GREAT CROPS OF STRAWBERRIES AND HOW TO GROW THEM 27 
R. M. Kellogg Co., Three Rivers, Mich. 
PROPER METHOD FOR HEELING-IN STRAWBERRY PLANTS 
T7IRST make a furrow or a "V*'-shape trench in the shade. Set the bunches in the trench with the crowns just above the top 
of the trench, as shown in Figure 1, allowing the tips of the roots to reach down towards the bottom of trench. Then with 
a knife cut the strings that bind the bunches and spread the plants out as shown in Figure 2, being careful that roots are all 
well spread so that the soil will come in contact uniformly with all the roots. Now fill in the trench with the soil, pressing the 
soil firmly against the roots as you fill it in. When completed your plants should look as shown in Figure 3. Should weather 
conditions indicate freezing cover lightly with straw. Plants should only be heeled in to keep them fresh until all plants are 
set in their permanent bed. Should your ground be ready for the plants when received and you can set them in a day or two it 
will hardly be necessary to heel them in at all; in which case open the package and set plants in a cool place protected from wind. 
ture yields something is necessary, and as our 
old customers know, we advise the use of ni- 
trates of soda as the best source of supply 
for the required plant food. There recently 
has come to our notice an incident of such 
unusual nature that we repeat it here. We 
should not think of publishing it had it come 
from any less authoritative source than Pro- 
fessor W. F. Massey, who is known as a scien- 
tist upon whose statements the reader may 
completely rely. Professor Massey says: "I 
top-dressed an old strawberry bed in its fifth 
year of bearing with three hundred pounds 
of nitrate of soda to the acre. I had intend- 
ed plowing it up the previous summer, as it 
was in an exhausted condition and foul with 
clover and sorrel. The effect was amazing, 
for from this bed of an acre and a quarter 
from which I expected nothing I gathered 
7,000 quarts of berries." 
Preparation for the second crop requires 
no such quantity as Professor Massey names, 
but it will be observed that he applied this 
large amount of nitrate of soda to a field in 
its fifth year of bearing. In our judgment, 
strawberry plants never should be permitted 
to fruit more than three times, and we do 
not believe that commercial growers can af- 
ford to raise more than two crops from the 
same setting of plants. But the incident is 
valuable as suggesting the stimulating pow- 
ers of nitrate of soda in the case of soils ex- 
hausted of their fertility. 
Concerning Run-out Plants 
IN a letter which came to us recently from 
J. B. Wagner, the celebrated rhubarb 
specialist of Pasadena, California, he says: 
"Mr. J. B. Mowry, who is an enthusiast in 
strawberry culture, desires me to secure 
some of your Arizona plants, Mr. Mowry, 
some years since, sent R. M. Kellogg the first 
plants he ever had of the Arizona variety. 
This variety has run out here and is abso- 
lutely worthless. I trust the ones we get 
from you will do better." 
This is a very interesting letter in view of 
the fact that, under the methods of selection 
and restriction followed upon the Kellogg 
farms, the Arizona has greatly improved 
during the nine years since the first plants 
were received by us. This is not an isolated 
instance, for we frequently hear from peo- 
ple who have secured plants of well-known 
and long-tested varieties from other nurseries 
that this is their experience. With us just 
the reverse is true. The Kellogg strains of 
plants grow better with the passing years, as 
I'eports from our customers show. It is a 
fact, established beyond all cavil, that straw- 
berry plants, when given the treatment 
which all plants receive on the Kellogg farm. 
