J. H. Shivers Plant Farms, Allen, Maryland 
7 
age and 500 pounds of acid phosphate is another good mixture, apply 
1,000 pounds per acre. Pure raw bone meal broadcast or applied in 
the drill directly under the plants is safe at the rate of 600 to 800 
pounds per acre. Raw bone meal will not injure the plant roots no 
matter how heavy you apply it, and is about all the fertilizer I can 
recommend to use directly under the plants. 
WHEN TO PLANT 
The best time to plant is sometime during March or April, or as 
soon as ground can be made ready for planting. Order your plants 
as early as possible; plants set early start quicker and make a moore 
vigorous growth of plants. I begin shipping about March 1st. 
Many inquiries come in regards to planting in August. Plants 
at that season of the year are not matured enough to permit digging 
or shipping. Therefore Spring is the most natural and successful 
time for planting. 
HOW TO SET PLANTS 
AND CULTIVATION 
There are many methods of setting strawberry plants. No par¬ 
ticular method has advantage over another except in the saving of 
labor. The important thing is to get your plants in the ground the 
same depth as they grew in the original bed and to pack the dirt 
firmly around the roots. This done, there is little choice as to the 
method of doing it. The cultivation is always important and should 
be started as soon as the planting is finished. If one will take the 
trouble to destroy all grass and weeds the year previous on land to be 
planted to strawberries, it will be found to pay handsomely, as the 
seeds thus destroyed will not be in your berry beds to plague the 
grower and run up the cost of hoeing. Keep them clean until frost, 
hoe shallow so as not to disturb the roots, and success is assured. 
PERFECT AND IMPERFECT VARIETIES. Perfect flowering 
varieties planted alone will mature a crop of perfect fruit. Imperfect 
flowering varieties should have perfect varieties planted with them, 
at least one row for every five or six. When two varieties are used 
in equal amounts, they are often alternated three or four rows of 
each. In my price list, perfect flowering varieties are followed by 
“per” and imperfect varieties by “imp.” 
