2i4 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
April 7 
A SHORT STRAWBERRY ROTATION. 
WHAT TO no WITH THE VINES. 
What Crops to Go With Them P 
1 have about three acres of land which, experiments have shown. Is 
well adapted for strawberry KrowlPK. I wish to devote It to this 
purpose for as lonjf a time as possible. I do not care to raise any 
other crop except so far as may be necessaiy for the benefit of the 
strawberries. My Intention Is to fruit my beds only one year unless 
KOOd reasons appear for contlnulnK them lonjrer. The fruit will be 
off. and the land ready to plow by July 15. I propose to divide my 
land In three sections ? What would Tub R. N.-Y. snprjfest, and how 
long can I continue to fruit the beds? Several growers In this sec¬ 
tion have tried raising some other crop between the strawberries, 
such as early peas or potatoes, which will be out of the way before the 
strawberry plants need the land. This has not, however, been sailc- 
factory. I have In mind growing one stalk of pop corn between each 
two strawberry plants. The latter are two feet apart In the row and 
the rows four feet apart. The plants are allowed to run freely. The 
shade from the corn at such a distance cannot be Injurlons. and I do 
not see why they may not get along well together. Perhaps the corn 
will suffer from high winds, as the stalks cannot support each other. 
Eastern Massachusetts. j. 
From a Massachusetts Prize Garden. 
After growing strawberries 33 years I have come to 
the following conclusion : If set in the spring on land 
liigr.Wy manured, thoroughly pulverized, in rows from 
3>^ to 4 feet apart with plants about 12 to 15 inches in 
the rows, I would always plant between the rows of 
strawberries, dwarf peas, bush beans, lettuce, rad¬ 
ishes or something that would not crowd the plants 
and which would get out of their way in good season. 
Let but few runners root from the plants set out, cut 
them off and treat them the same as weeds. Get 
one crop of strawberries, then plow the bed and raise 
a crop of celery. Grow some other crop one or two 
years, and then try strawberries again. There is 
another method I like fully as well as the one 
described. Give ground that has been cultivated 
some two years a good coat of stable manure in the 
spring, plant some crop that can be got off by July 15 
and then apply another lot of well-rotted manure. 
Pulverize the soil thoroughly, and in July set out 
good, strong strawberry plants, if convenient, with 
earth attached to each, in rows 33^ feet apart, one foot 
apart in the rows. Let two runners root—I cut them 
off—keep the surface hoed as often as once in 10 days. 
In late fall mulch with strawy manure. After one 
crop of strawberries, cut off the tops, clean out the 
weeds and grass if any, apply ground bone and ashes. 
Keep well hoed, mulch as before late in fall, get second 
crop, then plow in and grow some other crop two 
years ; then try strawberries again. 
Beverly, Mass. ben.iamin m. smith. 
Half Always In Strawberries. 
I cannot give advice from experience, as I planted 
my first strawberry bed for market last spring. I 
have planned for my own practice as follows : Divide 
the land intended for strawberries into two parts. 
Set one part this spring, give the entire use of the 
land to strawberry plants, expecting them to do 
enough better to pay. In the spring of 1895, set the 
other half of the land to strawberries. The part set 
in 1894 will fruit in 1895, and immediately after the 
fruit is gathered, plow and sow to some crop which 
will yield a heavy growth for mulch. German millet 
would be good, I think. Peas would make a heavy 
growth, and perhaps be better for the land, but I am 
not sure that they would do as well for mulch. The 
mulch grown on the first part set, will be in time to 
cover the plants on second part in fall of 1895. In 
spring of 1896 the first part can be set again to straw¬ 
berries. I think in this way the land might be used 
continually for that crop, one half of the field yield¬ 
ing a crop each year, and the other half producing the 
needed mulch and helping to keep the weeds in sub¬ 
jection. M. M. 
Medway, Mass. 
Mr. Crawford Gives Sensible Advice. 
My plan would be to divide the land into two sec¬ 
tions, set out a new bed on one of them this spring 
and on the other the next. I would take one crop and 
then plow under, sow to buckwheat, plow that under 
and sow rye which can be plowed under in time for 
planting. If stable manure is to be used, it can be 
put on after the buckwheat is turned under, or during 
the winter. If a commercial fertilizer is to be used, I 
would put on a part of it in the spring to give the 
newly set plants a start, and the remainder in July 
when the runners are starting. When strawberries 
are grown in matted rows as I suggested, it is not 
necessary to use very much manure, as no great 
amount of plant food is removed from the soil. By 
burning the bed over after fruiting, two crops of fruit 
might very well be taken, but it would interfere with 
the rotation, and might allow insect enemies of the 
strawberry to multiply in the bed. 
