656 



STRAWBERRY GROWING AT NORFOLK. 



include Early Victor, an irregular bearer, small in 

 bunchi, and only sweet in quality : it shrivels after 

 ripening. Jefferson is superb, but very Lite. Prentiss 

 is tender and not of fine quality. Agawam lacks 

 quality, and is late and tough — unless there are two 

 Agawams in market wholly unlike. I am growing 

 two, one as above, the other exactly the opposite. 

 Amber is sour and worthless and late. Woodruff 

 Red is a beastly gross affair without one good point. 

 Golden Gem is really a nice little grape, but not 

 so nice as to deserve culture. August Giant should 

 be planted only on barns, rocks, etc. It is rampant 

 beyond all others. The quality is good, but it ripens 

 very late. Grein's grapes also are unworthy of a place, 

 owing to peculiar acidify. His Golden is worthless. 



What we need is more sifting. If our vine growers 

 cannot or will not do it, we must do it ourselves. We 

 need to understand first of all what is wanted. I 

 should say ; (i) Of course, good-sized bunches of good- 

 sized berries that do not drop from the peduncle ; but 

 (2) we need grapes with fewer seeds. The bother now 

 is with the large and numerous seeds. This is the 

 trouble with nearly all of Rogers' hybrids. Brighton 

 is one of the best on this point. Diamond is another; 

 so also Hayes. There should be a determined effort to 



create grapes so near seedless as to make ihem safe for 

 eating. I find persons who are afraid of grapes — 

 afraid to eat them. Still it is, I believe, the most healthy 

 of all our late fruits. If I had a headache. I would 

 eat a meal of grapes. Nature's cooking is superb. 

 She never created pastry. 



The anthracnose, which has so sadly added to the 

 miseries of grape growers, can be entirely prevented 

 by the use of copperas. I dissolved ten pounds in a 

 barrel of water and swabbed the vines thoroughly in 

 April. I have seen no signs of the disease since. For 

 two years it had spread itself and ravaged all my vine- 

 yards. The solution should be applied before the 

 foliage starts in spring. 



The only ideal family grapes we have are Worden and 

 Niagara. These two can be planted by everybody as 

 thrifty, hardy great bearers and superb in quality . Any 

 one who runs them over his house and barn will add to 

 the comfort of his household as much as will come 

 from the wheat field. Any one may grow twenty 

 bushels of grapes on barn and house alone. If you do 

 plant these, plant between them a Brighton always ; 

 then you will be happy. They will save doctor's bills 

 and give you pleasure, too ! 



Oneida Co., X. Y. E. P. Powell. 



STRAWBERRY GROWING AT NORFOLK. 



^\ HE TRUCKERS about Nor- 

 folk and Portsmouth, Va., 

 liave developed a method of 

 growing strawberries which 

 is probably not in use in any 

 other berry district m the 

 country. Strawberries with 

 them form a single crop in a 

 rotation, and are not intended 

 to furnish the entire income from the land which 

 they occupy. 



The plants are set early in spring between the rows or 

 between hills in the rows of early potatoes, cabbage or 

 other truck crops, so as to make the strawberry rows 

 four to six feet apart and the plants iS to 24 inches apart 

 in the row. 



The cultivation and hoeing necessary for the truck 

 crop is given the strawberries also, and after the har- 

 vesting of the former, which occurs in May and June, 

 cultivation is continued till midsummer. No attempt is 

 made to prevent the rooting of runners, and as the cul- 

 tivator is gradually narrowed toward the end of the sea- 

 son, the rows widen until in many fields they form 

 matted beds four or five feet in width. 



.\fter cultivation ceases, a crop of grass and weeds 

 commonly springs up and is mowed down and left as 

 a mulch f jr the berries. Sometimes when it is mainly 

 composed of " crab grass " it is raked off and cured for 

 hay, and some extensive growers depend entirely on this 



" volunteer " crop for the dry feed of their horses, as 

 meadows are found but rarely in the trucking region. 

 As the truck crop is always fertilized either with stable 

 manure or some commercial fertilizer, no special appli- 

 cation for the strawberry is applied during the first sea- 

 son. Same growers broadcast a '' strawberry guano " 

 containing ammonia about 4 per cent, and potash 5 or 

 5 per cent, over the plants the following spring, and de- 

 pend on the washing effect of the rain to carry it to the 

 roots, as spring cultivation is not practiced. Commonly, 

 only one crop of berries is taken, and the field is then 

 ploughed and planted with some other crop, as corn or 

 millet, or fitted for a winter crop of kale or spinach. 

 Sometimes the rows are narrowed with the plough after 

 fruiting, and then allowed to send out runners till nearly 

 the whole surface is covered and picked from the sec- 

 ond season. 



It will be seen that the truckers' method violates two 

 of the established rules for berry growing, viz., clean 

 cultivation during the first season after planting, and 

 prevention of the rooting of runners until the original 

 plants are firmly established. The overlooking of these 

 two rules in the northern berry regions would probably 

 greatly lessen the profits of berry growing, but the 

 truckers find this their most profitable method ; and as 

 they are as a rule intelligent and shrewd men, there 

 must bs some counter-balancing reason for this appar- 

 ently shiftless mode of culture. It is this. The Norfolk 

 grower ships his entire crop to northern cities, and as 

 soon as Maryland and Delaware berries begin to ripen, 



