78 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
January 29 
HOPE FARM NOTES. 
We took occasion during' the last cold 
snap to put the mulch on the last of our 
strawberries. While the boys were put¬ 
ting it on, one of the neighbors came 
over and said : 
“ Of course, it’s none of my business, 
but I think you are putting that stuff on 
at just the wrong time.” 
A reasonable man always lias reason 
for his opinion, and the boys made the 
best answer possible in one word. 
“ Why ? ” 
“ because the ground is now frozen 
•solid. You put the mulch on now, and 
the ground around the plants can’t thaw 
•out and, of course, the plants will die !” 
That is a fair statement of the way 
some of our farmers regard this matter. 
Many of our neighbors do not mulch at 
all. They let the plants run all together 
after fruiting, and make no effort to 
thin out plants, or to kill the weeds. 
This forms a thick mass of quick grass 
or weeds, and this is mowed over in 
August, and hauled off for fodder or bed- 
ding. 
The strawberry is one of the hardiest 
of our cultivated plants. We do not 
mulch it to keep the cold away from it, 
but to keep the frost close to it! Fill a 
glass bottle with water, cork it up tight, 
and put it outdoors some frosty night. 
The water will freeze solid and break 
the bottle. Let the fire go out under a 
steam engine so that the water freezes, 
and you will crack the boiler, because 
water expands when it passes into a 
solid—ice. Now take soil all full of 
water and let it freeze. It expands or 
“heaves” because of this action of the 
water. As it “heaves”, of course the. 
roots of the strawberry plant rise 
slightly with it. There comes a warm 
sunshiny day in winter. The upper 
surface thaws out and contracts slightly, 
but the strawberry plant does not go 
back with it. It has been lifted out a 
trifle. This goes on a dozen times dur¬ 
ing the winter and spring—the ground 
freezing at night and thawing by day— 
each freeze lifting and each thaw set¬ 
tling. As a result, the roots of the plant 
are exposed to sun and air, and it dies or 
loses much of its vigor. Put the mulch 
on while the ground is frozen, and it 
stays frozen. The sun does not thaw it 
out. The conditions are uniform all 
through the winter, and the plant comes 
out in the spring all ready for business. 
t X X 
1 n our system of growing strawberries 
in hills and in thin matted rows, mulch- 
in ' is especially necessary. Where the 
plants run all together without weeding, 
mulching is not so necessary, but of 
course, the fruit will be smaller and 
lighter colored. Sandy soil does not 
heave so much as the soil with clay in it. 
because it does not hold so much water, 
and it is the water that makes the soil 
heave. I have often noticed the differ¬ 
ence on a warm winter's day in the 
“mud” on a sandy soil and in a heavy 
clay. In Delaware, but little mulching 
is done. The soil is light and well- 
drained. the cold season is shorter, and 
mulching material is scarce. This year, 
we have used leaves, manure, corn stalks, 
coarse hay and cow-pea vines on different 
parts of the bed. Leaves and hay blow 
too much, and the leaves finally pack 
down too hard over the plants. Manure 
is excellent, but it brings too many weed 
seeds into the ground Corn stalks are 
a little too coarse, unless put on very 
thick. Cow-pea vines strike us as about 
the best mulch we have tried. They 
p ick down well, and are easy to handle. 
We like them better than manure, and 
shall try to raise enough of them this 
year to cover all our strawberries next 
Fall. The cow pea will grow on such 
poor soil that we figure that the vines 
will make the cheapest mulch we can get 
hold of. This freezing and thawing in 
late Winter and Spring is what kills 
much of the Crimson clover. Some of 
our clover is thin and small. We hope 
to try the experiment of hauling some of 
our manure and muck early in March to 
broadcast over this clover. In this way, 
we may help carry it through, and also, 
get the compost out before the rush of 
Spring work comes. 
t X X 
We are testing about 20 varieties of 
strawberries, but our main crop next 
year will be about one-third Parker Earle 
and the rest divided between Bubach, 
Ilaverland, Gardner and Glen Mary. We 
set out 1,000 potted plants of the last- 
named variety in October, and hope it 
will do as well for us as it has for others. 
