16 Rayner Brothers, Salisbury, Maryland 



Fertilization 



If you have barnyard manure broadcast after plowing and disced in, this 

 is a fine way to improve your land and insure you a fine berry patch with 

 lots of fancy fruit, but commercial fertilizer can be used with very satis- 

 factory results. We find 400 pounds of dissolved bone and 100 pounds of 

 acid phosphate per acre used in the drill about a week before the plants are 

 set or along side the plants after setting and thoroughly hoed or cultivated 

 in will give excellent results. Where it is to be applied broadcast 1,000 pounds 

 of the mixture per acre has proven very satisfactory, but be sure to harrow it 

 in thoroughly before setting the plants. Do not use over 500 pounds in the 

 drill, for too heavy an application of any commercial fertilizer will be very 

 injurious to the plants. 



Another application of about 800 pounds per acre as a top dressing late 

 in the summer when the plantbed is almost made or early in the spring 

 before plant growth starts, of a mixture containing from 4% to 7% nitrogen 

 and from 5% to 10 7o phosphoric acid, with little or no potash. 



We believe late summer is the best time for if applied then you will 

 have stronger and more vigorous plants as it takes strong plants to produce 

 large, fancy berries. All fertilizer should be brushed off the leaves. 



Mating Varieties 



There are two sexes of strawberry plants — male and female — listed in 

 this book as perfect and imperfect, (in our price list perfect flowering varie- 

 ties are followed by ''Per" and imperfect by "Imp"). The perfect flowering 

 sorts will produce as well by themselves as with the imperfect varieties, but 

 the imperfect will produce very poorly, if at all, without the perfect varieties. 

 They should be planted four rows of the imperfect flowering varieties and 

 two rows of the perfect flowering varieties, of the same season, and so on 

 across the field, or they may be planted in the same row using one-fourth 

 perfect and three-fourths imperfect. 



Removing Blossoms and Mulching 



All strawberry plants begin to bloom soon after being set in the spring 

 and if the fruit is allowed to ripen the plants will be greatly weakened, there- 

 fore all blossoms should be removed, this is very important for it may mean 

 success or failure. On everbearing varieties the blossoms should be removed 

 twice before the berries are allowed to ripen, other than this the everbearers 

 are given the same care as the standard varieties. 



Mulching is a wonderful way to protect the plants from the freezing 

 and thawing of the soil in winter, to preserve moisture during a dry fruiting 

 season and to keep the berries from being spattered with dirt during a rain. 



Use straw, coarse manure or similar material, apply in the fall and in 

 the spring when growth starts rake off the beds into the center of the row 

 there it also serves the purpose of retarding the growth of weeds. 



Plants Received O. K. 



Dear Sirs: Buncombe Co., N. C, April 20, 1931. 



I received the berry plants. They were O. K. Find enclosed another 

 order. I thank vou so much. Yours as ever, J. M. Ragsdale. 



TRY LINDBERG THIS YEAR 



