264 
SOME HOPE FARM STRAWBERRIES. 
The picture shown below is made from a photo¬ 
graph taken in early September. The little boy holds 
a plant of the Marshall variety. This plant was set 
out in April—the picture showing about five months’ 
growth. It was an ordinary runner plant of the previ¬ 
ous season’s growth grown in the North and shipped 
some 150 miles to Hope Farm. The plants in this field 
stand 24 x 18 inches. The runners are cut off so 
that each single plant forms a large “hill.” You will 
notice the large top and deep roots. Such a plant is 
well able to take care of itself, both Winter and Sum¬ 
mer. The thaw and freeze of the upper soil can hardly 
stir these great roots where smaller matted-row 
plants would be pulled up. Such a plant also stands 
the drought on soil that is filled with vegetable matter. 
No ordinary treatment can make such plants. This soil 
is naturally strong, and was coated with manure—40 
loads to the acre. This was plowed under and chemi¬ 
cals added. The plants were worked about 20 times 
with horse, wheel hoe or hand hoe. In a good season 
such handling means 10,000 quarts to the acre at the 
best. That is our limit, and we consider it an extra¬ 
ordinary yield for fancy berries. Larger yields are re¬ 
ported, but we have not been able to match them— 
though such plants as the one shown will easily pro¬ 
duce a full quart. We have been asked if fancy 
Marshalls at an average of 10 cents a quart will pay 
better than smaller fruit in matted rows at eight cents. 
We would from choice grow Marshalls at that figure. 
NOTES ON WALNUT CULTURE. 
A number of letters have reached me from different 
parts of the United States asking about 
walnut grafting, and what varieties are 
best and hardiest, etc., etc. Some of 
these letters are from localities where 
the mercury falls quite low in Winter 
and sometimes snow lies deep upon the 
ground. In answer to any and all who 
contemplate planting English or Persian 
walnut trees, I will say that I do not 
know how low a temperature the trees 
will stand, but I do know that several 
times in my experience many trees in the 
Santa Clara Valley have been seriously 
injured by cold, and 25 deg. above is 
about as cold as it ever gets in my loca¬ 
tion. So that in my opinion it would be 
risky to plant the standard sorts of wal¬ 
nuts in locations where the temperature 
ever gets much below 25 deg. Also, as 
far as I have observed, there seems to 
be little difference in the hardiness of the 
different varieties, the French Mayette, 
Franquette, Alpine, etc., having suffered 
quite as much as the ordinary seedlings, 
There seems to be a feeling among wal¬ 
nut growers that the kinds which are late 
in budding in the Spring are safer from 
frosts than the earlier kinds, and possibly 
that may be true in some colder loca¬ 
tions, but I have never seen any differ¬ 
ence. In fact we have never lost a crop 
of nuts from Spring frosts in 30 years. 
On the other hand the earlier kinds seem 
to mature their nuts a little earlier, and 
they come out of the hull cleaner than 
the kinds that are later in starting in 
the Spring. It would seem to me that 
anyone contemplating planting walnuts 
would be wise to experiment with a few trees be¬ 
fore planting largely in sections where they have not 
been thoroughly tested. H. G. K. 
San Jose, Cal._ 
STARTING TO TRAIN GRAPE VINES. 
I.ast Spring I planted 150 grape vines in three rows, 
eight feet apart, and vines eight feet apart in the row. 
Will it he necessary to train vines this season? If so, 
I would like to build a trellis. IIow high would be best 
to make it and would it be well to place a post at each 
vine, or, if not how far apart? What size wire to use, 
how high should the first wire be from the ground, and 
how much space between the others that may be needed? 
Montville, N. J. D. C. 
If D. C.’s ground is a good soil for grapes he has 
put his vines just about right for distance each way, 
and it will not be a difficult matter to put up the trellis. 
To begin with, he will want good heavy chestnut 
posts nine feet in length. These are put into the 
ground fully 3% feet to prevent frost from throwing 
them out, and do away with the necessity of setting too 
many posts. The end posts should be the heaviest, 
and be well set, and a brace 12 or 14 feet long fitted 
into a notch cut into the post about 15 inches from 
the top. The lower end of the brace should be firmly 
set against a stout stake well driven into the ground. 
He should set his end post about five feet outside the 
first grapevine, and if this is carefully and firmly set, 
the other posts in the row may be placed so as to have 
four vines between the posts. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
To train his vines properly he will require four lines 
of wire. The first should be a No. 10 wire placed 2 ^2 
feet from the ground; the others can be No. 12 wire, 
placed eight inches, 16 inches and 30 inches above the 
first. The staples should be strong enough to support 
the wires, and should not be driven up tight, as it is 
well to allow for the expansion and contraction of the 
wires. The wires may be fastened to the end posts 
by simply winding them about the posts three or four 
times and carrying the end back about two foot and 
winding it about the wire. Care should be taken to 
stretch the wires tight when putting them up, as they 
will soon begin to sag. This part of the work I 
usually attend to myself, and to stretch wire properly 
on a 400-foot row three men are required, and they 
should have good pliers. I have never been able to 
put my wires up satisfactorily with any stretcher I 
have used. I always like to get my trellis up for the 
second year’s growth of vine, as I then shape the 
growth to conform to my trellis. The wood should be 
taken up to the first wire as nearly straight as possible, 
and then forked, tying each end along the wire; then 
as the new growth becomes stocky enough to tie to 
the wires, it is carried up perpendicularly and tied as 
it goes. This plan gives a low-headed vine, and I 
have found it to give best results, when the vines are 
not allowed to overbear. w. h. goldsmith. 
New Jersey. __ 
SOME STRAWBERRY QUESTIONS. 
I grow strawberries in hedge-rows set three feet apart. 