Some of our strawberry growers certain¬ 
ly do tell big stories. They make us 
think of the fables we read about flocks 
of hens that average 200 eggs per year, 
or single fowls that pay a profit of $10 
per year. T. C. Kevitt knows the straw¬ 
berry business by heart, and here is 
what he tells me about Glen Mary and 
its possibilities: 
I have fruited Glen Mary now for two seasons. 
The best soil to prow Glen Mary to perfection is a 
lipht loatn that contains a clay subsoil. Potted 
plants set out September 14, 1896, yielded over a 
quart to each plant in June, 1897. Each plant 
sent out two stronp steins, and each stem pro¬ 
duced from six to eipht larpe berries. We picked 
12 large berries from one of these plants, which 
filled a quart box level full. I fully believe that 
Glen Mary will adapt itself to almost any soil. 
In 1897, I fruited over 1,000 varieties on our 
grounds, including all the new candidates that 
promised to be valuable, as they were introduced 
from time to time. Glen Mary has proved 
itself to be the best berry in every way. I have 
tested it for a sufficient length of time to know 
that it has no weak points in plant, foliage, or in 
size, firmness or color of fruit. I expect to set 
out next Spring, several acres of Glen Mary in 
rows 80 x 34 inches. This will require 6,000 plants 
to the acre. As soon as the runners start to 
grow, we shall let four runners grow to each 
parent plant, and let only one set grow to each 
runner; this will give us 30,(XX) plants to the acre. 
Each one of these plants will yield one-half 
quart; this will give us a yield from the 30,000 
plants of 15,000 quarts of berries. Placing the 
price at five cents per quart, will give us $750 
from one acre. We estimate the cost of growing 
one acre at $300; this will leave a net gain of $100. 
Glen Mary is going to pay to set extensively. 
We find it a good pollenizer for Bubach No. 5. 
That seems as simple as a dream—as Mr. 
(Continued on next page.) 
THB STAR OF HOPE. 
“ I had lost all 
hope and gone to 
my father’s to die,” 
said Mrs. Moue 
Evans, of Mound, 
Coryell Co., Texas. 
‘‘I gave birth to a 
baby a year ago, the 
5th of June last,” 
she adds, ‘‘and 
seemed to do very 
well for 8 or 9 days, 
and then I began to 
feel very bad, my 
feet began to swell, 
my stomach was all 
wrong and 1 seemed 
to suffer with every¬ 
thing that could be 
borne. I was in bed 
5 months and there 
was not a day that it 
seemed I could live. 
We had the best 
doctors that our 
country afforded. I 
was a skeleton. 
Every one that saw 
me thought that I 
would never get 
well. I had palpita¬ 
tion and pain in the heart, terrible pain in 
my right side just under the ribs, terrible 
headaches all the time ; a bearing down 
sensation ; a distressed feeling in my stom¬ 
ach all the time ; could hardly eat anything 
and it looked as if I would starve. All the 
time I would take such weak trembling 
spells, and it seemed as if I could not stand 
it. There were six doctors treating me 
when 1 commenced taking your medicine. 
I had lost all hope and gone to my father’s 
to die. I commenced taking Dr. Pierce’s 
Golden Medical Discovery and his 1 Fa¬ 
vorite Prescription ’ together, and I took 
them regularly until I felt as if life was 
worth living again.” 
“I weigh more than I have weighed for 
ten years. My friends say that I look better 
than they ever saw me. The first two bot¬ 
tles did me more good than all the medicine 
I had taken. My stomach has never hurt 
me since. I can eat anything I want and as 
much as I want. If you want to use this in 
favor of your medicine, I am a living wit¬ 
ness to testify to it, and will, to anybody 
who wants to know further of my case.” 
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