i SMALL FRUITS AND HOW TO aROW THEM ~[ 
HOW MANY CROPS? 
How many crops can be taken before 
■plovi'xng under depends on the method of cul- 
tivation. In hills fruiting- vigor can be 
maintained from four to six years. In the 
half matted row two or three years and if 
matted very thick one big- crop ends the use- 
fulness of the patch. If as explained else- 
where, the plants are mixed so that some 
are fruitinj^ and some not, it will produce 
two or three small crops. If perchance the 
phmtation is severely injured with frosts, so 
that plants can use the sca.son largely to 
recuperate, a good crop may be expected 
the next season. 
The second and third crop costs very little 
save the picking, as the plantation is already 
established. Berries generally ripen two or 
three days earlier in an old bed than in a 
new one. 
DISEASES. 
Diseases and fungi always attack weak 
and sickly plants. I never could fuss to 
doctor a sick ten cent chicken. Send it to 
the dung heap — and a jjlant to the brush 
pile. Keep up the selection. Adopt the rule 
of the survival of the fittest. Fix your ideal 
of perfection high and accept nothing below 
it. There are plenty of varieties to occupy 
our soils and maintain liealth and vigor. 
No, we don'l nf-ed a plant doctor. The hoe 
is the best physician. If a plant has not 
vitality enough to shake off the disease 
and resist fungi, hoe it up and put in one 
that lias. 
INSECTS. 
3 and 4, May beetle: 2, larva or white ffrub; 
1. pupa. 
The only insect likely to do serious dam- 
age in strawberries is the white grub or 
larva; of tlie May beetle illustrated in the 
engraving-. The larv;e feed on the roots of 
grass and are often found so thick in old June 
grass sod or pastures as to destio}' it. They 
are pas'^ionately fond of strawberry roots 
and great care sliould be exercised not to set 
plants on ground infested with them. They 
remain in this larval state for two or three 
3 
17 
years, doing the most damage the second 
season. 
Grubs similar to these are often found in 
manure and old wood, but that kind does not 
eat roots and is therefore harmless. As 
there are so many kinds it will be safer to 
send some of those found in your ground to 
the entomologist at your State Agricultural 
College and ascertain if they are the true 
May beetle. They can be sent by mail. 
They very rarelj' or never lay their eggs in 
fresh cultivated ground so that if the land 
has been in any hoed crop for two or three 
years previous there will be very little dan- 
ger. Examine old strawberry beds carefully 
before resetting. 
VARIETIES OF STRAW- 
BERRIES. 
The great diversity of soils renders it ex- 
ceedingly difticult to recommend varieties. 
Those which do well with me may not do 
well with you. If two varieties are set side 
by side, one fails, the other succeeds 
grandly, remove them both to another field 
and their success will be soiuetiines exactly 
reversed. It often happens that the same 
variety from another part of the country 
will do better; this has often been found 
true of the old standards. Crescent and Wil- 
son. The only way you can determine defi- 
nitely is to experiment with different varie- 
ties, bearing in mind that those sorts 
which do well over the greatest area of 
country will be the safest to plant largely, 
and that exhausted plants cannot be made to 
succeed anywhere. 
I do not believe there is any soil on which 
large crops of corn and potatoes do nicely 
where some variety of the strawberry will 
not do equally well, and this can be defi- 
nitely settled only by testing. 
Set larji'ely of those vai'ietie.s which 
have been widely tested and fotind to suc- 
ceed almost everywhere. There are many 
new varieties coming out and some are of the 
greatest value and may be exactly suited to 
your soil and location in which case it would 
be a valuable discovery. Keep in mind that 
one crop of three htindred bushels per acre 
affords <' Idii;!' fio/i/, while fifty bushels 
would not pay expen.ses. This difference 
often hangs on the variety and its adapta- 
bility alone. 
The following are varieties of perl'eet 
flo\v«'riii5;' sorts to be set by pistil- 
lates as fertilizers, or may be set alone as 
they fertili'ie themselves, althottgh I believe 
there is a decided advantage in setting in 
blocks as many flowers will not receive their 
own pollen. For convenience they are 
placed in alphabetical order: 
Harly— Reder-Wood, H. W. Beecher, Bev- 
erly, Hurt Seedling, Banquet, Cj'clone, 
Rleanor, Meek's Rarly, Michel's Rarly, Rio, 
Splendid, Tennyson, Van Dcman and Wil- 
son Albany. 
l>l<Mliliiii — Brandywine, Cumberland, 
Dayton, Iowa Beauty, Lovett, Parry, Pearl, 
Ko1>inson, Smith's Seedling, Stranger, 
Sh irpless, Sluickless and Wolverton. 
Kate — Dew, Enhance, Gandy (very late). 
