Tht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
535 
RURALISMS 
Strawberries on Wild Land 
What is your opinion about planting 
strawberries in .sod ground? The land is 
now in sod, nearly run out. many wild 
strawberries. I would like to set out 
berries this year. Would it be best to 
plow and plant in Spring, or plow in 
Spring and set berries in August? Would 
wild berries be likely to prove a nuisance? 
Cobleskill, N. Y. I. f. d. 
We would not under any circumstances 
attempt to plant strawberries on that old 
sod. There should be some well culti¬ 
vated crop grown on it first, .so as to clean 
the land out thoroughly. There will be 
a heavy crop of weeds and wild grass 
come in as soon as that land is plowed. 
It would be difficult if not impossible to 
keep a strawberry crop free from weeds 
on such a soil. The most profitable plan 
would be to plow this land early. Fit it 
as well as possible and plant corn or po¬ 
tatoes in hills well fertilized. Give thor¬ 
ough cultivation and hoe the crop several 
time so as to get rid of the weeds. Then 
when the crop is harvested seed to rye 
and Alsike clover. Leave this crop on the 
land through the Fall and Winter anc 
plow under in the Spring; then plant 
your strawberries. That would be the 
safest way to get strawberries started on 
this land, for in addition to being full of 
weeds and grass it is most probably filled 
with white grubs, which would ruin most 
of the strawberry plants. The thorough 
cultivation will kill out much of the grass 
and weeds and destroy many of the grubs. 
If it is necessary to plant the straw¬ 
berries this year the safest way will be 
to plow the field early and plant some 
early crop like peas, or early sweet corn. 
Fertilize well and give thorough cultiva¬ 
tion up to the early part of August. Then 
harvest the crop promptly, fit the land 
as well as possible and during a moist 
time plant your strawberries in rows c 
ft. apart and about IS ins. in the row. 
Fertilize them heavily with a good mixt- 
Fertilize them heavily with a good mix¬ 
ture for fruit and give the most thorough 
during the latter part of Summer and 
throw out a few runners before Winter 
comes on. You cannot hope for a full crop 
next year from such a planting, but you 
will be obliged to give thorough culture 
all through next season in order to ob¬ 
tain a good crop in 1023. The plants for 
setting can be procured in the Spring and 
heeled in; that is, planted close together 
in rows where they can be watered and 
kept growing until August, or it is pos¬ 
sible by using fertilizer freely on the old 
bed. and also using plenty of water, to 
force out an early crop of runners which 
may be used for August transplanting. 
It is not likely that you will gain very 
much by planting in August, taking every¬ 
thing into consideration, and we would 
rather spend this season in trying to fit 
the land properly for next year’s plant¬ 
ing. Blackberry vines will certainly 
“prove a nuisance” the first year and it 
will require hard grubbing to get rid of 
them. 
Hedge Plants for Kansas 
E. W. B., Kansas, asks about Japan 
quince as a hedge. It should not be 
planted where San Jose scale exists. It 
is a favorite host plant for scale. It can 
be grown very readily from seed. Nur¬ 
serymen formerly imported the seedlings 
altogether from France. Now that im¬ 
portations are prohibited. I suppose they 
will be grown in this country. It is the 
type, the well-known red one, that is 
grown from seed. The white, pink and 
other varieties—there are many of them— 
are grown from cuttings or grafts. 
Japan privet, if the true Ligustrum 
japonicum. would not be expected to sur¬ 
vive the Kansas Winters, for it is the 
tenderest of all the privets. I have seen 
it killed to the ground in South Texas, 
where it takes the place of the bay trees 
of the North. It is the handsomest of 
the privets, too, with large, glossy leaves. 
Osage orange is defensive, but it is ugly 
and dirty, and exhausts the .soil for some 
distance. Rugosa rose would make a 
good, fairly defensive hedge, and one of 
beauty, too, with its persistent rich green 
foliage that withstands any amount of 
heat and dust. The flowers, white or red, 
are large, single and attractive, and in 
the Autumn the red and yellow “apples” 
are almost equally as attractive. J. w. 
Mother (returning from shopping): 
“Dorothy, what is the meaning of this 
crowd in front of the house?” Dorothy: 
“It’s all sister’s fault. We were playing 
house, and she hung a ‘fiat, to let’ sign in 
the front window.”—London Mail. 
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Dept. D27 Racine, Wisconsin 
J 
FARMING 
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