1908. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
207 
Hope Farm Notes 
What <Io you think of the plan of setting 
strawberry plants close together and keep¬ 
ing all the runners olT? j. n. s. 
I have not tried it. T. C. Kevitt 
grows about as many strawberries on an 
acre as anyone I know of. His plan is 
to set the plants in beds four feet wide, 
so that the plants will stand one foot 
apart each way. Alleys between these 
beds are a little less than two feet wide. 
The soil, of course, must be made very 
rich, and the most thorough culture 
given. Every runner is cut off as it 
starts, so that the entire strength of the 
plant may be spent in perfecting itself. 
They are covered in Winter like any 
other plants. Mr. Kevitt claims that 
good plants handled in this way can be 
made to yield a quart each, and lie 
claims to be able to grow 40,000 quarts 
on an acre. I know that he does grow 
enormous crops. I say openly that he 
beats me out of sight. 
My plan has been to set plants in the 
Spring in rows four feet apart and two 
feet in the row. As the runners grow we 
try to place them so they will stand 
about a foot apart over a space covering 
about three feet, so as to leave alleys 
about a foot wide. In theory this 
placing runners is all right, but in prac¬ 
tice they get away from you and make a 
tangle. Kevitt claims that even if I 
could control the beds so as to have only 
four good runners from each parent 
plant the five could not be equal to five 
planted on his plan and kept entirely 
from running. I think that is so. Some 
years ago I grew the old Parker Earle in 
"hills and kept some of the plants fruiting 
four or five years. 1 have picked more 
than a quart from one plant, but with 
other work pressing we could not take 
care of many plants. 
This year I expect to try this plan in 
two ways. I have one piece of rich 
soil near the house. It was in black¬ 
berries until last August. We mowed 
off the bushes, plowed and sowed rye 
and Crimson clover. It made such a 
strong growth that it was pastured by 
staking a cow over it. This pasturing 
seemed to improve the clover. I plan 
to give this piece a good dressing of the 
soil dug out of the chicken houses and 
yards and sulphate of potash. The clover 
will be plowed under about May 1 and 
rolled down hard. Then the surface will 
be made as fine as Acme and hand rak¬ 
ing can do it. The piece is about 140x45 
feet. 1 calculate that according to Ke¬ 
vin's plan I can plant about 4,000 plants. 
He uses Glen Mary, but 1 shall try 
Marshall and President. The latter is 
more productive, but less reliable. On 
another somewhat larger piece I want 
to try a modification of this. It is now 
in strawberries—the third year. After 
picking I want to cut and burn the 
vines, then plow and use a high grade 
fertilizer liberally. I shall buy Marshall 
plants early and heel them in a few 
inches apart—cutting off blooms and run¬ 
ners and keeping them going. When the 
soil is fitted after fruiting I shall set 
these plants the same as the earlier ones 
on the other patch and see what comes. 
I realize as never before what it will 
mean to keep these plants clean and keep 
them on the road to a quart apiece. I 
want to find out if this intensive work 
will pay. If I can raise 4,000 quarts of 
berries, or even 1,500 on one-eighth of 
an acre by early planting, or if I can 
harvest peas or some early crop and then 
get started at berries I want to know it. 
If I can, more and more of my land 
can go into clover and grass. People 
have now come to the point in farming 
where they must make each plant and 
tree or cow or hen or square foot do 
something. I will try to follow these 
crops through and see what they come to. 
When currant bushes are killed by scale 
Is it tlie best way to cut them down and 
make a new start from old roots, or set 
out new bushes? r noticed you cut back 
(or down). ITow have they panned out? 
Auburn, N. Y. E. n. 
We cut the currants back last Spring. 
They were badly hurt by scale and I 
was tempted to root them out. As an 
experiment we cut everything back ex¬ 
cept a few good ones. They were given 
good culture and have made a stout 
growth of from two to four feet. At 
present they look well. I shall soak 
them with Scalecide in March, and have 
hopes that we shall have good cur¬ 
rants after all. 
We shall not do as much tree plant¬ 
ing as usual this year—perhaps 150 
peach and as many apple will probably 
be the limit. We arc pretty well filled 
up and have now really more than we 
can handle as I like. About 100 pear 
trees in a wet field near the house will 
be dug out and replanted on the hill in 
a new field just cleared. Every tree 
that is bought will be dipped before 
planting. For a dipping mixture we shall 
use Scalecide, about one to 18 of water. 
