4o6 
FHE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
June 30 
This same spirit has always ruled at “ Thorndale,” 
and Mr. Oakleigh Thorne selected his Shropshires on 
the same principle. At the head of the flock is 
“Thorndale 2nd,” the sheep that won second prize 
at the great English Royal show. We saw this sheep 
weighed and measured with this result: weight, in 
fair condition only, 361 pounds ; measurement around 
lungs, just back of shoulder blades, 61 inches; girth 
(around stomach), 65 inches. If there is a three-year- 
old Shropshire in the country that can make a better 
showing, we shall be glad to know of it. The lambs 
from this sheep are a splendid lot—vigorous and well 
marked. 
Mr. Thorne selected Shropshires only after a care¬ 
ful study of breeds and of the outlook for sheep hus¬ 
bandry. England is the greatest mutton-producing 
country in the world, and there the Shropshires are 
far in the lead for numbers and popularity. They 
have been long and carefully bred for a deflnite pur¬ 
pose, and are hardy, active and proliflc. In this coun¬ 
try, the sheep “ industry ” is at the verge of a trans¬ 
formation. There is to be a rush away from the sheep 
that return little but wool. Except on large areas of 
cheap land, the exclusively wool sheep must give place 
to the sheep that yields less wool but extra mutton. 
Farmers now stocked with wool sheep, call for rams 
that will, when crossed on their flocks, give grades 
that show the quickest strides towards mutton-bear¬ 
ing animals. Mr. Thorne believes the Shropshire best 
adapted, by habits and breeding, for use in the aver¬ 
age American flock. lie, therefore, secured the best 
English specimens, and will breed them with special 
reference to their value in improving the mutton 
qualities of American sheep. 
It is not claimed that these Shropshires are a heav- 
ily-wooled breed. In fact it is not desirable that the 
fleece should be particularly heavy. Mutton of high 
quality is of more importance than wool. “Thorn¬ 
dale” mutton goes to the best hotels in New York, 
where it sells for a price that makes it an object to 
turn an undesirable ram lamb into a wether, and thus 
keep only the best for breeding stock. Butchering as 
done on this farm is a science of itself—the carcass is 
wrapped, marked and decorated in every possible 
way to catch the eye of the head cook, who is the real 
person to please. 
The lambs and ewes are pastured in summer on good 
feed with a light allowance of grain. The high Page 
woven wire fence has proved dog-proof, as the curs 
cannot jump over or work through. This fence is 
strong and durable, and Mr. Thorne will put it all 
over his farm—rooting out the old rail fences. When 
the rape is large enough, the sheep are hurdled on it 
—using portable fences or hurdles to inclose them. A 
portion of the vetch may also be used in this way. 
In fact, this hurdling is quite an important feature of 
such sheep husbandry. In this way, sheep may be 
pastured on poor meadows or pastures, and fed heavily 
on grain, so that the droppings will be scattered 
thickly over the ground. 
Next week we shall give more details about the care 
of the sheep and cattle at Thorndale, and refer to some 
of the problems presented by the present meadows. 
(To be Continued). 
WEEDING THE STRAWBERRY. 
DO THEY LET THE BOWS RUN TO GRASS? 
Letters and articles tre constantlr appearing In Thk Rural In re¬ 
gard to the culture of small and large fruits In which band weeding 
and hard hoeing are never mentlont d, while their tenor Implies that 
the use of “modern” tools alone Is necessary. My chief crops are 
stiawberrles and raspberries, and 1 have a small orchard ; still flve- 
sUths of the work of keeping weeds under has to be done with hoe 
and knife. Is it a fact that the majority of growers keep only the 
alleys clean, and let the rows run to grass ? f. h. 
Onekama, Mich. 
How They Manage In Delaware. 
No berry grower purposes to let the rows “run to 
grass.” Raspberries and blackberries may be kept 
clean if planted in checks, chiefly with the small mule 
with a very short single-tree, to a suitable cultivator. 
Hand-hoe work will be reduced to very moderate di¬ 
mensions. Strawberries, if firmly set, with roots 
straight down, may be kept clean in ordinary weather 
with the Universal weeder, at very slight expense, 
until the runners are ready to root; though if heavy 
rains pack the soil, the Little Diamond-tooth cultiva¬ 
tor must be used. Here, all broad beds are unprofit¬ 
able unless thinned so that the plants have each a 
space of about six inches square. This necessitates 
an immense amount of work with the hoe. It is much 
cheaper, and, probably, more profitable to cut off sur¬ 
plus runners with a light, sharp spade, keeping the 
Led about eight or ten inches wide and not too thick, 
with the middle well worked with the harrow named, 
and cultivation continued until late autumn; then 
they should be mulched with straw of some sort. If 
the soil be infested with chickweed, or other bad 
winter weeds, the stool system of culture is best and, 
with suitable varieties, will often give the best re¬ 
sults ; but in localities where the plants are liable to 
be thrown out by freezing, the mulching must cover 
them as well as the middles. My best crop of Wi’sons 
was grown in stools; the best crop of Crescents in 
very wide beds, very thinly set with plants. 