I have tried growing a number of things among 
strawberries the first year; as early potatoes, sweet 
corn, onions from sets, bush beans and gladiolus bulbs. 
If early potatoes are planted, the plants should be 
three feet apart in the row. Any vigorous-growing 
variety will cover the ground thickly enough ^ after 
the potatoes come off the last of July. Sweet corn 
gives too much shade. Onions require richer land 
than is often used for strawberries. Gathering the 
string beans necessitates too much tramping, and dig¬ 
ging the gladiolus bulbs in the fall breaks too many 
strawberry roots. I once planted one-eighth of an 
acre of strawberries in rows four feet apart, and put 
a row of Beauty of Hebron potatoes between each two 
rows of strawberries. These produced almost 50 
bushels of marketable potatoes, but all the work had 
to be done by hand. I am satisfied that the plan of 
growing one stalk of pop corn between each two 
plants will work well; and if it be left uncut, it will 
be a great protection in the winter, preventing the 
snow and mulch from blowing off from the plants 
Cuyahoga Falls, O. m. crawford. 
A White Grub Trap ; Trimming Rows. 
If the land has been cultivated with some hoed crop 
for the last two or three years, or if a' part of it has 
been, I would set that to strawberries in April; but if 
it is in grass, there would be danger of the white grub 
eating the roots of the plants. I would put the plants 
at least two feet apart in the rows, with the rows 43^ 
or 5 feet apirt. Between each two plants in the 
rows, I would put one or two eyes of early potatoes, so 
as to dig them in July or early August. I advise plant¬ 
ing the potatoes only to draw the white grub, so when 
the potatoes are dug, the grub may be killed. This 
is the only reason for growing anything with the straw¬ 
berries. I find that by clean culture the first season, 
I can run the beds so as to get another good crop the 
second season. I grow my plants in beds about three 
feet wide, and as soon as I get the berries picked, I 
divide this three-foot bed, making a path through the 
center, leaving two rows about six inches wide. I then 
thin out these plants, leaving them about six inches 
apart (I do it with a hoe). It is then very little work 
to pull out the weeds. I do not run a plow to divide 
the beds, but I use a flat horsehoe tooth attached to a 
plow beam that cuts the roots and leaves the plants 
standing. I then rake them out and carry them off 
the bed. I then give it a good dressing of manure or 
fertilizer and cultivate in the paths, allowing these rows 
to fill in, making two narrow beds about one foot wide 
each. But if I do not intend to fruit the bed the second 
season, I plow it under soon after picking, and sow it 
to barley to cut green for my cows. When the barley 
is cut, I seed to grass and leave it four or fi 7 e years be¬ 
fore I use it again for strawberries. If there are white 
grubs in the soil, they may be seen in the bottoms of 
the furrows when plowing. s. h. warren. 
Weston, Mass. 
Clover With Turnips To Help. 
There are two ways which I would suggest. First: 
Plant from 15 to 18 inches apart in the rows with the 
rows four feet apart. Keep clean during the entire 
season and cover with a mulch of horse manure, which 
has been piled and fermented enough to free it from 
grass and weed seeds, as soon as the ground freezes. 
When the ground is dry enough in the spring, culti¬ 
vate between the rows, then remove the surplus straw 
on the rows in the paths between. Immediately after 
picking, plow down the sides of the rows, using a roll¬ 
ing steel coulter, leaving them about 16 inches wide, 
clean what remains and cultivate back the soil that 
was plowed away. Keep clean and cover again in the 
winter. This carrying over the second year does not 
cost me over one-half as much as the first year, and I 
frequently get a larger crop. After picking the second 
year, turn the vines under and seed with clover, add¬ 
ing one pound of turnip seed for each acre, and give a 
good dressing of manure or fertilizer. If this is done 
immediately after the picking season is over, and the 
weather proves favorable, a good paying crop of 
turnips can be secured, but the main object is to shade 
the clover with the turnips. Cut the clover once the 
next season, break down the second growth before it 
forms seed and let it grow throughout the season. 
The following spring this may be set to strawberries 
or planted with potatoes, then sowed to rye to be 
turned under for strawberries the following spring. 
Second plan: Plant two hills of strawberries and 
one hill of corn, planting four or five grains of some 
small variety. Early sweet corn, if it can be sold in a 
green state, will pay the cost of cultivating both corn 
and berries, and the berry vines will usually fill the 
space taken by the corn. Remove the stalks as soon 
as practicable, and proceed afterward the same as in 
the previous case. If the strawberry leaves rust or do 
not maintain a healthy growth I would not carry 
them over the second year, but plow them under and 
seed as before indicated. w. f. tabeb. 
Strawberries Alone ; Let Clover Follow. 
