BRIDGMAN NURSERY COMPANY, BRIDGMAN, MICHIGAN 
3 
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Growing Plants. 
The growing of Strawberry and other small 
fruit plants has reached wonderful proportions 
here at Bridgman. Carloads of them are ship- 
ped every day for six weelts in the spring time. 
They go to every point in the compass, to every 
state in the Union, to Canada and other points. 
Parties have written to us from Alaska, Ger- 
many and Porto Rico the past year concerning 
plants. We don't look for much business from 
Alaska, but they have heard from our plants 
and naturally want to get some. 
Our long experience in packing plants war- 
rants us to believe that they would get there in 
•• ood condition. 
Five Acres. 
One writpr who knows says that 80 acres of 
corn will not make as much clear money as 
five acres of Strawberries will, and he says it 
don't require one-quarter the capital. If you 
will stop and figure you will see that it don't 
require one-sixteenth of the capital. The tools 
needed are but few. Almost any old one or 
two-horse cultivator will do, and any old horse 
or mule that is able to move can work five 
acres easily. Any old or young boy can do 
the work, but it takes a spry boy to work 80 
acres of corn. We never saw an 80-acre field 
of corn in Michigan, so we can't tell you how 
much work 80 acres of corn will make, but we 
sure know there must be a lot of hard work on 
it, and we do know that five acres of strawber- 
ries will bring a lot of ready cash. Just think 
a minute. Strawberries are always spot cash, 
no waiting for your pay; nobody would think 
of asking you to "wait" till they could pay you. 
When you are once started you will never 
stop after you know how much there is in 
Strawberry growing. Don't wait for your 
neighbor to tell you, who perhaps is buzzing 
to town with a lot of strawberries in his auto; 
he will never mention to you how much he 
may have made any more than you are going 
to tell the tax man about it. 
The Culture of Strawberries 
Planting. 
There are but few things necessary. Aj 
spade, a pail or basket, we like a pail best 
because the wind and air cannot get at the 
roots and dry them out in a pail as well as in 
a basket which always has many openings; 
any light drag or marker, or chain, and a cul- 
tivator; this is all that is necessary after it 
has been plowed, dragged and rolled or fioated 
to get it nice and level so you can see the 
marks; then someone to make holes and carry 
the plants and some one to set them in the 
ground. We take a good spade, well sharp- 
ened, and make the holes just a little deeper 
than the roots of the plants require. We 
never trim off the roots, but we trim off the 
top all but the crown; in that way the roots 
will not have to provide as much moisture or 
feed, and you will soon see this center looking 
like it meant business. The planter usually 
takes as many as he can carry in one hand, 
passing them to the other one, giving it a 
little swing and swish it in the hole, not too 
deep; set it just about as it grew. Setting too 
deep means that your crown will be covered 
should the wind blow or the rain come. 
Shallow Marks. 
Make the marks as shallow as you can and 
set your plant even with the ground, step firmly 
on each side of the plant, keep an eye on your 
setter. If you can pull out a plant by a leaf, 
it is not fii-mpfl enough. They should be in 
the ground solid enough so the leaf would 
tear or break rather than let the plant come 
out. Watch this, not only once, but continu- 
ally. The boss iisually makes the holes and 
the other fellow puts in the plants, and natur- 
ally he gets tired and careless and forgets. 
Now the boss will not forget so easy; this is 
the main feature of the whole business — get 
them planted right. If roots are not trimmed 
the plant is not so easily disturbed when you 
touch it with a hoe, and your roots go down 
farther and take hold of the soil quicker. 
Rainy days are not the best to set plants. It 
is not at all necessary that you wait for rain 
before setting. You are apt to get careless 
when everything is in best condition. Pains- 
taking setting pays. Risk planting when 
moderately dry. I would rather risk getting 
a little shower after planting than risk drying 
out after a rain. Of course, if your hole 
showed no moisture, then you would have to 
wait. 
Anyone with just common sense can rai.se 
Strawberries anywhere where any farm crop 
will srew. Strawberries will grow; if th|e' 
ground is too dry, you won't have as good show 
as you might have if it were a little too wet; 
thev will stand much more rain and water 
than potatoes will; they will come through 
all right if entirely covered with water for a 
few days. Of course, we don't advise setting 
where this is liable to happen, but sometimes 
there is a low spot of small dimension in a 
field, and if your water never stays on it more 
than 48 to 60 hours, your plants will come out 
all right. Strawberries will stand much more 
water than Raspberries or Blackberries. 
As soon after as you can, go over them with a 
cultivator, in a day or two, then hoe them in 
the row where the cultivator did not get; hoe 
close and careful, you can walk right along 
these first hoeings, anyone can hoe one acre 
per day. These first few hoeings are nice for 
the ladies if you can talk them into it; you 
will not need to talk to them when the Straw- 
berries get ripe — that's the time it will be hard 
to keep them away. Lord bless the ladies as 
well as the Strawberries. Keep up this hoeing 
and cultivating every ten days or two weeks. 
Keep them clean and well hoed. The buds 
should be picked off the newlv set plants, if 
you don't they will start to bear the berries 
that are .set on them, and this will sap its vital- 
ity and it will take all its force and strength 
to form the berry in place of making new 
runners. 
Matted Row. 
Is the way most of our planters grow their 
berries, with rows three to four feet apart, 
just as vi)U wi.sh. about 20 inches apart in the 
row. When they have made a growth of plants 
so the row is about 1 2 inches wide, cut off the 
runners. If vour growth is too dense and the 
plants crowd each other, your chances are 
good for small berries, but .give them root 
room: if you could have the plants when the 
.Trowth is done so they would be about four 
inches apart, your berries would be larger, 
you would not need to pick half as many 
lierries to get the same number of quarts; 
they will be much nicer for the table, for 
canning and the market, if the berries are 
nice and large. Your wife might let you loaf 
while she hulled them, but if they were small 
you sure would get a call for help, and it is 
right you should, for it is your fault that your 
berries are under size. 
Preparing Your Soil. 
If you are a farmer and can raise crops as 
good as your neighbor you need but little tall? 
on the subject. The main feature of prepar- 
ing soil is the ease with which they can be 
taken care of. You can take an old meadow, 
clover field, or alfalfa field, plow it, drag It 
well, disk it and pet it so the top is mellow, 
