Efficiency in Planting Florida Strawberries 
T hat STRAWBERRY CROP.—The articles rela¬ 
tive to my strawberry crop which appeared in 
the issues of The R. N.-Y. for August 7 and 11 
appear to have been received with much interest, 
and with at least some incredulity. Recently I have 
received a communication from a thoughtful reader 
in British Columbia, from which I quote the fol¬ 
lowing: “To my mind, one statement in Mr. Hart¬ 
man's article makes the whole thing look like a fairy 
tale, and it is as follows: ‘Had the old lady seen 
me last Fall, day after day. personally set 1,200 to 
1,500 plants per hour, because help to do the leading 
stunt was not to he had. * * *’ Now the largest 
number of plants I have been able to have set in a 
day is 000 per man, though there are growers who 
report as high as 2.000 per day. but Mr. Hartman 
states that he uses a trowel, places a handful of 
compost and a half pint of water to each plant. If 
this is the case. I would expect man to set 300 to 
400 plants per eight-hour day.” On the whole, the 
letter was friendly rather than critical, and evi¬ 
dently actuated by a desire to have an explanation 
for what appears to be incredible. 
SOME QUESTIONS.—The following questions 
were also included: 
“Was the land plowed before the velvet beans 
were planted, or after?” 
“Were the beans harvested or plowed under?” 
“What was the two-ton fertilizer mixture com¬ 
posed of?” 
Let me dispose of these last questions first; then 
let us see what can be done to exorcise the “fairies.” 
Soil treatment and fertilizing I consider in the 
Part I. 
advantage at present, and every gardener knows the 
advantage of a good start. I leave it to some one 
who may know to explain; hut once before I had 
the same mysterious result with tomatoes. In 
neither case was there serious lack of moisture. The 
disadvantage has not been very marked, but theor¬ 
etically on the wrong side. 
WHY NOT PLOW PREPARATORY TO. PLANT¬ 
ING?—A few years ago. the same tract, plowed and 
planted to berries, failed to do well, due to a com¬ 
bination of unfavorable weather and an infestation 
of red spider. The only part that made a fair start 
was at the ends, where the soil was firmed by the 
trampling of the team in turning when preparing 
the land. So last year the land was harrowed with 
a spring-tooth harrow, and this* year thoroughly 
disked with drag harrow, in both cases planked, 
and nothing more. But I repeat that while I think 
this treatment is best for my soil and variety, it 
may be of no value whatever to another except as 
hints to aid observation. " 
THE FERTILIZER.—The same is true with re¬ 
gard to the fertilizer formula, which was as follows: 
Acid phosphate, 10%. 1,000 lbs. 
Pulverized Kentucky tobacco stems, potash, 
714 %; ammonia, 2 y 2 % . S00 lbs. 
Nitrate of soda. 200 lbs. 
Total. 2,000 lbs. 
Theoretically that formula does not suit me—not 
enough potash. Practically it does not entirely suit 
me, either. Fruit is much too soft, but so luscious 
unbelievable, and yet it has been done with probably 
not much over half the work hours between those 
dates devoted to that particular task. How was it 
done? The answer is efficiency. 
But here let us notice ‘-he misconception of the 
correspondent. I purposely used the word “set” in¬ 
stead of planted, and yet the conclusion was reached 
that I dropped the plants, set them, applied the 
compost and the water, and presumably that I dug 
them, too. I wonder how many other readers read 
in that much misinformation. I cannot see that I 
was to blame, for besides specially stating that I set 
them. I also spoke of it as the leading stunt, imply¬ 
ing that 1 set the pace for the dropper, the compost 
man and the water man. Then there is another 
point; by the context it will be noted that the para¬ 
graph in question was primarily emphasizing the 
strenuous aspects of the undertaking for the benefit 
of the thoughtless. Hence I stated this particular 
phase of it by the hour rather than by the day. I 
know 1 have set fully as many plants per hour as 
stated in limited periods, but I probably have never 
set 12.000 plants in any one 10-hour day, and cer¬ 
tainly never 15.000. From a physical standpoint, as 
a test performance, under -good conditions, I could 
undoubtedly reach the former figure, and probably 
the latter. Moreover, having to supervise all the 
other work, and especially last year, when through 
scarcity of help we operated with less than a full 
complement of hands, the settiilg was necessarily 
interspersed with other tasks, permitting rush work 
for moderate periods. 
