STRAWBERRIES. 
CULTURE. — Many points are to be learned in this line of horticulture in one’s life ; hence, with a life-long 
experience, one must profit by it. It would be useless for us to rehearse all the points we 
have brought out in the past through the journals of the country, setting forth the methods 
of culture and marketing the crop. In this brief space we can only allude to this point, but 
in a brief way we will try and cover the ground. 
With the standard berries of the day, it is no trick to grow from 150 to 250 bushels of 
this fruit per acre, if the proper care is given and the best varieties planted. 
One would think it useless to work a bed once a week ; but here is one point not to be 
overlooked ; cultivation checks evaporation, and admits air to the soil, which the plant 
roots delight to have. Thus, by frequent culture you add both to the root-growth and the 
crop of the future. 
Different methods of planting prevail in different sections of the country ; hence, we 
can but give you the one practiced by us. This is a compromise between the matted row 
and hill systems. With the matted row you get much small fruit — with the hill quite large 
berries, but not in paying quantities ; so we adopt a compromise between the two. 
When a bed is set in spring, we allow no runners to set until July 15 to August 1 ; we then see that they are 
not huddled together, but kept separate so they will form a good root-growth, and be prepared to produce a 
good crop. 
The method many practice in the matted-row system is pushing the runners to the plant all through the fall. 
This is not right , you form a nest of vines w'thout being well-rooted, and that will produce inferior fruit. When 
one wants some fine specimens of fruit, he will not go to the largest cluster of vines, but where the set is more 
scattered and where the sun shines in around the plants. 
The rows on this system should be feet wide, and plants 15 to 18 inches apart in row. In preparing the 
soil, we would not advise planting sod to this fruit, but if that is done, it should be plowed the fall before and 
replowed in the spring, with a light coat of manure plowed under, and the same worked in from top. 
The soil cannot be too well prepared ; the more work put on it, the less it will require in the future. 
As a fertilizer, we recommend barn-yard manure above all others. Commercial fertilizers with us have never 
roved a profitable investment ; hence, we pay more in proportion for the former than the latter. The manure 
as the lasting qualities, where with the phosphate you know not the hour its strength will be exhausted, and 
many times the result will be loss of ciops. 
We advise working the manure into the soil from the top by plow or harrow ; it is then placed in reach of 
the plant roots ; when plowed under it is seldom reached, and the plant proper receives but little from it. 
The soil does not need to be rich to produce the crop , any soil that will produce good potatoes or wheat, 
with a supply of manure added, will yield you good returns. The one main point in view should be cultivation, 
and the best tool to do this work at the least expense is the Planet Jr. 
PLANTING.— The planting of a bed is the most important part. It costs you the same to cultivate a poor 
stand of plants as it does good ones ; hence, the importance of well-rooted strong plants. 
We cannot produce such with the care and high culture we give them at the cost they can be grown on New 
Jersey sand-banks and at some other points, but we can send you plants that are worth ten times their value, 
and which will all grow ; not only grow, but produce you a good growth instead of one of the dwarf nature ! 
The plant should not be planted deeper than it stood in the bed ; when planted too deep it will not grow, and 
if planted too shallow, the same. 
We use a spade and line for setting ; have our plants all dug, and when we are ready, it is but a small job 
to set. Two men and a boy can set one acre per day Care should be taken not to expose the roots to sun 
or wind at any time. 
PERFECT FLOWER. 
Should plants be received before you are ready to plant, or should anything interfere, heel in ; cut the string 
about the bunch and spread them out, dampening the roots, but not the leaf. 
Our plants are all stripped of surplus leaves and runners, and put in bunches of twenty-five, packed in light 
baskets, which keep down express charges, and cause no danger of heating. All our plants 
are true to name. 
PERFECT AND IMPERFECT BLOSSOMS. — Strawberries are all perfect or im- 
perfect, or in other words, male and female. Those marked (P) are imperfect and destitute 
of stamens, and must be planted so that they can be fertilized with perfect-flowering varie- 
ties, every three, four or five rows. • 
The best way to make the fertilization perfect is to set two varieties between — one early 
and one late ; this will add to crop and size of fruit. 
Some people are prejudiced against pistillate varieties. This should not be. We have 
found them the most productive , hence, better paying and less injured, by late frost. For 
family use, we prefer a perfect variety, as they are somewhat easier handled ; but for profit, 
the one that produces the most salable fruit is what we want. imperfect flower. 