This can be put in a barrel or in a 
trough so that the trees can be plunged 
into it and then dried. 1 believe this 
will kill the scale and other insects, and 
that it is a wise precaution. In spray¬ 
ing peach trees late last Fall I used 
Scalecide one to 16. In spite of the 
caution given by some we soaked these 
trees until the liquid ran down the 
trunk. There were some peach borers in 
these trees. I observed that the oil 
solution in some cases made its way into 
tiic holes and, I think, destroyed some 
of the borers. I am not sure of this, 
and would like opinions from some of 
the entomologists. Would this strength 
of oil kill the borers? If so, I think we 
can go ahead with a scraper and clear 
off the gum and then use the oil spray. 
Will the wise men please tell me if 
this is wisdom? 
Not long ago a picture of our big 
grapevine was shown in The R. N.-Y. 
There have been a number of letters 
about it, including the following: 
I noticed Hu* picture of your grapevine, 
Vitis cordlfolia. I wish to suggest to you 
that you set one first-class three-yen r-ohl 
Clinton grapevine at each of the posts on 
which is built tlie trellis that supports the 
vine; by that means get tlie Cordifolia to 
bearing grapes. Let the Clinton vines run 
in amongst the other vine. The Clinton 
grape is one of the best grapes for wine 
or preserves and the greatest pollen izor for 
the blossoms of the Cordlfolia. Wild grapes 
sell for more money in lion ton market than 
the Concord grapes will. Make your Cor¬ 
difolia a small gold mine as well as shade. 
Malden, Mass. j. s. c. 
We could easily stand a small gold 
mine—we don’t want a large one. I am 
inclined to try this. The possibilities of 
wine do not appeal to me, but I have 
often looked \at that big vine .and 
thought of the energy it wasted without 
a grape. It is like one of those great 
powerful men working hard but with 
nothing to show for it. If Clinton is 
the fellow to wake this vine up I want it. 
Will you let me know how to make a 
new lawn? We have a large piece of 
ground which my wife wants made into a 
tennis court by next Summer. She says 
she read an account of one in Hope Farm 
Notes, but forgets the details. Last year 
I cut several locusts off it, and now a lot 
of little ones have started, and I want to 
know how to kill them. The ground is 
quite uneven too. What grass, is best 
suited to a tennis court? j. l. 
Long Island. 
From our experience I doubt your 
ability to make a lawn by next Sum¬ 
mer, though from my experience again 
I know what such a demand means. 
Rome was not built in a day, and such 
rough ground is not made into a lawn 
in a year. We had a similar rough 
piece of ground two years ago. We 
gave it a good coat of manure and 
plowed it deep. Then it was harrowed 
at least 10 times and seeded to Jap¬ 
anese millet. We cut this millet in 
July, plowed under the stubble and har¬ 
rowed and harrowed and then harrowed 
again. Then with a scraper we made 
the surface level and hand-raked it care¬ 
fully, picking up all stones. The seed 
was put on in September and hand 
raked in, and then rolled with a light 
roller. We used the regular “Central 
Park Grass Mixture" bought from a 
seedsman—at the rate of three bushels 
per acre. At the time of seeding we 
put on potato fertilizer and more in 
Spring. The season was dry and the 
grass started slowly. Last Summer it 
made a very fair lawn, gaining through 
the season. It could not have made a 
good tennis court last year. This year 
we think it will. If I were doing it 
again in that way I would not cut the 
millet, but plow it all under and use 
lime and wood ashes to sweeten the soil 
before seeding. Last year we tried 
another plan. The rough ground was 
plowed, but instead of sowing millet we 
planted potatoes, rows two feet apart 
and one foot in drill. They were heavily 
fertilized and kept thoroughly clean, 
dug in August, the ground was plowed 
and harrowed—the stones being raked 
and put in deep ditches in the few wet 
spots on the field. The ground was 
graded and fitted and seeded like the 
others, and has made a good start. I 
would plow your ground, grub out the 
locust roots and plant potatoes, keeping 
them perfectly clean. Then, when they 
are dug, fit and grade the land as well 
as you can, and sow the mixed lawn 
grass seed with plenty of fertilizer. 
While you will have to wait a year 
longer for your lawn it will pay in the 
end. Of course you can plow and grade 
that piece as soon as the ground will 
work and seed it this Spring. I would 
not do it, as I think the old sod should 
be thoroughly killed out first, h. w. c. 
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