L. J. FARMER, PULASKI, OSWEGO COUNTY, N. Y. 
[ 2 :^ 
{There was a good deal of ice formed over the 
iUrawberry beds that winter, it being a winter of 
very little snow, and these heeled in Superb and 
Productive, as well as the Francis, growing 
naturally where they had run the year before, 
were badly winter killed, and we lost over three- 
fourths of the plants that I purchased of Mr. 
Cooper, and a like proportion of Francis. The 
Americus wintered finely. 
It was very dry in 1911 and to encourage the 
forming of more runners, I kept the blossoms 
picked until August 20th. That fall, we had a 
very late crop of fall strawberries, but not nearly 
as large in proportion as that of the year before, 
because they were so late that many did not 
mature. 1 picked and shipped nearly 100 quarts 
of berries October 26th. 
My experience in 1911 more fully convinced me 
of the value of fall bearing strawberries than 
ever. I took a trip to Iowa to see Mr. Rockhill, 
to Illinois, to see Mr. Ulehl, and to Ohio, again, 
to see Mr. Crawford. None of these gentlemen 
are apparently unbalanced in judgment and all 
ware equally enthusiastic of the possibilities of 
; reputation and pocket book. We might mention 
in passing, that while the number of plants con- 
j cerned was not large, less than forty thousand, 
we believe this $2,750.00 order to Mr. Riehl and 
j Messrs McNallie was the largest order from a 
' money standpoint ever given for strawberry 
I plants in this or any other country. 
In the spring of 1912, we set five acres on our 
own farm, besides several acres grown for us by 
other parties. We made a persistent effort to 
get plants and did not encourage the fruit to form 
: that year, therefore did not fruit the plants to 
their fullest capacity, but they showed the same 
! persistency to fruit; and, in covering the plants 
in December, we found bushels of green berries 
tiiat could not, of course, come to maturity, on 
account of the cold. One of tlie pictures that 
we show is a group of our pickers and 60 quarts 
I of berries with corn, celery and pumpkins har- 
I vested the same day. October 30th, 1912. During 
i 1912, there was not a day from the time we 
begun picking early strawberries in June, up to 
November 1st. that we could not have gone out 
in our fields and picked enough berries for to 
L. J. Farmer’s Children Picking 
the fall bearing strawberry. That winter. I pur¬ 
chased of D. McNallie Plant Co., of Missouri, 
through Mr. Rockhill, $750 worth of the fall bear¬ 
ing Americus and Francis, and of Mr. Riehl, 
through the same source. $2,000 of Francis and 
Americus, mostly Americus. 
The McNallie plants had been frozen badly and 
w'e lost about half of them, and those that lived 
were so small that they made poor growth, and 
were not of any value to us. The plants from 
Mr. Riehl were received in very poor condition 
due to lateness of the season when they were sent, 
caused by an excessive flood that covered all 
southern Illinois at that time. These plants, 
while apparently all right, so far as size and 
vigor was concerned, when they were dug. were 
received about Mav 1st, and were pretty well 
advanced. I used these largely in filling orders 
and in supplying parties in this locality, who 
make it a business to grow plants for me on con¬ 
tract. In most cases where these plants were 
sent out to customers, we had to refill the order 
entire; and this we did, when asked to, in every 
instance. Fully three-fourths of the plants that 
we put out to our growers died out, and we sent 
them plants to replant their beds, taken from 
plants of our own growing. As a result, the pur¬ 
chase of this $2,750.00 lot of plants was a bad 
Investment for us and a great damage to our 
Strawberries, September 30th, 1913. 
supply the family table; and most of the time 
we did have fresli strawberries or shortcake every 
day. 
The season of 1913 will long be remembered as 
the dryest and most unfavorable from an agri¬ 
cultural standpoint of any year within the mem¬ 
ory of most people. It was dry from June until 
winter in most localities. In some others,^ there 
was abundant rainfall late in the fall. Me had 
so many fall bearing strawberries that it was 
impossible to get the blossoms all picked off and 
many of them fruited in June. There had been 
numerous frosts all the spring, and common 
summer strawberries were almost a failure. Rut 
unlike the summer strawberries, the fall bearing 
varieties will continue to blossom, even if frozen 
off several times, and we had a good crop of the 
fall bearing varieties at the regular season in 
June. These same plants that fruited in June 
came on and bore large crops in August, Septem¬ 
ber and October. AVe had rows of the Productive 
that picked about 60 quarts to a picking in June, 
that picked 16 quarts to.a picking in September. 
It was wonderful to see the plants fruit during 
the long dry spell. 'We would pick them over 
and think that it would be the last good picking 
that tve would get. and perhaps the next picking 
would be even better. We kept the cultivator.s 
going and the weeds were pulled out by hand or 
