448 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 1. Dec., 1897.] 
Strawberry Culture in Victoria. 
[Read at the Conference of Australasian Fruitgrowers—Brisbane, June, 1897. ] 
By W. 8S. WILLIAMS, 
Doncaster Fruitgrowers’ Association, Victoria. 
To grow good sound strawberries of good flayour, a clayey loam soil is required for 
some sorts and a heavy clay soil for others. 
The Marguerite, Edith, British Queen, Arthur, and many others thrive best in 
soil of the first description. ‘Trollope’s Victoria requires clay in order to attain 
perfection. : 
To prepare the land for strawberries, a piece of new land should be selected, 
or land that had been in grass for several years. It should be ploughed twice (the 
second ploughing crossed) to a depth of 10 inches or 1 foot, and left over the summer 
in fallow. About the lst of March it should be well broken and fined by di-e and 
acme harrows; then gathered into lands, the width of which should be determined 
according to the character of the soil—if wet, in narrow lands, and broad if dry ; 
then a dressing of Thomas’s phosphates and kainit, of from 5 ewt. to 7 ewt. to 
the acre if fairly good land, should be given—more if the soil be poor and hungry; or 
the same quantity of superphosphate of bones with one third of kainit may be used. 
This should be sown on the land broadcast before harrowing; then harrow and fine 
down, making the lands as level as possible, and finally roll with a heavy roller twice 
to well consolidate it. 
The land is then fit for planting. Weather permitting, the best time for planting 
in my district is the latter end of March and on through April. The earlier straw- 
berries are planted the larger will be the cropin spring, and if everything is favourable 
the fruit should prove to be very fine. I have planted strawberries at many different 
‘distances apart; but the best distance I have found to be 3 feet apart between the 
rows and 10 inches or 1 foot in the rows. This gives plenty of room to work with 
horse and hoe. The crown of the plant should be kept above the ground in planting. 
To keep the rows true and straight they should be planted one side of a tightly 
stretched wire or line, so that working with the horse the implement disturbs the soil 
at an even distance from the plants all along the drill. Just as the plants begin to 
take root they should have a strewing of blood manure or other nitrogenous sub- 
stance around them, to be worked in with horse and hand hoe. At this period of their 
existence all weeds should be strictly eradicated, as on this particular depends in a 
great measure the future success of the planting. 
In working the strawberry drills, I have always used the Planet Junr. horse hoe 
since it was first imported, also an onion skim plough. ‘The last working given in 
autumn, before the wet weather sets in, is with the Planet Junr., set behind with left 
and right small steel mould-boards, which gather the soil from plants on each side 
and make a clean even ridge at one stroke, leaving the plants standing in a row of 
undisturbed ground about 8 inches or 9 inches wide, according to the size of the plants. 
In this condition it is left during the winter, which gives the water free access to run 
off the raised middle, which thus lies dry and is mellow to work down in spring, which 
having been done the earth is again lightly raised in the middle, the weeds cleared 
off, and the plants mulched with straw or grass. The slight indent made by the hoe 
Bives the straw or grass mulching a bed, and is less liable to be dislodged by wind or 
ickers. 
Fi Some people mulch with stable manure and tan from the tanneries, both of 
which I have found very inferior to straw or rough grass or rushes. ‘The ammonia 
in the stable manure rots the berries, and renders the skin too soft to stand the 
carriage ; the tan creates fungus in the ground which destroys the plants. 
Strawberries, everything being suitable with a favourable season, with me, have 
been enormcus bearers, particularly Edith and Marguerite. Off a piece of land of 
10 acres, planted with lemon-trees, 20 by 20 (the trees taking about 11 feet, and 
three rows of strawberries the remainder), my largest quantity delivered in Melbourne 
in one week has reached 3 tons. Those were all picked each morning between 4 and 
8 o’clock, and the fruit delivered before 10 a.m. The fruit was gathered in J-lb. 
chip baskets and packed in crates of 32 and 40 lb., which is the best system for 
carrying berries or early peaches I have yet seen. 
