710 
Hope Farm Notes 
I am writing to ask you your experience 
with strawberry plants raised by the so- 
called “Kevitt system.” Forty years ago I 
dropped that plan as unprofitable. I have 
a few now on that plan, and find there is 
a great difference in the productiveness of 
different varieties. Some are entirely 
worthless grown that way, notably the 
President. Out of six varieties that I have 
in the bed, only two (Success and Cardi¬ 
nal) are doing anything at all. The unsuc¬ 
cessful ones do very well in the narrow 
matted r»ws, and 1 would appreciate your 
advice as to good varieties to grow that 
way and how to handle them after fruiting 
season. thos. hunt. 
New Jersey. 
I would about as soon try to tell Mr. 
Hunt about strawberry growing as I 
would go into the ring with Jeffries, run 
against Dorando or undertake to get a 
parcels post bill through Congress in 
the face of “Uncle Joe" Cannon. The 
Kevitt plan consists in placing the 
plants one foot apart each way in beds. 
There is an alley between these beds for 
the pickers to work in. We tried this, 
and concluded that the plants were too 
close together for best results. Of 
course the runners must all be taken 
off. In our practice the outside rows 
gave immense yields, but the inside 
rows or plants were like a matted row, 
and gave comparatively few berries. The 
outer rows, that is, the plants along the 
alleys, indicated what could be done 
with a modification of this system, so 
we began to set the plants farther apart. 
First 12x18 inches seemed space 
enough, but the plants made such size 
that there was too much shade. Then 
we set them 18x24 and 24x24. This 
was better, as it permitted horse culture 
both ways, but even with this greater 
space the plants grew so large that in 
this wet season a large proportion of 
the crop rotted. We are now planting 
2 J / feet each way, cultivating in both 
directions and making a large “hill.” 
For garden or small patch planting the 
closer setting may pay better, but for 
commercial culture, especially on 
weedy ground, the wider spaces are 
more economical. The Kevitt method 
has now been well tested. I would like 
to have accurate reports from people 
who have tried it. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Another variety which seems to do 
well in hill culture is Steven’s Late 
Champion or Stevens. A picture of one 
of our berries is shown at Fig. 301. 
This variety makes a great plant with a 
sturdy, upright growth, and the berries 
well placed. It makes more runners 
than Marshall and is a heavier j'ielder. 
The berries are light colored and far 
inferior to Marshall in quality, and are 
even with the finest weather. This sea 
son has taught me several new things 
about berry culture which we can use 
to good advantage. As I have intimatec 
before, the currant and blackberry crops 
bid fair to make up much of the loss on 
strawberries. 
July 9, 
MARSHALL. Fig. 300. 
not uniform in shape. I shall not plant 
many of them, but for hill culture to 
supply a distant market they might pay. 
We also show a picture of Mr. Hunt’s 
seedling, President, at Fig. 302. This 
is not so good for hill culture as Mar¬ 
shall, but when grown under conditions 
which suit it, it is a very profitable 
berry. I think Chesapeake will make 
another good one for hill culture. I 
will tell what we do with our fruiting 
plants next week. 
The strawberry season at Hope Farm 
just closing has been the worst we ever 
There is no doubt that certain varie¬ 
ties are better for this close planting 
than others. In general I should take 
those varieties which make fewest run¬ 
ners. Mr. Kevitt uses Glen Mary 
largely. I do not like the quality of 
this variety for a local trade. The 
best variety I have seen for hill 
culture is the old Parker Earle. 
It is now out of date, and one would 
have trouble in getting true plants. We 
use Marshall almost entirely. This 
makes comparatively few runners and 
is a natural hill varietj'. It is, I believe, 
the handsomest and finest in quality of 
any variety now grown. It is a shy 
bearer and particular about soil and 
culture. For growing on light soil in 
matted rows it would prove a failure. 