EFFICIENCY.—I hope we have ousted the mis- 
The Onion Harvest on a Truck Farm in South Jersey. Fig. 20 
main as one of local rather than general application, 
so did not go into details. As stated, the tract was 
harrowed deeply again and again with a spring- 
tooth harrow, to eradicate as far as possible the 
underground runners of Bermuda grass. As the 
harrow teeth frequently brought to the surface 
traces of subsoil, which is at a depth of about 7 in., 
there was nothing to be gained in plowing for the 
beans. 
HANDLING THE BEAN VINES.—The beans 
were planted too late to make a good growth and 
be cut in time to become brittle enough to be suc¬ 
cessfully worked into the surface, and T did not want 
to plow the tract preparatory to planting: so the 
vines were cut. allowed to dry. raked and hauled off, 
though r had no particular use for them. Yes, I 
know it was agricultural malpractice of the worst 
sort, and this year, the beans having been planted 
earlier, they were cut and allowed to weather until 
brittle, then disked repeatedly until they offered no 
serious handicap to the use of the wheel hoe. It is 
too early to arrive at a definite conclusion, but the 
indications are that I had better malpractice again. 
Certain it is that a strip bordering a ditch, .where 
land crabs destroyed the stand of beans, and later 
was kept bare by cultivation, shows to the best 
and of such magnificent appearance that I am in¬ 
clined to overlook the fault. This year I am experi¬ 
menting to secure a measure of firmness by substi¬ 
tuting raw ground bone for part of the rock phos¬ 
phate. The result, of course, cannot be determined 
until later. Here is one hint I think may be of 
general application. The tobacco apparently 
heightens the color of the fruit. Application to 
flowering plants about the house indicates that 
florists may profit by the suggestion. I am glad to 
have discovered one use for tobacco that I can 
recommend. 
SETTING THE PLANTS.—Now let us tackle the 
“fairies.” In this connection there are two distinct 
groups: misconception and efficiency. The first, of 
course, should be eliminated: the second cannot be 
too highly recommended. October 20 we began 
planting this year’s strawberry crop, and finished 
on November 29, 10 days later than usual, inten¬ 
tionally so, more evenly to distribute the periods of 
highest yield. There are over 190.000 plants, 4 1/10 
acres, and with the aid of the efficiency group of the 
fairies I have set absolutely every single plant my¬ 
self. On our friend's computation of setting 600 
plants as a day’s work, that would be almost a solid 
year’s task. No wonder that, to him, it appears 
ehievous group. How about the efficiency group? 
Some one estimated during pre-war times that the 
railroads of this country lost a million dollars a day 
through inefficiency. I don’t know that anyone has 
dared to estimate the loss from the same cause under 
Government control, but whatever the true figures 
in either case, it is probable that the loss to the 
agricultural interests, due to the same cause, is even 
greater, and the brunt of this loss is borne by the 
small operators, who can least afford it. Any careful 
observer can verify for himself this principle as 
applicable at least to agricultural conditions: In¬ 
efficiency exists in direct proportion to hand work 
required. That is a large part of the reason why 
hand work is so disproportionately expensive. 
PREPARING FOR SETTING.—So much for gen¬ 
eralities. But how do we plant strawberries? First, 
we will procure a good steel garden trowel. Not the 
flimsy sheet-iron affair stuck into a soft wood han¬ 
dle that is quite common, but a real tool that will 
take and hold an edge. It need not be expensive, 
but it may not always be easy to obtain. A good 
one should last for years. For the uninitiated ii. 
may be well to explain that the blade of a garden 
trowel is concave instead of flat, and has a rounded 
point. It should be about 3 1 /* in. wide at the top 
