UC-NRLF 
 
 SB 3Dfl T73 
 
THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
TH 
 
 OF 
 
 Price, 45 cts.; by mail, SO cts. 
 Cloth, ttgcfe; by mail. cts - 
 
THE A B C OF 
 
 STRAWBERRY CULTURE, 
 
 FOR- 
 
 Farmers, Village People, and Small Growers. 
 
 A BOOK FOR BEGINNERS 
 
 ByT. B. Terry and A. I. Root. 
 
 Second Edition ; Revised and Enlarged. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE A. I. ROOT CO., 
 
 MEDINA. OHIO. 
 
 1902 
 
CHAPTER I. Introduction. 
 
 FRIEND ROOT wants me to write a little pamphlet on straw- 
 berry culture. He says : "Now, do not say you would rather 
 wait until you have had more experience." I should prefer to 
 wait two or three years longer, certainly ; but still it would be 
 true then the same as now, that I "know only in part." Even 
 of as simple a matter as growing strawberries, the wisest man 
 can continue learning as long as he lives. Friend Crawford, 
 who has spent his life among the strawberries, and is one of 
 the highest authorities in the world, remarked to me the other 
 day : " I am beginning to think that such and such treatment 
 (different from what has heretofore been considered best) is 
 what we want." Friend J. M. Smith, another noted berry- 
 grower of long experience, wrote me last fall that he made no 
 pretensions to being perfect in his line only to being one who 
 constantly tries to improve from year to year. 
 
 The writer will doubtless say some things that he would 
 like to take back five years from now. But if he should wait 
 five years before writing this little book it would be the same. 
 The world is constantly moving on. I shall not attempt to 
 instruct old growers, nor those who raise berries on a large 
 scale. From them I have learned all I could, both on their 
 places and at our institutes, and from their writings. I have 
 picked out, to the best of my ability, what would be of the most 
 use to me, growing berries in a small way. This, I hope, may 
 be told so plainly as to help thousands of farmers and village 
 people, and particularly the young people, who have not had a 
 chance to learn much about the business. 
 
 Mr. Charles A. Green says : "No instruction can be given 
 in fruit-growing or any other pursuit that will enable the inex- 
 perienced reader to begin largely, without being liable to meet 
 
 M358S12 
 
4 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE 
 
 with loss. Nothing can supply the need of actual experience. 
 In reading an article on fruit culture, the veteran will gather 
 more valuable information than the novice, for he will know 
 what thoughts and methods are the most practical, while the 
 novice will be more apt to follow impracticable theories, and be 
 led astray, or may not clearly understand the lesson taught." 
 With the first of this I most heartily agree. The novice had 
 better begin in a small way, and work up as he gets experience. 
 As to the latter part, I believe that friend Green could write an 
 article or a book, and tell a novice exactly what to do, leaving 
 out all "impracticable theories" that might lead him astraj, 
 and write it so plainly that even a child could understand the 
 lesson taught. Now, this is exactly what the writer will try to 
 do in this little work. When I read "Gregory on Squashes," 
 years ago, all of his directions were so plain that I, although 
 entirely new at the business, made a success from the very 
 beginning in growing from a quarter to half an acre. Why can 
 not the growing of strawberries be made as plain and simple? 
 
 Having been through the mill lately myself, perhaps I shall 
 think to make every little matter more plain than some older 
 and more expert hand would. Such are apt to forget how 
 green they were once. For example : When visiting my friend 
 W. W. Farnsworth, a well-known berry-grower, he was laugh- 
 ing over the ignorance displayed by the writer of a letter he 
 had just received. The man wished to know whether, in cut- 
 ting all blossoms from newly set strawberry-plants, he should 
 just cut the blossoms or buds off the stalk, or cut off the whole 
 stalk, or stem, that had the buds on, along with some little 
 leaves that were on it. Now, I was not going to let brother 
 Farnsworth laugh at me, so I kept still ; but I enjoyed the 
 matter greatly all to myself, for only the year before we had 
 just that trouble on our minds. The girls came to me and said 
 there were some little leaves on the stalk with the blossoms and 
 buds ; and the books all said, " Cut off all blossoms as they 
 appear." Being entirely green at the business, we did not 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 5 
 