For a distant wholesale market it is 
doubtful if it would pay. For a fancy, 
nearby trade or for high garden culture 
I believe there is nothing equal to it— 
that is, if you have strong soil well sup¬ 
plied with moisture, and can give thor¬ 
ough and constant culture. A typical 
specimen of our Marshalls is shown at 
Fig. 300. This is average size—there 
were many much larger. In color it is 
a dark crimson. Mr. Hunt, Mr. Kevitt 
and many other successful growers have 
rejected Marshall—largely I think be¬ 
cause it is a poor yielder, and I would 
not advise anyone to do more than test 
it in a moderate way before planting 
heavily. Plants of the true Marshall 
are hard to obtain. I know of several 
cases where other varieties have 'been 
substituted for it. In view of this we 
have decided to go into the plant trade 
simply to the extent of offering the true 
Marshall for those who care to try it. 
STEVENS. Fig. 301. 
had. The late frosts evidently killed a 
fair share of the bloom, and the con¬ 
tinued rains spoiled the berries. The 
vines were magnificent, but they held the 
water so that the fruit turned soft and 
rotted. We were unable to work the 
soft ground, so the weeds and grass 
came in and helped hold more moisture 
where it was not needed. Last year 
with a dry season we picked at the rate 
of 10,000 quarts per acre. This year I 
do not think our best beds would aver¬ 
age 1,500, and most of the berries were 
soft and tasteless at that. So it will 
Farm Notes.— The week ending June 
25 was hot and clear. We eut the Al¬ 
falfa and the orchard grass in the old 
orchard near the barn, and got it under 
cover without a mishap. Now we were 
ready to take hold of the clover, and 
there is a big crop of it. As I write the 
“indications’ point to continued clear 
weather, and if we can have 10 days of 
it we will more than fill our barn. Dur¬ 
ing the w r et weather the corn stood still 
and the weeds jumped. After a day of 
hot sunshine the corn started and the 
weeds jumped harder than before; with 
picking berries, haying and cultivating 
all in a bunch there was little time to 
tell stories or sit down. We must make 
up for lost time now or never catch up. 
The cultivators are running in the corn. 
I shall plan to keep one horse at least 
moving with a cultivator every day, yet 
we must get the currants off, put the 
hay in the barn and cut the rye. Hope 
Farm will be a busy place through July, 
for peach picking follows blackberries, 
and in the meantime the strawberry beds 
must be cleaned and made over. It is 
a fine thing to have plenty to do. More 
people are spoiled by idleness than by 
work. Now is the time when the half 
hour spent in thinking out and planning 
the work pays better than a day of hard, 
unthinking labor. I have told before of 
the man who broke his leg during the 
busy farm season. It galled him to sit 
on the porch and see his farm work 
standing still, but he saw a dozen ways 
in which he could save labor and time 
by careful planning. When he got well 
he told be that his enforced idleness 
was the most profitable time he ever 
spent, because it taught him to take a 
short time each morning to consider his 
work and plan it out carefully. So when 
things crowd bard, as they do now when 
the sun finally comes after a long spell 
of rain, my advice is to imitate a cake of 
ice. Keep cool, judge your work care¬ 
fully and take the most important jobs 
first .... We have spent three hours 
more cultivating those potatoes. This 
means 90 cents more, or a total of 
$39.25, up to date. I never had a finer- 
looking crop. They have bloomed freely, 
and the vines are about ready to fall. 
1 he Irish Cobblers, being an early va¬ 
riety, seem sure of a crop anyway. Part 
of the field has been sprayed. I now 
expect to let the rest of the field go un¬ 
sprayed so as to make a complete experi¬ 
ment. To my surprise we shall have 
potatoes large enough to dig and eat 
by July 4. These are Irish Cobblers 
planted in a corner of the garden where 
there is a little side hill of light sandy 
loam. ... As we get ready to cut 
the rye for. straw the clover seeding 
shows what it is good for. It seems to 
be pretty much a question of lime. 
Where we used most lime and har¬ 
rowed it thoroughly we have a good 
clover stand. One field in particular 
over which we have toiled for years 
was plowed and fitted as well as we 
knew how last year. We used about 
L500 pounds of hydrated lime and har¬ 
rowed it in after plowing. There we 
have a clover stand that would gladden 
the heart of a farmer. For several years 
we used fertilizer on this field, but were 
disappointed in the crops. Now I know 
the land was sour, and I believe the lime 
has not only given the clover a start, 
but enabled it to make use of the plant 
food supplied through these years by the 
fertilizer. You may put me down as a 
lime crank. 
