1908. 
855 
THE RCJR^L, NEW-YORKER 
QUESTIONS ABOUT STRAWBERRIES. 
If. B. D., Candor, N. Y. —I have a half- 
acre plot adjoining my house which I wish 
to put permanently into strawberries, and 
as I have had no experience whatever with 
that crop, I would like some advice as to 
preparation of ground, time and method 
of setting plants, etc. The soil is a sandy 
loam, entirely free from stones, and in good 
tilth, save that it lacks humus and quickly 
feels the effect of drought. It was planted 
to potatoes this year after having been sev¬ 
eral years in sod. I plowed it late last 
Summer and sowed Crimson clover, but 
failed entirely to get a catch, and now hav¬ 
ing harvested the potatoes, I am giving it 
a good coat of barnyard manure, the Sum¬ 
mer's accumulation from niy small dairy. 
My plan is to sow Red clover as early as 
possible next Spring, probably about April 
3, depending upon the manure to give that 
a good growth, and then about August 1 
to turn this clover under and set out plants 
which I shall try to have potted in July. 
I wish to get a crop the following year* 
and wonder whether it would be better to 
follow the above plan or whether I would 
better omit the clover, use more manure, 
and set my plants in the Spring. The 
points to be considered are, I suppose, value 
of the clover as a maker of humus and 
permanent enricher of the soil, extra labor 
of potting plants, loss of plant growth 
during the Summer, and labor of caring for 
plants through the Summer. 
Now as to method of setting plants: I 
of course read carefully all that appears in 
The R. N.-Y. on the subject, and I am in¬ 
clined to favor the hill system of culture. I 
should say here that economy of land is 
no object, as like most farmers I am 
land poor, but economy of labor and time 
must be carefully considered. I note that 
the Hope Farm man says that he will an¬ 
other year set his plants a foot apart in 
the row, and with the rows two feet apart, 
so that a horse can do part of the culti¬ 
vating. I couldn’t cultivate corn or pota¬ 
toes with a horse if the rows were only 
two feet apart. Can you use a horse in 
the strawberry patch with rows that dis¬ 
tance apart? I note also that some of the 
plants become of such size as to measure 
eighteen inches in diameter. If so, how 
can they be kept separate and individually 
cultivated if only a foot apart in the row? 
Are potted plants for Fall setting enough 
better than layer plants to pay for the 
added labor and expense? Is tlie labor of 
caring for a plot kept permanently in indi¬ 
vidual hills much greater than for a plot 
of the same area in matted rows? About 
what is the comparative yield of the same 
acreage under the two systems? Do Spring- 
set layer plants have a very material ad¬ 
vantage over Fall-set potted plants in tlie 
matter of bearing the following year? 
R. N.-Y.—The Hope Farm man will 
not pretend to be an expert. What 
follows is his experience and opinion— 
comment and criticism being invited. 
If the object is to obtain a crop of ber¬ 
ries in 1910 we should omit sowing 
the clover and set the plants next 
Spring. Manure the ground heavily,, 
plow under, and fit the surface thor¬ 
oughly. In spite of all that is claimed 
for potted plants set in August the 
surest way to get fruit is to plant in 
Spring. We plant in August frequent¬ 
ly, but after some early crop like pota¬ 
toes or peas. We have never obtained 
half a full crop from the most favor¬ 
able August planting. As for the hill 
system, it is very largely a matter of 
the variety. Marshall, Parker Earle, 
Glen Mary and a few others are spe¬ 
cially adapted to hill culture. We can¬ 
not get a good crop of Marshall in 
matted rows. There will be fine berries 
at the edges and none inside. Some 
varieties seem naturally adapted to the 
matted system. They make numerous 
runners, and it would be an endless job 
to keep them cut off. We should want 
to know your variety before advising. 
In general, the hill system is best 
adapted to intensive culture—that is, 
where there is a small area of land 
which must be forced. Where good 
land is plenty and labor scarce horse 
work is necessary. We know of a case 
where a man set plants three feet apart 
and cultivated them both ways as he 
would corn. Some of the runners were 
cut off, leaving large hills or masses 
of plants which gave a good yield with 
the least hand labor. 
We have a steady small horse and a 
pony. With a child to ride these horses 
keep inside the two-foot rows. We use 
mostly a (jiamond-tooth cultivator shut 
up as narrow as possible or four teeth 
of an old cultivator on a narrow frame. 
We would not attempt it with a large 
horse. Remember that most of the cul¬ 
tivating is needed while the plants are 
small. You must also remember that 
the plants which measure 18 inches 
across are set 18x15 inches. They fill 
the space. We should not expect the 
plants set one foot apart to grow so 
large. On Mr. Kcvitt's field at picking 
time, the ground barely shows at all 
except in the alleys between the beds. 