E. H. BANCROFT. 
Nothing Ahead of the Hand. 
I shall answer the last question first by saying that 
I do not believe the majority let the “rows run to 
grass ” if they expect to continue in the business of 
growing berries. My practice is to keep the rows 
clean during the entire season of growth, then mulch 
for the winter, in the spring cultivate between the 
rows and remove everything in the shape of weeds or 
grass from among the plants. I know of no modern 
tool that can equal the old-fashioned one with legs, 
arms and a fair share of brains, armed with a Warren 
hoe V-shaped. How much hand work is required to 
keep the rows clean, depends upon the character of 
the soil upon which the berries are grown, and the 
vigilance of the owner in not letting the weeds get so 
large as to make hard work. Yet I would not belittle 
the importance of having good tools ; the 11-toothed 
cultivator of the Planet series is far preferable to 
those with larger shares for fining the soil and killing 
small weeds. If used often enough it will save most 
of the hard work. Walter f. tabeb. 
Dutchess County, N. Y. 
How a Jerseyman Does It. 
Any one who wishes to attain the best results with 
strawberries or other small fruits, must keep all 
weeds and grass out of the beds ; never let them get a 
foothold. My method of culture for strawberries is 
to set the rows three feet apart, cultivate and hoe 
them, and when the plants run considerably cut off all 
runners in the path with a hand cutter, leaving the row 
of plants about 15 inches wide. I keep cultivating the 
paths, and when the plants are too thick in the row, 
hand weed and thin out the plants. When winter sets 
in, I spread over the plants a coating of horse manure, 
then cover with swale hay. The next spring, I rake 
the covering off the rows into the path, which keeps 
down most weeds and acts as a mulch, and hand 
weed them, which, if it were well done last fall, is a 
light job. Soon after picking the berries, if I wish to 
keep the bed over another year, I fork out the old 
hay, and go through the rows with a sharp plow 
throwing the earth away from the plants, narrowing 
the rows to about a foot wide ; I then cultivate and 
hand weed. I pick my beds three years, always 
getting more berries on my two and three-year-old 
beds than on the one-year-old. For raspberries, 1 
manure or fertilize early in the spring, and cultivate 
and hoe. I then cover the ground along the rows with 
any kind of mulch, which keeps all weeds down. 
A. JOHNSON. 
Some Cheap Weed Fighting. 
Theoretically there should never be a weed in a berry 
row. The weeds take moisture and fertility from the 
soil which makes the fruit smaller. Practically there 
are always more or less of them among the plants, in 
spite of diligent care. 
The great problem is how to keep out the most 
weeds at the least expense. Much may be done with 
modern tools, but some hand hoeing is absolutely 
necessary. A study of plant life will assist. Each 
plant has its season of germination. The cultivation 
should be timed to take the weeds at the right time. 
When it’s time for any variety to germinate and its 
roots have not yet got a firm hold, a simple stirring of 
the soil will kill it. To illustrate: One man hand 
hoed perfectly two-thirds of an acre in 10 hours in 
May. No weed was over an eighth of an inch in 
length. After three weeks of rain, we have hoed 
again and the same man worked on them three days, 
just because the weeds were too large. 
All land intended for berries should be manured 
and planted the year before to corn or potatoes, and 
no weeds allowed to seed. After the crop is removed, 
harrow till the soil freezes. There will be no grass 
left to bother, and a large share of the weed seeds 
have sprouted and been destroyed. This is half the 
battle. A cultivator like the Planet Jr., with inch 
steels, should be used. This size will not throw the 
earth to one side and cover the plants. I pay attention 
to only one side of the row at a time. The teeth are 
run within an inch of the plant and some small weeds 
are smothered by the soil still nearer. In newly-set beds 
of all kinds of fruit, I never have to hoe a strip over 
four inches wide, the most of the way only two. Care¬ 
ful cultivation is one-fourth the battle. The cultivator 
should run at a uniform depth at all cultivations. A 
kernel of corn or wheat will not germinate if planted 
too deep, neither will a pigweed seed. After the first 
four inches of surface soil has been stirred and hoed, 
why cultivate deeper and bring up more seeds to 
bother ? At the time the runners commence to set, 
there will not be a weed in the row, but during fall 
and spring plenty of others will appear A mulch 
of fine rotted manure, wheat straw or, best of all, 
swale grass, will smother most of them. 
