16 
We Can Supply Spraying Machines and Materials, 
regular in shape, while those from the matted rows would be inferior in every 
way. The only way to grow Superb is in the narrow row. 
We had a very heavy trade in plants last spring (1913) especially the fall 
bearing strawberries. Worn out and exhausted by hard work, Mrs. Farmer and 
myself left for the Pacific coast June 12th. The men were busy in replanting 
a lot of odds and ends of stock that remained unsold and it was impossible for 
them to get after the fall bearing strawberries and remove all the blossoms. 
The frosts had removed a good many of the first ones and so what berries we 
got from these plants in June were of quite good size. We arrived home July 
8th and found them still picking strawberries. It came off very dry after that 
and the summer crop of berries soon came to an end. We had just one mess of 
strawberries the night of the 11th of June before we started from our own 
plants, but we ate them in Washington, Oregon and California, and have had 
them practically every day since we got home up to December, and the vines 
are full of them still (Dec. 3d): but of course the freezes have destroyed their 
flavor and there is hardly any color to them. 
Our first real picking of fall bearing strawberries was made July 21st. 
Since then we have been picking most every day in quantities up to Oct. llth. 
On Aug. 27th, we gathered 490 quarts and did not finish picking the beds, pick¬ 
ing 82 quarts the next day. At the State Fair in Syracuse, we showed a barrel 
filled with earth and plants growing out from its sides through holes; with 
blossoms, green and ripe berries on the plants; also plants in pots wnth berries 
on them, and 324 quarts of berries, arranged nicely in crates and carriers. The 
exhibit attracted a great deal of attention and was pronounced the most 
attractive and interesting exhibit shown in the Fruit Building. All day long for 
six days I stood and answered thousands of questions about strawberries in 
general and fall bearing kinds in particular. Eight thousand circulars were 
picked up and carried to their homes by interested parties. I have shown the 
fall bearing berries at the State Fair for four years now, but there seemed 
four times the interest shown in them the past year that has ever been shown 
before. The public seems to be waking up to their value and they are getting 
the attention that they deserve. At first, most everybody considered them a 
fake or something that the ordinary person could not grow. They are hearing 
from them on every hand. Some have neighbors growing them successfully. 
I w’as at the Ogdensburgh fair for two days and the same proportionate interest 
was shown there. I took two crates of berries there and also some plants in 
pots. The berries were sold out the last day and carried all over Northern 
New York and Canada. 
The season of 1913 will long be remembered as the most unsatisfactory from 
an agricultural standpoint that we have had in many years. It was so dry that 
most everything suffered. Dairymen had to buy so much grain to piece out the 
pasture that their profits were destroyed. It was too dry for corn, potatoes and 
garden crops. A killing frost Sept. 10th killed corn and potato tops. Fall 
strawberries suffered with the rest, but we kept the weeds out and the culti¬ 
vators going and it was the surprise of everybody how we could get them to 
bear at all in such a dry time. We had about acres in fruiting and had it 
been a normal season we would have been bothered to get them picked. As it 
was, we gathered nearly 150 crates of 32 quarts each, and they sold at an 
average price of $6.40 to $8 per crate. 
Of all the varieties, the Americas stood the drouth best. We would pick 
the Americus and every time we picked them we would think that it would be 
the last good picking and yet the next might be a better picking than the last. 
Thus it kept up from week to week until a heavy frost Sept. 10th. This was an 
unusual freeze for the time of year and killed all the blossoms and softened a 
good many of the ripe berries that were exposed. The small berries that had 
already set from the blossom were not all destroyed and the most of them 
developed and ripened. There were freezes from time to time after this which 
destroyed the blossoms and we did not get berries quite so late this past fall 
as we have during former seasons. Most of our fields were two years old and 
these begin to fruit earlier in the season and do not last as late as the new set 
fields. The berries that are found in large quantities late in October are gen¬ 
erally found in the beds that have been set the same year. 
