MOTHER PLANT IN FULL BLOOM IN KELLOGG FARMS BREEDING BED 
Stimulating or 
Forcing 
The Plants 
the rows. The time to start this work is after 
all danger from frost is over. But never 
cultivate the plants when in bloom, unless the 
soil is moist enough to pre- 
vent dust from flying. 
Cultivation opens up air 
spaces, furnishing air to 
bacteria, which in turn work up the plant food. 
Cultivation also preserves moisture, which in 
turn dissolves the plant food after the bacterial 
germs have made it available. All these furnish 
an abundant supply of plant food and moisture 
to the plants just at the time when they are 
undergoing their greatest strain and need most 
such assistance. Still another way to assist the 
plants is to give them a good dressing of well- 
decayed stable manure just before mulching is 
applied. By applying this manure after the 
first freeze in the fall its fertility will be avail- 
able for the plants in the spring. Any of these 
suggestions carried out, will greatly increase 
the yield of berries and the size of the fruit if 
properly selected plants only are employed. 
CROM whatever point of view, mulching is 
of prime importance in strawberry produc- 
tion. In tKe North it is the sure protection 
against freezing and thawing; everywhere it aids 
to retain moisture in the soil; and adds fertility 
to the earth, and everywhere it keeps the berries 
Mulches 
and 
Mulching 
clean, thus making them sweet and appetizing 
as they appear in the market, free from grit 
and sand; their rich beauty and color, their 
flavor and fragrance undiminished by any "clean- 
ing" process. The range of materials that 
make good mulch is a broad one — wheat straw, 
oat straw, or any other straw, corn stalks, 
sorghum pomace, marsh hay — in a word, any 
coarse material possessing 
the qualities found in these 
articles will serve. Along 
the coast of the Atlantic 
seaweed is used with success. In the South, 
where freezing weather never affects the straw- 
berry, the needles of the pines serve well as a 
mulch. 
'T'HE time to mulch is determined by the 
season. In the North, where cold nights 
and frosty days linger for many weeks, mulching 
should be done after the first light freeze in 
autumn, and the covering should be complete, 
both over and between the rows. Under such 
a mulch plants hibernate in 
safety, free from any injury When and 
through freezing and thaw- _ °" , 
j.k Ml . To Mulch 
mg, and they will come out 
in the spring strong and vigorous, ready to 
yield an abundant crop of big red berries. In 
the midland country the plants should be 
16 
