Vox.. LXXIII. No. 4254. 
NEW YORK, MAY !>. 1014. 
WEEKLY *1.00 TER YEAR. 
GROWING PRIZE STRAWBERRIES. 
The Man, the Berry and the Work. 
RETIRED FARMERS.—In every town or city 
where there is room for gardens yon will find 
“strawberry cranks” who have learned how to pro¬ 
duce the finest fruit. These are usually elderly men 
—often retired from the 
started a garden and built a small greenhouse. 
What lie did on that less than an acre was a won¬ 
der. When he came to town he had expected to live 
on the proceeds from the sale of his farm, using the 
interest and part of the principal each year. To his 
surprise he found that his garden and greenhouse 
were supporting him—actually giving him a larger 
income than his large farm had given during the 
few years before he left it. This man was a good 
farmer, but lie had become a “gardening crank.” 
and that is a step up the scale. 
"FRANKS" AND CRANKS.—There are two kinds 
of cranks. One is impractical, the other is an expert 
who pays little attention to the rules which others 
lay down for him. but 
active business of life. 
Energetic and restless, 
they are not content to 
sit down and talk and 
wait, but they take a 
small piece of land and 
perform upon it mira¬ 
cles in fruit and tiower 
production. Wo know 
of one such man—a "re¬ 
tired farmer." lie 
worked his farm as long 
as he could do so 
profitably. llis boys 
were all girls, and they 
married and moved 
away. So this farmer 
finally sold out and 
with his wife moved to 
town. Now this man 
had followed the his¬ 
tory of many of these 
“retired farmers." and 
he observed that out ot 
about 15 eoupb'* who 
had left the farm while 
in good general health 
there were now 10 
widows, three r a t h e r 
old feeble men and two 
well preserved. Thir¬ 
teen of these men had 
dropped their habits of 
industry when coming 
to town. Instead of 
w o r k i n g s t e a d i 1 y 
through the day. with 
their minds occupied 
with plans for the farm, 
they sat about at the 
store or post ofliee, or 
talked aimlessly with 
old cronies o n the 
street. At the same 
time they kept on eat¬ 
ing as freely as when 
they were hard at 
work. They lived on 
through a few peevish 
and unhappy years and 
then dropped a w a y. 
Their wives did their 
own housework as they 
did on the farm, kept 
busy with fair exercise 
and survived their hus¬ 
bands. The two men 
who kept their health 
took up some light man¬ 
ual labor and saved 
their lives by keeping 
busy. 
So this “retired 
farmer” was wise. He 
bought a house with a 
good-sized piece of land. 
>- ■ 
"THE STRAWBERRY CRANK" TFRXING OFT PRIZE BERRIES. Fig. 2S1. 
does what his instinct 
tells him to do. A 
"strawberry c r a n k'' 
does not pay much at¬ 
tention to printed rules 
in books or papers, but 
he "asks the strawberry 
plant” what it needs. 
As a rule the "straw¬ 
berry crank" cannot tell 
you how he does it. and 
the beginner could not 
understand it anyway 
until he has watched 
plants develop through 
every growing day for 
several years. There is 
a difference between a 
"crank” and a crank. 
Some years ago a man 
wrote us that lie had 
invented a sure and 
cheap way of killing 
the San Jose scale. We 
must pledge ourselves 
not to reveal his great 
secret. Then he came 
and said, “I never saw 
one of these scales— 
will you send me a twig 
carrying some of the in¬ 
sects?” Here was a 
man sure that lie had a 
remedy for a trouble he 
had never seen. lie 
was a “crank.” An¬ 
other man for the past 
20 years has contended 
that the scale will fin¬ 
ally he conquered and 
kept in check by para¬ 
sites. 1 think he is a 
far-sighted crank, and 
that in the future his 
theory will prove true. 
SOIL AND PLANT¬ 
ING.—If you could get 
the strawberry crank to 
talk about details he 
would probably tell you 
that the way to pro¬ 
duce prize berries is 
about as follows: Get 
your plants started as 
early in the Spring as 
possible. Take larger 
plants of last season be¬ 
fore they have made 
much top. You must 
have strong, rich soil, 
full of organic matter, 
so that it will not bake 
hard near fruiting time. 
It is better to take soil 
which has been well 
hoed and cultivated for 
