GREAT CROPS OF STRAWBERRIES AND HOW TO GROW THEM 
Copyright 1914, by B. M. KellogK Co., Three Rivers, Mich. 
KELI.OGG'S THOROUGHBREDS IN SOCTH DAKOTA 
pROM H. O. Oien of Dell Rapids, S. D.. comes the 
Illustration shown above, but Mr. Oien says in his 
letter that this extraordinarily fine picture does not 
do the plants justice. He continues: "I dare say 
that I have the finest strawberry patch in Minnehaha 
county. It is the admiration of all who see it. 
Nothing but Keilogg's Thoroughbreds for me." 
The larger proportion of these strawberries are 
grown under irrigation. Thus it becomes a 
vital matter to the Western strawberry folk 
to practice that system of watering plants that 
insures the best results. 
It has been our experience in Idaho that 
setting plants in the dry soil and turning on 
the water afterward is altogether the most 
satisfactory way. This encourages the rapid 
settling of the soil about the roots of the plants, 
and their immediate and rapid development, 
which in turn insures big crops of fruit. 
There is nothing in the work of growing 
plants under irrigation that should cause any- 
one to hesitate to undertake it. In setting out 
the plants a furrow should be made where each 
row of plants is to be set. A horse-drawn im- 
plement is used, known as a corrugator — a 
two-wheeled implement it is, with adjustable 
wheels of iron, shaped somewhat like an auto- 
mobile tire and about the same size. For 
strawberries the wheels should be adjusted to 
make two corrugations at a time, forty-two 
inches apart. Then set out the plants as 
would be done anywhere, turn the water on, 
as above described, and let it run through the 
corrugations until the soil is thoroughly soaked 
all around the plants. This will furnish suffi- 
cient moisture to start the feeding roots. 
Leave the furrows undisturbed until after 
you irrigate the plants again, or until the 
plants have attained sufficient growth to make 
a row across the field so plain that you can 
follow it easily while cultivating. Then culti- 
vate as soon as the soil will permit, and con- 
tinue cultivating every week or ten days until 
the plants indicate that they require more 
moisture; then irrigate again. 
Continue irrigating and cultivating In this 
manner throughout the entire growing season, 
irrigating, of course, only as moisture is 
needed. This easily may be determined by the 
appearance of the plants, also by the appear- 
ance of the soil when you dig into it. 
The preparation of the soil and all other work 
connected with the growing of strawberries is 
the same in an irrigation country as in any 
other. 
The Ever-Bearing Strawberries 
WE prefer to call these remarkable plants 
"ever-bearers" for the reason that the 
term "fall-bearers" is an inadequate descrip- 
tion. These plants bear a generous crop in the 
early summer, and then, after a month or so 
of rest during the hot, dry weather of mid-sum- 
mer, they again become active and yield a con- 
tinuous crop from that time until freezing 
weather comes on. Therefore, if the title of 
ever-bearers is not exactly correct, it is more 
nearly so than the title that apparently limits 
their season of production to the fall months. 
Notwithstanding that the ever-bearing plants 
have been known since 1889, when Samuel 
Cooper of New York developed a single plant, 
with eleven runners attached, into the famous 
Pan-American variety; and although these 
plants are now grown by millions with com- 
plete success and large profit in nearly every 
section of the country, there is still no little 
skepticism in the minds of the general public 
regarding them and their value as producers 
of fine fruit. This attitude should not con- 
tinue in the face of the great commercial suc- 
cess that the more progressive growers are 
enjoying, and we hope our customers and 
friends who have not as yet engaged in their 
cultivation may no longer hesitate to take ad- 
vantage of the very large opportunity afforded 
by the lengthening of the fruiting season of 
the strawberry grower, and his increased profits 
arising therefrom. 
Letters from our friends who have had ex- 
perience with the ever-bearing plants are prac- 
tically unanimous that they are the most prof- 
itable of all varieties. Consider why this is 
so: You set out the ever-bearing plants at the 
same time in the spring that the standard 
varieties are planted — say April. From four 
to five months afterward a generous crop of 
fruit begins to ripen and the plants continue 
fruiting until freezing weather checks further 
activity along that line. Then in the spring 
the ever-bearers begin to bloom with the stand- 
ard varieties and yield as heavy crops of fine 
and delicious fruit as do the most prolific of 
the regular varieties. In one word, you have 
had two crops of high-class fruit within four- 
teen months after the plants were set. It is 
safe to say that nothing else in the fruit world 
KKI-I.OOG TIIORUUGHBRIiiDS ON XUK WAY 
Page Fifty 