 know just what to do. If we do not do any more, we shall try 
 to make every little matter so plain that any girl or boy can 
 understand how to grow strawberries. The writer felt pro- 
 voked, not long since, when reading an article in an agricul- 
 tural paper, written by a well-known horticulturist. He 
 seemed to be trying to mystify the matter of fertilization 
 among strawberry plants. He seemed to wish to discourage 
 farmers from growing strawberries, on the ground that, from 
 their lack of knowledge, they would soon have barren beds. 
 And still that wri er had the ability to make the entire matter 
 of fertilization so plain and simple that any child could under- 
 stand all that is necessary. 
 
 Considerable of what is in the following pages was written, 
 in substance, either for the Ohio Farmer, the Country Gentle- 
 man, or the Rural New-Yorker; but it has all been written 
 over and revised and put into more convenient form for ref- 
 erence. The first part of this book, you will notice, is par- 
 ticularly for farmers and others who want to grow only enough 
 berries for th*ir own use, with the least possible trouble, and 
 where the greatest yield is not an important point. Later 
 on will be found something for those who, like the writer, 
 grow some berries to sell, and enjoy making the most possible 
 out of what they do. 
 
 CHAPTER II. For Farmers. 
 
 Some readers may know that the writer for years argued in 
 the papers against farmers, as a class, fussing to raise their own 
 strawberries, where they can buy nice ones handily. The idea 
 was, that each one, farmer and fruit-grower, had better attend 
 to his own business ; that the farmer, so far as money-making 
 is concerned, had better raise a little more of what is in his own 
 line, and take the money and buy strawberries, rather than fuss 
 
6 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 with a little patch. This was my practice for some seventeen 
 years. I could raise $20.00 worth extra of potatoes, which were 
 right in my line, and make a fine profit on them, and with the 
 money buy what strawberries we wanted, of a small-fruit 
 grower near by, who made a business of berry-growing, while, 
 had I grown the $20.00 worth of strawberries myself, it would 
 probably have been at a loss, and would have been an extra 
 matter to worry over and bother with. Now, I thought at the 
 time that this was sound business policy, and, for that matter, 
 I still think so ; but I am just as well satisfied that it will not 
 work. I preached it because I had tried it, and thought it the 
 best way, where one is already overrun with business. But 
 many of our farmers seem to have bet n born with the feeling 
 that they must not pay out any money for any thing they can 
 possibly get along without. The writer was not born on the 
 farm, and it was just as easy for him to buy five bushels of 
 strawberries as a barrel of salt or a set of chairs, or any thing 
 else that we did not produce. He really had no idea that it 
 made so much difference what one's bringing up had been. 
 But he has been around among farmers a good deal of late, and 
 has learned his mistake. I remember once going home with a 
 well-to-do farmer who had many acres of land to manage, and 
 considerable money invested in outside business. He showed 
 me, among other things, a large bed of strawberries. Now, I 
 knew that this friend was close to a market where he could 
 buy fine home-grown berries at fair prices, and I was rather 
 surprised that a man with so much business on his hands 
 should be bothering to grow his own strawberries. So I said to 
 him : "You grow these, of course for the pleasure of it, and 
 not because it pays you to fuss with such little matters when 
 you have so large a farm and so much other business to attend 
 to?" 
 
 "No; I raise them," he replied, "because I should not 
 have them if I did not. I tried your plan, and we did not have, 
 I presume, more than a peck of berries during the season, 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 7 
 
 although they were plentiful in maiket. I could not buy more 
 than a quart or two at a time, and even that went against the 
 grain. My bringing-up on the farm had been of another kind. 
 I could not buy them freely. It was either raise them or go 
 without." 
 
 Again, a well-known agriculturist sat with me at a hotel 
 table. He had been a farmer all his life, and is well off. For 
 a wonder, there was some really good cheese on the table. Our 
 farmer friend helped himself several times. He seemed to like 
 it very much. I said to him : "You do not get good cheese 
 down your way, I guess, judging from the way you take hold 
 of that." 
 