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PRAT FS 
SCALECIDE 
Will positively destroy SAN JOSE SCALE and all 
soft bodied sucking insects without injury to the 
[ tree. Simple, more effective and cheaper than 
l.ime Sulphur. Not an experiment. One rollon 
makes 1(1 to 20 gallons spray by simply adding water. 
Send for Booklet, “Orchard Insurance.” 
B. G. PRATT CO., 50 CHURCH ST., NEW YORK CITY. 
Would Vz More Water 
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PRESIDENT. Fig. 302. 
not do to take the returns from any 
single season as a safe guide for others. 
There must be an average of many sea¬ 
sons if we are to make a fair statement. 
We are going right ahead to care for 
our plants just as if they had given us 
10 times the fruit, and if we do this 
another favorable season will pull us 
out. Certainly if we quit and do not 
do our best we would have no chance 
Y\ ill you tell me why the liay barracks 
constructed with a pole at each corner and 
an adjustable roof are made with a gambrel 
roof? As far as keeping the hay, would 
not a flat or shed roof answer the same 
purpose if water-tight? They can be made 
much lighter and cheaper. j, b. s. 
Long Island. 
I doubt if many of our readers ever 
saw a hay barrack. The dictionary 
names it a “moving or sliding roof” 
to cover hay. In our country we set four 
posts in the ground and bore holes at 
intervals in them. The roof is fitted so 
that the corners work up and down on 
these posts. Hay is thrown inside the 
square made by the posts, as it would be 
in making a stack. The roof is raised 
or lowered, one corner at a time, and 
held up by pins driven into the holes in 
the posts. It makes a good outside hay 
shed, and sometimes boards are put on 
the sides. I never saw one with any 
except a pointed or four-sided roof. I 
think, however, this is largely habit, and 
that a common shed roof would answer 
the purpose. h. w. c. 
AGRICULTURE 
Our Tile 
Last Forever 
Are thoroughly 
hard burnt and salt 
.——y—-—- glazed. Made of 
best Ohio Clay. Sold in car-load lots. Also 
manufacturers of 
HOLLOW BUILDING BLOCK AND SEWER PIPE 
H. B. CAMP COMPANY, 
FULTON BUILDING, PITTSBURG, PA. 
Is Granular Lime a Profit- 
Maker ? 
Our agricultural colleges and the 
ablest authorities—men who are qual¬ 
ified to speak from practical experience 
—declare that it certainly is profitable 
to sow granular lime. Th trouble has 
been that machines for handling this 
product, as well as nitrate of soda, land 
plaster, dry wood ashes and commercial 
fertilizers, had not been, strictly speak¬ 
ing, a success. These material are hard 
to sow, and the sowing requires a ma¬ 
chine that will spread the materials 
evenly over the surface of the ground 
The Farmers’ Favorite Broadcast Lime 
and Fertilizer Sower, -manufactured by 
The American SeetFtig-Machine Co., In¬ 
corporated, Springfield, Ohio, is a suc¬ 
cess, and it is guaranteed to handle the 
above materials in wide range of quan¬ 
tities. The benefits of these fertilizing 
agents are, without doubt, intended for 
the soil and not especially for the seed. 
Therefore, it naturally follows that the 
best results are obtained by fertilizing 
all the soil from which the plants obtain 
their growth and sustenance. We must 
admit the logic in this method, because 
the practices in Europe, where the crops 
average more per acre than they do in 
this country, are in direct line with it. 
We urge our readers to send to the man¬ 
ufacturers for a copy of their Farmers’ 
Favorite Broadcast Lime and Fertilizer 
Sower booklet. When you have looked 
into this matter, go to your implement 
dealer and insist on seeing the Farm¬ 
ers’ Favorite, the machine that is guar¬ 
anteed to do all the manufacturers claim 
for it.—Adv. 
