By Archibald Rutledge, llZ syU 
The Lure of the 
Strawberry 
PRACTICAL EXPERIENCES IN GROWING THE QUEEN 
OF SMALL FRUITS FOR PLEASURE AND FOR PROFIT 
S INCE the prac- 
tical gardener is 
glad to gain 
knowledge from 
his friends’ experiences 
as well as his own, I 
here recount in a simple 
way my own experi- 
ences and some of my 
neighbors’ in growing 
several kinds of strawberries in a 
variety of ways. 
The plants may be set either in 
the spring or in the late summer. 
As a general rule, plants set in 
the early spring gave better re- 
sults than those which had to run the 
dangerous gauntlet of an August or Septem- 
ber drought. However, from an old bed, 
plants may be caught in pots that will be 
ready to set in July; and if the space is 
then available, it is well to get them started 
at once. I have had great success with 
starting strawberries between rows of 
sweet corn. The shade permitted the 
plants to get a stout growth before the 
cornstalks were removed. 
The quantity of the yield, and to some 
extent the quality will in some degree de- 
pend on the kind of a start that the plants 
get, and therefore on the time of planting. 
There are numerous ways of setting 
strawberry plants, and each has its ad- 
vantages. The single-plant, hill system 
produces the largest number of 
fancy berries to the plant. This 
method encourages an immense 
root-and-crown system, and in- 
sures berries of splendid size and 
regular shape. No runners are 
permitted to set, and all the plant’s 
development and strength go into 
making one huge, fruit-producing 
hill. 1 have found that rows three 
feet apart, with plants two feet 
apart in the row, will give the best 
results. The twin hedgerow is not 
unlike the hill system. Two rows 
are made about sixteen inches 
apart; then a space of thirty inches tr dps 
on each side is followed by two 
more rows sixteen inches apart. Runners 
are allowed to set in the narrower space, 
while the alleys are kept clean. Probably 
the most popular method, and perhaps the 
most serviceable one, especially for the 
gardener with but a limited space for the 
purpose, is the single hedgerow; the rows 
three feet apart, and the plants two feet 
apart in the row. Two runner plants are 
permitted to mature from each parent, and 
are layered in line with the row, one on 
either side of the mother plant. When 
the runners are layered, the plants will 
stand about six inches apart, and their 
development will form a continuous row. 
There is still another method — the narrow 
matted row — but this produces berries of 
inferior size. 
A few years ago I tried an interesting 
experiment with wild strawberries. Early 
in April I dug ioo plants from a little road- 
side colony, leaving a great deal of earth 
on the roots. I set them in my garden, 
fertilizing them with nothing but woods- 
earth, which I spread liberally on the bed. 
My idea was that a natural fertilizer would 
develop their size yet permit them to retain 
their delicious wild flavor. That year there 
was a fair yield of genuinely wild berries. 
During the summer I kept them clean and 
cultivated them, but used no fertilizer 
except the leafmold. The following spring, 
the plants, which had increased many times 
in size, being almost as large as some tame 
varieties, were literally loaded with berries 
twice and three times the size of wild 
berries, yet which retained that inimitable 
fragrance and flavor. The crop was far 
more prolific than any tame crop I had ever 
seen. A large market grower near Clear 
Spring, Md., has begun the market plant- 
ing of wild berries; he finds a ready sale 
for his fruit. 
No man with common-sense will attempt 
to advise his fellow gardeners as to the 
kinds of strawberries that it is best to plant; 
for each man has a passion for certain 
favorites. Many growers swear by the 
old-timers, such as William Belt, Sample, 
Sharpless, Warfield, or Gandy; others pre- 
fer something new, declaring that no variety 
can be better than the Fendall, the Helen 
Davis, the Virginia, the Longfellow, or 
whatever other name the berry may de- 
light in. 
No strawberry should be grown (except 
as an experiment) unless it has been thor- 
oughly tested; and the grower should be 
certain that the plants he buys are true to 
name. It is always wise to get the best 
by paying a little more. 
Deal only with reliable 
firms. Last spring I saw 
a wretched “bargain” 
shipment of 10,000 
strawberry plants. 
They had not been 
properly packed; the 
roots were brittle dry; 
many of the plants had 
fruit stems on them, 
while others had broken crowns. 
The purchaser set them; but a 
dry spell came on, and he lost 
the whole consignment. Some 
berries, such as the Lady 
Thompson and the Heflin’s 
Early, are wonders in the South; but I 
have been able to get the first to grow 
only indifferently here in Pennsylvania, 
and the second not at all. The locality, 
therefore, has a great deal to do with the 
variety which it is best to plant. Among 
the best early varieties suitable to the 
Middle Atlantic States are Excelsior, 
August, Luther, Climax, and Warfield; 
among the mediums, Glen Mary, William 
Belt, Bubach, and Senator Dunlap; and 
among the lates, Aroma, Marshall, Sample, 
Gandy, and Stephens’ Late Champion. In 
southern Pennsylvania, I have found, after 
testing a considerable number, that the 
Climax, Marshall, Sample, and Gandy give 
the best all-round results. 
The best fertilizers for berries 
are rich in nitrates: among such 
are bone meal, wood ashes, and 
chicken manure. Nitrate of soda, 
applied early in the spring as a 
light top dressing, will wonder- 
fully rejuvenate an old bed. 
The average strawberry patch 
“goes to grass” after the crop has 
been gathered; runners are per- 
mitted to set indiscriminately, 
weeds and grass choke the plants. 
It will not do at all to permit the 
bed to lie thus for two or three 
months, imagining that it can sud- 
denly, by a vigorous cleaning, be 
brought back to its normal state 
of health and vigor. After the berries have 
been harvested, the bed should be mowed 
off clean, and the straw and leaves re- 
moved and burned. 
There is a delight and a satisfaction in 
growing this queen of the small fruits that 
few other similar garden operations can 
afford. The work is clean and exact, the 
plants are beautiful and easily responsive 
to attention, and the berries are quite the 
finest that Nature has given. To quote 
an old writer, ‘God might have made a 
finer berry, but He never did.” 
the best way to grow strawberries is to put the plants two feet apart in 
rows three feet apart. This bed is three months old 
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