After picking the fruit, take an old machine and 
mow as close as possible every plant and weed in the 
bed. Rake the refuse with the horse rike, and draw 
off for burning. Then plow a ridge of earth out of 
the alley on to the plants, from each side, covering 
them completely. With a spring-tooth harrow level 
the whole surface by crossing the ridges until the 
stubs of the plants begin to show through the soil. 
In a short time the new leaves will come out and 
grow a fresh lot of foliage. All diseases, like rust of 
the leaves and pests like leaf-rollers, are eliminated. 
Some of the weeds will sprout and may be pulled 
with a potato hook, but most of them are killed— 
smothered with the earth mulch. Thus treated, but 
few runners will be made, and the method is best ap¬ 
plied to thickly set rows. If not well set, better plow 
them under. 
Other berries are not harmed by letting the wer-ds 
grow in the alleys after fruiting. The ground is 
plowed in spring, and the turned under weeds make 
manure. I hoe them by completely covering the sur¬ 
face among the plants with strawy manure or swale 
hay thick enough to prevent vegetable growth. In 
early spring, when the ground is moist and soft, all 
clumps of grass and coarse weeds are pulled with a 
potato hook. As soon as the new weeds start, the 
above mulch is applied. Nothing more is done to 
them until the next spring, except to drag the alleys. 
Should any weed get up to show blossoms it is pulled 
by hand. There are no modern tools that will do 
a^ay with all hand work, but intelligent use of com¬ 
mon tools at the right moment will reduce the work 
largely. c. e. chapman. 
“A POUND OF BERRIES.” 
BUT TONS OF THEM TO THE ACRE. 
Part II. 
Late Berries Wanted Here. 
The picturesque site chosen for this farm was cer 
tainly not an ideal one for the lovers of an easily 
tilled berry field; but, though selected more from 
necessity than choice, many circumstances were found 
to be in its favor. It is surrounded by an immense 
mining and lumbering population. It is also near 
Deer Park, Oakland and Mountain Lake Par.i.—centers 
of summering on the Alleghanies. But best of all, 
while Cumberland and Piedmont are actually but a 
few miles, and Washington but six hours distant, 
climatically considered, they are some 200 miles south¬ 
ward, thus making a good market for a late berry. 
Though most of the new sorts are carefully tested and 
many grown to supply the plant trade, it can be seen 
from the above that we are most interested in a late 
berry, Parker Earle was secured from the introducer 
in 1888, and at first it was thought would supplant 
Haverland and Warfield. It is of good quality, a fine 
shipper and of fair size. On the other hand, it was 
the most injured of any by the freeze of May 29, and 
sets more fruit than it can perfect, though it matures 
a large crop. To remedy this defect it is being tried 
on irrigated ground and with stable manure. Sharp¬ 
less, Gandy and Bubach are not very productive here, 
and Timbrell may have the same fault. Jessie, Cum¬ 
berland and Parker Earle, mixed, in every fourth row 
make good fertilizers. 
Setting the Plants for Business. 
Setting is done just as early in spring as possible, 
generally in April. The plants are taken up with a 
big ball of earth to each, carted to the field in bushel 
boxes, and hardly know they have changed quarters, 
for the bloom has to be picked three and four times. 
From beginning to end, little attempt is made to 
cheapen the product, size being the alpha and quan¬ 
tity the omega. Pedigree has much to do with these 
results, for years of carefully selecting the best plants 
and never using runners from those which have borne 
a crop, give both in a remarkable degree when they 
once get a chance to bear. 
Most growers precede strawberries with some hoed 
crop to clean the ground. In the system originated 
here, no crop is better for this purpose than strawber¬ 
ries themselves, as not a bushel of weeds could be 
found on an acre. In the diagram, aaa indicates the 
original plants. The center rows are set 15 inches 
apart, the others 18. and all 32 apart in the row, mak- 
ing about 12,000 plants to the acre. Frequent hoeings 
have conquered all weeds by July, when the placing 
of runners at b h b commences. After each plant has 
made three sets, all others are pulled off, and the 
ground carefully stirred till fall. If manure be lack¬ 
ing, swale hay is used for mulch. Nothing is done 
with them the following spring but to go over the 
field and cut out any sorrel that may have appeared. 
After the crop is gathered, they receive a very care¬ 
ful hoeing, and, as soon as possible, the runners, c e c, 
are rooted opposite each plant in the 15-inch spaces, 
the 18 being left for a walk. The surface is kept clean 
