1906. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
439 
EXPERTS ON STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
How long does it take seedling strawberry plants to bear 
—that is. how long after planting the seed can we expect 
fruit? What is the best way to grow a large crop of berries 
under high culture? Would you select plants for setting 
from a new or an old bed? 
If strawberry seed is sown at the time of ripening the 
plants will produce a crop in two years. I think they 
might he induced to fruit in one year if they were 
transplanted out of the seed boxes and pushed to grow 
very fast the first Fall. I never have done this, but 
transplant in the Spring; have had one or two to bloom 
the first Spring, but produced no fruit. I think I 
picked the blossoms off. I would say narrow matted 
rows, not allowed to get too thick, best for a large crop, 
so that what is lost in numbers is made up in size. I 
am thoroughly convinced that the second year’s crop 
will be a great deal better than the first if the bed is 
properly cared for. My present method is to let the 
mulching all lie on the ground after picking, and to 
add more, if necessary, to cover the ground well. 
Keep clean of weeds, runners cut off, and don’t disturb 
the ground. I would make no difference in plants from 
a new bed or an old one, if they were good, vigorous 
plants; I have used both, and see no choice. 
Hunterdon Co., N. . thomas r. hunt. 
Strawberry plants raised from seed planted in July 
will need all next year to develop into a good plant, 
and bear the following year. I am getting the most 
berries from a narrow bed, by having plants very thin in 
middle and one thick row on each side. Senator Dun¬ 
lap yields enormously if planted or grown in that 
fashion. The Marshall produces more berries to a 
plant if grown in single rows than if matted close to¬ 
gether, while Barton’s Eclipse, in beds three to four feet 
wide, plants four to six inches apart, will cover the 
ground with berries, so every variety wants to be 
studied as to the way of culture to get the biggest crop 
and the largest berries. I generally take two crops of 
berries from a patch and often get more fruit from cer¬ 
tain varieties the second picking; even a third picking 
from a bed may be very heavy if well manured and free 
from weeds, but berries will not be as large as the first 
crop. When starting a new bed it is better to take the 
plants from a bed which was set the previous year, as 
these plants are grown from stronger runners and are 
better rooted than young plants in an old bed where 
the ground is hard. emil crafe. 
Staten Island. 
As I usually start my strawberry seedlings in boxes 
in February, they always bear the following year, 16 
months from the time of the planting of the seed. I 
have had a few plants blossom and bear fruit in six or 
seven months from the planting of seed. I think one 
will get the most fruit where the beds are composed of 
two narrow hedgerows. Set the plants two or 2 'A 
feet apart in the rows, and set the second row 18 inches 
from the first row. These two rows make one bed. 
Form another bed three feet from the last row. Train 
each row so as to form narrow matted rows. The 
three-foot space will leave room to pick the fruit and to 
run a one-horse cultivator, with an arm from the culti¬ 
vator to reach over into the 18-inch space. With a 
weeder from this arm most of the work can be done 
with a horse. In small family beds a hand cultivator 
can be used. , After each row has been trained in line 
to make plants enough to form this narrow hedgerow, 
all the other growth should be treated as weeds (cut 
off). This method gives good feeding room for the 
roots, also admits air and sun. If the bed is not too 
weedy it will do very well the second year. I always 
set my new beds from beds of new plants that have 
never fruited. I do not consider plants from an old 
bed as good. s. h. warren. 
Massachusetts. 
In July, 18S7, I sowed seed from Minor’s Prolific. Next 
June, 1888, it gave me good specimens of fruit. Starting 
from one plant in 1888, in 1890 I picked 8J4 bushels of 
berries. That was the Beverly. My experience in growing 
strawberries extends back 43 years. I believe in the 
home garden in hill culture every time. In matted 
rows you get best berries on the outside of the rows, 
and most of the berries. If I set plants in the Spring 
I get just one crop, then set for a new bed. If set in 
the last of Summer I let them go the second year. I 
like to set plants in July or August, where I have taken 
off some early crop, and get a very good crop of straw¬ 
berries next June. In growing in hills it is easier to 
make clean culture. When I set in August I set plants 
in Spring to get good, strong plants ready to set in 
August. I do not now pot plants to set in August, as 
I have not much trouble to make plants live if wet down 
before taking up. I have been successful in getting 
plants from an old bed, but should recommend to set 
plants to grow for new bed. benjamin m. smith. 
