BLOSSOM OF THE MALE OR BISEXUAL BLOSSOM OF THE FEMALE OR PISTILLATE 
Plants in 
the Patch 
fruit worth considering will be had. But the 
pistillate (female) is of no value to the male or 
bisexual plant. That is to say, the female con- 
tributes nothing to the strength of the staminate 
variety. 
'T'OO much attention may not be given to the 
* arrangement of plants in the patch having 
in view proper pollenation. For illustration, 
suppose you have ordered Texas, Dunlap and 
Warfield plants for setting this spring, here is 
the way they should be set to mate them as 
they should be to secure 
Arrangement of ^^^^^^^ pollenation and big 
crops of berries: First set 
one row of Texas, then 
three rows of Warfields and next a row of 
Senator Dunlap, to be followed in turn by three 
more Warfields, when another row of Texas 
will be set out and the same order followed until 
the field is fully set. If you have ordered fewer 
Warfields than this division would indicate, you 
may set two rows, or only one row, of that 
variety. But it is well to remember that one 
row of bisexuals set on either side of pistillates 
is capable of pollenating as many as three rows 
of the latter. The advantage of placing an 
early and a later variety on either side of the 
pistillate lies in the fact that as the earlier flowers 
of the pistillate open they will be fertilized by 
the early bisexual, and the later flowers of the 
pistillate will be fertilized by the pollen of the 
later variety, thus extending the season of the 
pistillate, increasing the yield of fruit and de- 
veloping much more perfect berries. Incon- 
ceivable quantities of fruit are lost annually 
from improper pollenation, while vast quantities 
are rendered knotty, green and tasteless through 
the same cause. One of our Iowa patrons after 
reading the Kellogg catalogue wrote one of her 
local nurserymen on this subject, and her feelings 
may be imagined, when, as she writes us, "he 
replied he could furnish and guarantee no sep- 
arate varieties; that he had not found it practi- 
cable to keep them separate, since so many 
people didn't understand the principle of mat- 
ing!" It would be interesting to know what 
that nurseryman's customers thought of the 
strawberry business, either as a source of pleas- 
ure or profit. 
IMOW with the ground thoroughly prepared 
and rolled as smooth as a floor, we come to 
the important work of setting out the plants. 
Setting is a simple operation and, to one who 
practices it, a rapid one. It is a work to be 
done in work-a-day clothes, for it brings you in 
close contact with mother 
Setting Out ^^^^^ j^,^ J 5^,11 J 
to adhere. Your skilled 
planter pads his left knee 
with an old piece of gnnnysack or any similar 
material and "gets right down to business." 
Holding the dibble in his right hand — and 
the dibble is the best thing we have ever 
known for this work — he thrusts it into the 
the 
Plants 
10 