To carry out this man’s idea and obtain the most 
profitable results, I would advise him to fruit his beds 
two years—not including any little fruit he might get 
during the season following hie spring planting, how¬ 
ever. It would be much better to remove all fruit stalks 
as soon as they appear, which is usually about two 
weeks after the spring planting. With rare exceptions, 
I consider it a very unprofitable plan to fruit the beds 
only one season. Some of our best varieties improve 
and bear nearly double the quantity of fruit the second 
year ; all varieties are much more productive with the 
second year’s fruiting. I know a few kinds that bear 
abundantly for five or six years without resetting. 
This man, after taking two full crops of fruit from his 
plants, would have his land ready for the plow by July 
15. He should seed it down with clover at once. His 
clover will have attained a large growth both in top 
and root by November 15, a period of four months. By 
turning this clover crop under, he will have new land 
the following spring, and can plant to strawberries 
again. One can readily see that turning under an old 
strawberry bed and growing a crop of clover over it 
while it is rotting, and in the late fall turning under a 
heavy crop of clover to rot and enrich the soil during 
the winter months, is a pretty good way to return 
favors to “ Mother Earth ” with a little interest added. 
Of course, other crops to be plowed under could be 
planted in place of clover, such as buckwheat, fodder 
corn, etc., but I have found clover the best. I am 
decidedly opposed to planting any crop at any time, 
either between the rows or plants in the row—any 
such planting will be found unprofitable, t j. dwver. 
Cornwall, N. Y. 
Corn to Provide Humus and Shade. 
In the spring of 1878, I cleared an acre of stony 
land and raised potatoes on it. The next spring, I set 
the land with strawberries. In July, 1881, after having 
picked two crops of berries, I turned the plants under 
and sowed the land with corn broadcast. The last of 
September, the corn was turned under for fertilizer, 
and the next spring strawberries were again set. 
Two crops more were picked, and the land sowed with 
corn to be plowed under as before. This rotation has 
been continued until the present time. The land has 
produced nothing but strawberries in the last 15 years, 
except the fertilizer corn and a crop of early potatoes 
in 1882 planted between the rows of berries. I have kept 
no separate account of the amount of berries picked 
from this acre, but think the average has been fully 
150 bushels per year, or 1,500 bushels for the 10 harvest 
years. The yield of fruit has been satisfactory, but I 
find more trouble from leaf blight and weeds, and the 
quality of fruit is usually not quite so good on land 
that has been cropped with strawberries for so long a 
time. I think corn turned under furnithes humus 
which the strawberry plant needs, but the experiment 
station men tell me that in using corn for this purpose, 
I am adding little or no plant food, merely returning 
to the soil what thfe corn has taken from it. Next sea¬ 
son, I intend to experiment with cow peas. I have 
tried the plan suggested of planting corn among straw¬ 
berries, my object being to leave the stalks standing 
for winter protection. If the land is rich enough, and 
the corn is not planted too thick, a fair crop of corn 
may be obtained with little or no loss to the berry 
crop. In fact, the plants seem to winter better among 
the stalks, but I have found the corn to be very liable 
to be blown down by the fall storms and to be very 
much in the way of cultivating and weeding. For this 
reason, I have abandoned the plan. james burr. 
“A POUND OF BUTTER.” 
Its History from Cow to Consumer. 
THE BIG three: SILO, SEPARATOR AND ‘’STARTER” 
Part II. 
The Working of a Separator. 
Most people now know what a separator is, but for 
the benefit of those who have never seen one, it may 
be said that it is a machine for whirling the cream or 
butter fat out of milk. This fat floats in the milk in 
the form of tiny globules which, being the lightest 
part of "the milk, will gradually rise to the top just as 
would very fine sawdust, or any light material. This 
is just what happens when milk is “set” in pans or 
cans. The cream, or lighter portion, rises to the top. 
This same law that in a liquid the lighter portions 
will separate from the heavier is made use of in the 
separator. The milk is whirled violently around in the 
separator, with the result that the heavier parts are 
thrown away from the lighter butter fats. Take little 
bits of wood in your hand with a few shot mixed with 
them. Throw the whole handful out with force. The 
heavier shot will at once separate from the wood and 
go much further away. Tnis very thing happens in 
the whirling separator. The heavier skim-miik is 
thrown out, where it runs away through one tube, 
while the lighter cream runs through another. 
That is just what happened when our industrious 
friend, the goat, started his monotonous round in that 
power. The picture shows the actual scene. The 
separator ran merrily on without a break or stop while 
the men kept on milking. The goat seemed to enjoy 
it—at least, he uttered no sound of complaint, but kept 
steadily at work. 
“ That goat earns his salary ! ” was my comment. 