We worked our plants this year with 
wheel hoe and a narrow hand hoe, 
pushing the latter under the vines. Of 
course these vines stood up naturally, 
the measurement being made after they 
were pushed down. As for potted 
plants we would, for our own planting, 
as soon have strong layer plants dug 
with a good ball of dirt. In dry seasons 
or in a very poor soil the potted plant 
can of course be made larger than the 
layer by forcing it with manure or 
water. For our own planting we rarely 
use pots. Yes, the labor of caring for 
a close set plot of hilled plants is at 
least twice as great as where the plants 
are in matted rows. We cannot give 
accurate yields on large areas yet. With 
Marshall the yield in hills is more than 
twice as much as in matted rows. 
Spring set layer plants have every ad¬ 
vantage over potted plants for the fol¬ 
lowing season’s planting. From our ex¬ 
perience we should say that more non¬ 
sense has been written about the great 
value of potted plants than of any 
other part of' strawberry culture. By 
potted plants we mean the runners 
which start after fruiting, rooted in lit¬ 
tle pots filled with rich soil. 
Concrete for Barn Wails. 
B. D. L., Macon, Ga .—I have a barn built 
on side of hill, 32 feet long, 23 feet wide, 
eight feet under sills. I wish to mako 
concrete wall from bottom to sills. I have 
plenty of stones from size of hen eggs to 
that of a man’s head ; stones in less than 
300 yards of barn; sand in 50 to 100 yards 
of barn; Portland cement, $2.50 a barrel: 
Georgia, $1 a barrel. How large stones 
must I use? How much sand? How much 
cement and kind, Portland or Georgia (at 
the difference in price) ? Could I use lime 
for the wall at 90 cents a barrel? Which 
Is cheaper and •better, lime or cement? 
Ans. —There is an old principle that 
“the best is always the cheapest,” which 
you can safely follow in building a con¬ 
crete foundation for a barn of this size. 
I would, therefore, box the space which 
the wall is to occupy, making the wall 
one foot wide, and if one side is against 
the bank a little extra strength should 
be secured by the addition of a buttress 
about two feet square every 10 feet. 
This would keep the wall in place in 
case there was a heavy pressure against 
it. In the bottom of this box, then, 
when completed to a convenient depth, 
I would start by putting in about two 
inches of sand and Portland cement 
in the proportion of one part cement to 
three parts sand, mixed together dry 
first and then water added gradually as 
it is being stirred, until it is the con¬ 
sistency of good mortar. The mixing 
is generally done with shovels or hoes. 
Then put in all the different sized stones 
you can bed into the cement, pressing 
them down firmly, and being careful to 
lay small stones around the larger ones 
in such a way that when the next layer 
of sand and cement is added ft will 
take as small a quantity as possible to 
cover the stones. Then put on another 
layer of cement and another of stones, 
and so on to the top of the wall. If 
you are careful to place each stone so 
it will be completely covered on all sides 
with the sand and cement mixture you 
will have a wall that will last a long 
time. c. S. GREENE. 
Panama Canal Figures. 
Several Headers .—Can yon tell us how 
much work has been done on the Panama 
Canal and what it has cost ? 
Ans. —In correspondence with the 
Isthmian Canal Commission we have 
obtained the figures showing appropria¬ 
tion and expenditure to June 30 and 
other figures* which will follow. It may 
not be generally known that this Canal 
is to have a summit elevation- of 85 
feet above the sea. This is to be 
reached by three locks on the Atlantic 
side and also three on the Pacific side. 
This Canal is to be about 50 miles in 
length from deep water in the Carib¬ 
bean Sea to deep water in the Pacific 
Ocean. From deep water to the shore 
line on one side is 4 l / 2 miles and on 
the Pacific shore five miles. Therefore 
the Canal is to be dug from shore to 
shore 40;/2 miles. The bottom width of 
the Canal will vary from, 200 feet to 
an indefinite width in the waters of the 
lakes, and will have a minimum depth 
of 41 feet. The old French companies 
excavated SI, 548,000 cubic yards, and 
about 40,000,000 cubic yards of this are 
available for the present work. On 
May 1, 1904, the estimate of needed ex¬ 
cavation was 124,334,850 cubic yards. 
Up to October 1, 50,506,317 cubic yards 
had been taken out, including the cut¬ 
ting at each end of the Canal from 
the shore line to deep water. There 
still remained to be taken out on Oc¬ 
tober 1, an estimate of 91,493,683 cubic 
yards. There are now employed on the 
Isthmus 101 steam shovels, which are 
scooping out the dirt. On September 
2, 1908, 31,S69 men were at work, about 
6,000 of these being Americans. The 
total disbursements of money for carry¬ 
ing on the work up to June 30, 1908, 
are given as $137,709,230.82. 
EXCELL 
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What Should a Farmer Expect 
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This is a question that many an hon¬ 
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