Massachusetts. 
If the seed of the strawberry is taken as soon as ripe, 
and sown in a cool, moist bed. as on the north side of a 
building, and then transplanted when they have three 
or four leaves, they will fruit the next season, I have 
fruited them in less than 12 months. But great care 
is required not to check them in transplanting. The 
matted row system will give most berries if the first 
plants that set are distributed over the bed about six 
inches apart, and all other and later ones are kept 
weeded out. Here we fruit the beds twice and then 
destroy them. Occasionally an old bed will show most 
profit, as it will ripen its fruit a few days earlier than 
a new one. To be successful in fruiting the strawberry 
we must set good strong plants, and such plants can 
very seldom be taken from an old bed. The finest 
berries are produced by the plants that set first in the 
A SAFE DAIRY TROTTER. Fig. 178. 
bed, provided that they are not smothered by the later 
ones, showing that they have the greatest vigor, and 
such plants will also produce the finest beds. 
Indiana. _ J. w. trinkle. 
TRAINING A TROTTING HORSE TO SADDLE 
I have a four-year-old mare, a natural trotter; she seems 
to he very sensible. Can l change her gait to make a sad¬ 
dle horse? If so, how can it be done? J. G. it. 
Pennsylvania. 
To make an ideal saddle horse of his mare the in¬ 
quirer should have commenced at least two years ago, 
but if she is, as he says, very sensible, and he will be a 
little more patient, the desired result can be accom¬ 
plished now. The first thing to be attained is to make 
her a good walker, for a slow or" bad-walking saddle 
horse is about the poorest thing out, and she must be 
taught that the walk is a distinct gait as much as the 
canter or the gallop, lie should not be satisfied until 
he can get her where she can walk from five to six 
miles an hour. . Of course if she is naturally a fast 
walker this can easily be accomplished, but she should 
never be allowed to trot while taking her walking exer¬ 
cise, for it is as much a misdemeanor for a mare walk¬ 
ing to break into a trot as for a trotting mare to break 
into a run. To acquire the walking habit requires no 
special training, but persistent practice, at all times 
urging her to walk as fast as possible without fatigue, 
and not making her lessons too long at a time. He 
says that her natural gait is trotting, but he must re¬ 
member that there are three trotting gaits, the jog trot, 
about four miles an hour, something to be avoided and 
A FINE ELBERTA SEEDLING PEACH. Fig. 179. 
always to be discouraged, the true trot, in which the 
animal moves naturally and with frictionless gait, while 
the third is known as the flying trot, or at speed gait. 
The true trot of course is the trot that this mare must 
attain if he would have her accomplished in the different 
gaits. When this is accomplished, and it is equally as 
easy as the walking gait, the next is the canter or slow 
gallop, and the horse should go from the walk or trot 
either to the canter at will of the rider. The right 
foreleg should be made to go forward first, or rather to 
take the lead. In training for this gait the horse should 
be kept well in hand by the bit, and while being urged 
forward betid the head slightly in the opposite direction 
from which the foreleg is to lead, and with a very little 
practice the horse will understand from the leaning of 
the head what is wanted, and strike an easy, natural 
canter. If an out-and-out gallop is required, when the 
horse makes the first leap forward with forefoot well 
extended and you see that he understands what is 
required, give him his head slightly and urge him to 
make still greater effort. An easy and a most practical 
way to make an intelligent animal understand that a 
change of gait or action is required of him is to waik 
him on the road to a certain point, and when that point 
is reached give him the signal, and with a very few 
times trying he will go from the walk into the trot, or 
from the trot into the canter, or into a breakneck gal¬ 
lop, by the least movement of the reins. After he has 
become accustomed to the signals he will obey them 
in any spot or place, by day or by night, but never con¬ 
fuse him by giving the signal except in a set place, until 
after the habit has become firmly fixed. 
Maine. E. P . mayo. 
DRAG THE ROAD AT ONCE. 
