1005. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
601 
TROUBLE WITH STRAWBERRIES. 
What Caused the Failute? 
Our ground is high, sandy loam, a little in¬ 
clined to hold moisture late. We set nearly 
three acres of strawberries in Spring of 1904 
in narrow row ; fertilized with hone and ashes 
and with complete fertilizer, in all 4,200 
pounds; cultivated well and took out every 
weed until freezing time. We mulched with 
fresh hay on a large part, some of which blew 
off during the Winter; in the Spring culti¬ 
vated once and put 40 pounds nitrate of soda 
in two doses to the acre around the plants 
and later some fertilizer. At the blossoming 
and fruiting time the outlook was most prom¬ 
ising for a very large crop. From that time 
)we had cold weather and much rain, and the 
outlook did not seem to improve very much. 
When picking time came our fruit was badly 
rotted and soft, and the foliage on a part of 
the plants seemed to curl their edge upwards. 
Most of our plants came from a first-class 
nursery, others from nearby, a part from 
our own bed, having been run for 10 years. 
Result about 25 per cent of a crop of large 
but soft berries. Was it blight, too little or 
too much fertilizer, or the fertilizer imper¬ 
fectly placed? To-day our beds are full of 
weeds, large clumps of sorrel and grass, 
which come from the first hay mulch. We 
have laid out considerable money on the piece, 
and wanted to run it another year, but hardly 
know what to do, whether it would cost more 
than it would be worth to pull the weeds. 
What do you advise? Massachusetts. 
So many various causes might have 
produced the bad results that it is hard to 
determine the reason. It looks like a 
combination of too much fertilizer and too 
much rain, producing excessive growth. 
As to the weeds, that is a question for the 
man himself to decide. It is quite certain 
that the patch will not be worth much 
next year unless they are taken out, but 
it takes grit to tackle a weedy three-acre 
patch. Old stable manure should have 
been used as mulch, instead of fresh hay, 
and the weeds would not have been so 
troublesome. tiiomas r. hunt. 
New Jersey. 
I find it rather difficult to explain or give 
cause for such results as your Massachu¬ 
setts inquirer states, but my opinion is 
that over-stimulation of vine in connec¬ 
tion with the cold wet weather was the 
cause of soft immature berries. I do 
not believe in stimulating growth of vine 
just before fruiting; this should be done 
in the Fall previous to perfect fruit buds. 
Hay is a bad mulch except salt-marsh 
hay which has no weed §eeds. I mulch 
heavily with horse manure from New 
York City stables, and find but little 
trouble from grass or weed seeds. 1 am 
now clearing our old beds of weeds and 
find that a spring-tooth cultivator passed 
between the rows four or six times, then 
pulling weeds in rows and drawing them 
off, gives an opportunity to clean the rows 
by plowing down the sides and using the 
cultivator again. This takes much labor 
and time, but less than required to grow 
new beds, and some kinds of strawberries 
produce better the second season, partic¬ 
ularly the Gandy. I carried over an acre 
of Wm. Belt the third year that pro¬ 
duced a fine crop. I am now clearing 
r ' - - - ■ - 
Gandy for the third crop. Your inquirer 
does not say what kinds of berries he 
grew. Such kinds as Wm. Belt and Sam¬ 
ple ought to do well in his soil. Gandy 
probably will not. WALTER F. taber. 
New York. 
I believe the use of nitrate of soda 
upon strawberry plants to be injurious. 
Too much nitrogen causes a thrifty leaf 
growth at the expense of fruit. It might 
be of some benefit possibly on poor soil, 
but why grow strawberries on such soil 
when better is available? If I had a 
field such as “Massachusetts” describes I 
should at once thoroughly clean out the 
weeds, mow off the leaves, remove all 
runners, thin the plants if growing too 
thickly, keep the cultivator running till 
cold weather sets in and growth ceases, 
and then, if next season is favorable, 
I should expect a paying crop. When 
the ground freezes, about Thanksgiving 
time, apply two or three cords of well 
rotted stable manure per acre, covering 
rather lightly. Use no other fertilizer. 
If possible I should have the plants in 
the rows stand a little higher than the 
paths, so that a sudden freeze after a 
thaw would not coat the plants with ice, 
as happened in some cases last Winter, 
killing them. h. h. boardman. 
Connecticut. 
Fourteen years’ experience in straw¬ 
berry culture shows the best plan is to 
follow nature as nearly as possible, and 
keep a firm soil underneath the straw¬ 
berry. It requires a firm soil to grow in 
and do its best. Avoid the rank heavy 
growth that causes the berries to mold 
taining a good firm soil underneath; it is 
the rank heavy foliage and vigorous 
growth that causes the berries to mould 
and rot on the vines before they are 
ripe. When once you set out a good 
profitable sort keep it in the same field or 
beds year after year by building up after 
fruiting; in this way you can keep the 
soil underneath firm, and grow large and 
successful crops each season from the 
same beds without plowing or resetting 
plants and at very little expense. Our 
most successful crops are grown each sea¬ 
son from built-up beds; for 10 seasons we 
have built up some of our beds. As soon 
as the plants are through fruiting we start 
to cut out all plants in the matted rows 
except one in .the original straight rows 
about every six inches. We cut or de¬ 
stroy plants with a good sharp hoe about 
July 20. The plants left in the rows 
start to send out good strong runners, 
and fill the entire rows again with all 
young, strong vigorous plants. Just be¬ 
fore cold weather sets in we place our 
•nulch, good rotted stable manure, as a 
irotection as well as to enrich the soil 
.‘or next season’s crops. Our best crop the 
past two seasons was from single plants 
set out in August on a hardpan clay soil 
that has not been plowed in 15 years. 
I'his has proved to me that strawberry 
plants need a good firm soil to grow and 
give the best results. My theory to-day is 
that we can grow an enormous crop of 
strawberries on a good firm soil with very 
littl manure in the first plowing; manure 
heavily on top of the soil as mulch; this 
is my method. t. c. kevitt. 
New Jersey. 
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