Vol. LXIX. No. 4036, 
NEW YORK, MARCH 5, 1910. 
WEEKLY, $1.00 PER YEAR. 
STRAWBERRIES IN “MICHIGAN’S ICE BOX.” 
Fine Fruit on the Upper Peninsula. 
In this part of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, 
strawberry growing on a commercial scale is of com¬ 
paratively recent date. The ground here is a glacial 
drift, and inclined to be stony. This is the way we 
take care of our plants. We plant, by the hill system, 
rows 30 inches apart, plants 15 inches apart. We take 
plants from the propagating beds, which, besides a 
good top, have a large root development. These 
plants are obtained by picking out the runners which 
is made. This tool makes a wedge-shaped hole six 
inches deep, six inches wide, and two inches across at 
the top. We use this tool because the ground is so 
stony that other tools do not work well. One man 
making holes, another planting, and a boy dropping, 
makes a good crew. The planter takes the plant, and 
gives it a twist in the hole. With his other fist lie 
pushes the earth firmly around the plant. A man 
can plant as quickly as a boy can drop the plants. 
Cultivation is commenced as soon as the planting is 
done, and the plants hoed as soon as the weeds grow. 
Weeds growing close to the plants are hand pulled. 
graded into fancy, seconds, and culls. We pick every 
other day. In the grading is where most growers fall 
down. Grading pays in strawberries as in apples. The 
fancies sell from 15 to 25 cents a box; the seconds, $2 
a crate; culls go at $1.50. We sell direct, and get 
all the consumer’s dollar. After the berries are 
picked, the field is plowed, and sowed to buckwheat. 
This is plowed down, and next year potatoes planted. 
Grain and clover follow. Our reason for only one 
year’s fruiting is that the second year the berries are 
not as large and we want large berries. Our season 
is from about June 20 to July 15, and we use Dunlap, 
FANCY STRAWBERRIES AS GROWN IN A COLD COUNTRY. 
have the largest crowns, each year, and using them in 
the propagating beds. They are not allowed to blos¬ 
som. The sale of surplus plants about pays for them 
all, thus making the plan feasible. 
After digging, which is done with a potato fork, the 
plants are cleaned of all dead leaves, runner stems, 
and blossoms, and, if the weather is dry, trimmed to 
two leaves. For a planter, we use a tool, homemade as 
follows: Take a 2 x 6 timber, about 3pi feet long, and 
mark oft a strip two inches wide to six inches from one 
end. Mark this off at right angles, and saw out. After 
driving some nails into this six inch piece, to keep it 
fiom splitting off, trim to a wedge. Take some heavy 
sneet iron and sheath it. T rim off the long handle. 
By nailing two pieces of wood on the handle, a marker 
All blossoms are picked as soon as formed. When the 
runners start, we cut them off by using a sharp hoe, 
the shank of which has been straightened. A file is 
taken along to sharpen up whenever the hoe gets dull. 
We use a fine spring-tooth cultivator. By Fall these 
plants touch each other in the rows. We used to 
mulch with straw, but shall not this year. The ground 
does not heave, snow covers it early, and the dead 
leaves will make mulch enough to keep the berries 
clean. 
In the Spring, the patch is cultivated and hoed until 
the berries begin to get some size, and then no more 
cultivating is done. For picking we use a three-box 
carrier, and roughly grade the berries in the field. The 
berries are then taken into a cool basement, and re- 
Sample, Parsons Beauty, Clyde and a few of others. 
We use mostly Dunlaps. odin eskil. 
Michigan. 
R- N.-Y.—This experience shows one main reason 
for mulching berries. Solid freezing does not seem 
to injure the plants; in fact, one benefit from the 
mulch covering is that it prevents the sun from thaw¬ 
ing out the upper part of the soil. Alternate freez¬ 
ing and thawing lifts and settles the soil, and if 
this is kept up the shallow-rooted plants are slowly 
lifted out until the lower part of the crown is ex¬ 
posed. The large hill plants being firmly rooted do 
not seem to require mulching so much as those in 
matted rows. Up in “Michigan’s ice box” there is 
little danger that the ground will thaw in Winter. 
