 

 ing them to take on new roots and bring- 

 ing 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 1 prefer planting anew. 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, 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 neigh- 

 borhood, which are often mixed, run-down 

 runts, having been taken from the middle 

 of the rows for generations, and in many 

 cases are almost barren. It costs no more 

 to work the patch, when set to the best 

 THOROUGHBRED plants, than it does 

 when set to the poor field-grown plants, 

 and the THOROUGHBREDS 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 fel- 

 lows of today are for growing onlv 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 pick for your main variety 

 one with an imperfect blossom, I recom- 

 mend setting two perfect blossom sorts 

 with it instead of one as is usuallv done, 

 especially so if the variety is midseason 

 or late. 



My reason for this is for the imperfect 

 one to catch all the pollen necessarv to 

 make its full crop, which it has to' de- 

 pend upon for the making of the crop 

 of perfect-shaped berries. Where I have 

 tried this method I have alwavs had the 

 best of success. For instance", take the 

 old Sample variety which is late, and im- 

 perfect. 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 Mascot or some variety equally as late 

 as the Sample, and so on across the patch. 



Norfolk Co.. Va.. April 8. 1912. 

 The strawberry plants came to hand 

 O. K. Thanks for liberal count. The 

 Missionary is our leading- berrv here. 



w. w. haLstead. 