The rows are now about 15 inches wide. I am thinking 
of changing to the hill system by chopping out surplus 
plants, next Summer, so that the hills will stand two feet 
SOME STRAWBERRY PLANTS AT HOPE FARM 
March b, 
better for having been moved. I have had the Wm. 
Belt to produce berries three inches in diameter on 
plants that were transplanted the April before. On 
a few occasions when I have had plants on sandy 
soil, they were taken up very early and expressed to 
customers for immediate fruiting, and with good re¬ 
sults. I have a friend in Washington whose garden 
is so overrun with chickweed that at the end of the 
growing season he takes up all of his strawberry 
plants and heels them in in frames and covers them 
deeply with straw. Early in the Spring he prepares 
his ground and sets out the plants to raise a crop for 
market the same season. Another man near Buffalo, 
who was a noted grower, took prizes on berries that 
were grown on newly transplanted plants. To accom¬ 
plish this the work should be done as soon as the 
frost is out. My way would be as follows: First get 
the new bed ready. It should be made fine, and if 
not rich enough, some old manure or compost should 
be well stirred into the rows to bring them to the 
condition of potting soil. Then take a pail of water 
and a spading fork to the bed where the young plants 
are, and take them up with the least possible injury to 
the roots. After removing the dead leaves and runners 
drop each one into the water. Then carry them to the 
new bed and plant carefully, aiming to have each root 
in close contact with the fine, rich soil. If the bed is 
covered with two inches of manure it will need noth¬ 
ing but water until the fruit is ripe. If one is willing 
to take the trouble, weak liquid manure may be ap¬ 
plied every day after the fruit is set. This will in¬ 
crease the size of the berries, and is very helpful in 
producing show fruit.- m. crawford. 
Ohio. 
I never have undertaken to transplant 
yearling plants in the Spring, but I have 
a way of transplanting immediately aft¬ 
er fruiting, which, if used early in the 
Spring, I should think would produce a 
full crop, though I think it would be too 
expensive for fruit-raising. I use it to 
get runners of a new variety. I clear 
around the strongest plants so that I can 
take them out with a ball of earth six to 
eight inches in diameter attached to the 
roots; make holes correspondingly large, 
and transplant with a spade. Trim the 
foliage mostly all off and, if hot and dry, 
keep watered for a short time. In this 
way I have moved large numbers of 
seedling plants with runners all attached, 
immediately after fruiting, and generally 
get a good stand of runners and fruit 
for the next season. This disturbs the 
plants so little that I should think it 
would work early in the Spring with 
good results. Of course I only plant a 
small number if I wish to plow the 
ground where the plants stood. 
New Jersey. thomas r. hunt. 
No; if done very early in the season 
with extra care and soil and weather 
conditions are extremely favorable and 
continue so until the plant recovers, 
from the shock and is again able to 
gather plant food from the soil in 
a natural manner it might prove suc¬ 
cessful. Some one who has taken extra 
pains in moving and been favored with 
ideal conditions will report a success, 
but those trying to follow his methods 
apart each way. Dunlap and Sample do best for me. Do 
you think these varieties would do well in hills? The 
soil is good black loam highly enriched with rotten manure. 
In setting out a new patch, would it do to set berries in 
rows four feet apart with a row of early potatoes between, 
or would the potatoes shade the berries too much? The 
potatoes would be dug in July. Tlease give composition of 
good commercial fertilizer for berries. l. s. m. 
Illinois. 
The change can be made by chopping out plants with 
hoes. We have done this with fair success. The great 
objection is that you cannot get the rows exactly 
straight without transplanting some of the plants. This 
makes it harder to cultivate. Dunlap and Sample will 
do reasonably well in hill culture. Before planting 
other crops between rows of strawberries you must 
realize what it means to keep them all clean. On good 
soil well filled with humus and well fed it is possible 
to grow different crops together, but unless we were 
crowded for room we would not try it. Better give the 
strawberries the entire ground. A mixture of five 
parts fine ground bone, two of sulphate of potash and 
one part nitrate of soda will work well. 
MOVING LARGE STRAWBERRIES. 
Have you ever been able to transplant strawberry plants 
in early Spring (yearling plants) and obtain from them 
as much fruit as from smaller plants left undisturbed? We 
have never been able to do it. If it can be done we would 
like to know how. 
I have transplanted strawberry plants in the early 
Spring with such success that I thought they fruited 
will generally meet with much disappointment and loss 
for the reason that few will take the pains in moving, 
and the ideal conditions very rarely occur. Reports 
of successful results from freak operations always 
seem to find many ready to repeat the operation, al¬ 
most invariably to their loss. I believe this is true 
not only in regard to the question under consideration, 
but applies equally to all branches of agriculture. 
Very few seem to realize the great loss the root system 
of a transplanted plant sustains. With the most care¬ 
ful digging a large percentage of the active feeding 
rootlets are destroyed, and the roots retained are not 
active in gathering plant food, but act rather as con¬ 
veyors of the plant food gathered by the minute feed¬ 
ing rootlets, many of which are hardly visible to the 
naked eye. A new system of feeding rootlets must be 
established before active growth can take place, and 
the growth made by the plant before this new root 
system is started is made from the stored-up energy in 
the plant, and at its expense. g. r. schauber. 
No doubt but that the R. I. Greening apple is coming back 
into favor with growers. The color used to be against it. 
Now, more and more buyers are getting down under the 
skin. 
Gasoline motor cars have increased so rapidly in Lon¬ 
don, driving out horses, that the supply of stable manure 
has been cut short. Gardeners who formerly depended 
on this manure are now driven to fertilizers and com¬ 
posts made of sods, muck and all wastes. The same thing 
is being felt near New York. 