On page 366 there is a short article on road working 
by L. A. Albertin, of Nebraska, in which there is one 
statement of such manifest error that I cannot refrain 
from calling attention to it. He says, “After every 
rain, as soon as the ground is crumbly, hitch up to 
the drag,” etc. Now, if your readers want to improve 
their roads they will be careful not only to ignore this 
advice, but to do exactly the opposite. Don’t wait after 
the rain at all. Go right on to the road at once, un¬ 
less it is so muddy that your team cannot get through 
it. Mr. King calls attention to this error in all his ad¬ 
dresses. He points out that what you want to do with 
the road is to puddle the top so that water will run 
off instead of running in. Herein is the whole science 
of road dragging, and it is science. Mr. King learned 
this lesson from the hog, and anyone can repeat it for 
himself. Go into your hog lot soon after a big rain, and 
wherever there is a wallow it will be full of water, no 
matter how loose and porous your soil may be, nor 
how solid and dry the rest of the lot may be. The 
reason is the hog has so completely puddled his wal¬ 
low that it will hold water like a jug. The same con¬ 
dition that will cause the soil to hold water will cause 
it to shed water, if it has an opportunity to run off 
This is the whole secret of the drag's usefulness in 
road making. Tt imitates the hog. If your corre¬ 
spondent had been giving advice when to use the drag 
in the cornfield so as to level the ground he would 
have been talking to the point. But when the ground 
is right for the drag in the field it is wholly wrong for 
the drag in the road. Vice versa, when it is right for 
the drag in the road it is wrong for it in the field. 
There is an eternal fitness in this difference, because 
the right conditions of the one never conflict with the 
other so far as the farmer’s time is concerned. I hope 
your readers will “catch on” to this point, for it is 
practically “the whole thing.” a. w. foreman. 
Illinois. _ 
A FINE ELBERTA SEEDLING. 
Fig. 179 shows section of an Elberta seedling peach 
raised by John Hamft, Cincinnati, O. The tree is seven 
years old. and has borne two excellent crops, the first 
all cling and the latter freestone, as shown in the cut. 
The peaches sampled were of good color and consid¬ 
erably better quality than is usual with Elberta seed¬ 
lings. It can be ranked as very good. A dry season 
may have something to do with the present freestone 
condition. In wet years the flesh of peaches is more 
likely to cling. Different locations also greatly affect 
this condition. Carman and Waddell are freestones 
as grown in Georgia but tenacious clings when fruited 
in New Jersey. Mr. Hamft’s seedling is late ripening, 
being in good condition the first week in October. 
QUALITY OF ARIZONA MELONS. 
Some have asked why Arizona cantaloupes command such 
a high price. The answer given is, because the quality is 
good and uniform. I may have placed a little too much 
emphasis upon those two adjectives, but I think everyone 
Interested cannot get this fact too thoroughly fixed in his 
mind. This brings up a subject that has been worn out a 
thousand times, I should judge. I wish the subject were 
newer, so this would appear upon the first page of The R. 
N.-Y. in heavy-faced type. Inspectors go into the fields and 
superintend the packing of the cantalopes and see that noth¬ 
ing but specimens of a good quality go in. Furthermore, 
they see that the quality is uniformly good. The R. N.-Y 
has been preaching the gospel of quality for years, but most 
sons of toil have evidently become so callous by labor that 
this gospel, which is their salvation in a financial sense, to 
a great extent strikes in very slowly. It is true, as in the 
case of the cantaloupes, that some sections cannot produce 
products of a superior quality. It is due to the carelessness 
and in many cases dishonesty of the eastern producer that 
he receives so little for his “stuff.” Why will a buyer pay 
often two or three prices for California fruits of inferior 
quality? Simply because he knows what he is paying for. 
No amount of greed for gain will induce the western shipper 
to put in fine appearing fruit when he knows the quality is 
not up to the standard : neither will lie place the finest 
specimens on top. I.et the eastern man determine to put 
upon the market products of uniformly good quality, in 
honest, attractive packages, and lie will not have long to 
wait for his reward. 1 do not wish to represent the western 
man as being more honest than Ills eastern competitor, hut 
he is shrewd enough to know that he gets well paid for 
being honest. The western man can use tallow in making 
butter and ice cream, and use formaldehyde to preserve 
meat and milk, but this is for the benefit of his home cus¬ 
tomers. J. D. PRICKETT. 