 His reply was : ' ' They have it at the groceries ; but, to tell 
 the truth, as we do not make cheese we do not have it on our 
 table one week out of the fifty-two." 
 
 Now, this farmer lives in a house that cost at least $5000, and 
 has no lack of funds ; but, although evidently fond of cheese, 
 he goes without it because they do not produce it. His bring- 
 ing-up clings to him, and he can not use freely what must be 
 bought for money don't you see ? If this is the case among 
 such well- to do farmers, who can draw their checks for thou- 
 sands of dollars at any time, and have them honored, how 
 would it be likely to be where there are two or three ways for 
 every dollar to go? Well, I visited such a farmer last winter. 
 They are not really poor, but are not yet out of debt, and said 
 they had hard work to pay their interest and. make both ends 
 meet. The wife told me she had tried every spring to get her 
 husband to set out some strawberry-plants. He had always 
 said: " Oh ! we can buy strawberries cheaper than we can raise 
 them." " And now," she says, " how many do you think he 
 bought last year ? Not one single quart ! ' ' 
 
 Now, this looks a little against that friend ; but I know how 
 it was. He thought in the spring it was cheaper to buy than to 
 grow them ; but when it came time to buy he hadn't the money 
 to spare. He felt as though he must pay his debts for all of 
 
8 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 buying luxuries, and that was honest and square. Just for this 
 reason, thousands will never have berries unless they raise 
 them. Even if they are not in debt they may be short of mon- 
 ey to buy with, and berry time will slip by and they will not 
 have any to am-unt to any thing. There are many ways for 
 money to go, on many farms. I know that many farmers went 
 ^without apples last year because their own crop was a failure. 
 I have also known many to go without potatoes when they 
 failed to grow enough for their own use. In view of all these 
 facts I feel certain that the great mass of our farmers have got 
 to raise their own strawberries or practically go without. 
 
 Possibly what I have written in the past may have caused 
 some farmers' families to go without berries. They gave up 
 trying to grow them, because Terry said it did not pay, and 
 they could not buy them. In fact, some ladies have told me 
 that this was the case at their homes. After this I am going to 
 take human nature as we find it, and urge every farmer to grow 
 all the strawberries his family can possibly use not merely to 
 put out the plants, for that, as it is usually done, is not much 
 better for the family than depending on buying would be. A 
 well-known grower of plants, in answer to a direct question at 
 one of our institutes, acknowledged that he did not think that 
 one farmer in ten who bought plants of him ever made any 
 thing out of them worth speaking of. 
 
 Another well-known berry-grower, Mr. L,. B. Pierce, says in 
 the Ohio Farmer, in regard to this point : "Almost every farm- 
 er of my acquaintance has tried the experiment (of growing his 
 own strawberries), and I have furnished in my time not less 
 than one hundred personal acquaintances with plants for the 
 experiment, and these were not novelties, but well-tried stan- 
 dard varieties, such as the Wilson, Charles Downing, Green 
 Prolific, Cumberland, and Glendale. Less than half a dozen of 
 them kept their plantations up after two years, and the rest 
 either buy berries or go without. The berries had to go, be- 
 cause there was already on the farm an abundance of work that 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY GUI/TURK. 9 
 
 must be performed daily, and there was no time to care for a 
 new industry." 
 
 This is a rather discouraging state of things ; but I suppose 
 Mr. Pierce knows what he says to be true. Others have told 
 me about the same thing, and said it was useless to advise 
 farmers as a class to grow strawberries ; that they already have 
 too many things to attend to ; that I, with my specialty farm- 
 ing, could get time to attend to them, but the masses can not 
 and will not. " Where there is a will there is a way." I am 
 trying now to get the will into you, and then I will show you 
 the "way." 
 
 When I ride by a little neglected patch of small fruits and 
 weeds and grass, and see fine fields of well-cared-for corn, oats, 
 and clover on the same farm, I can not help feeling pity for the 
 man who does not try as hard to grow fine-eating crops for 
 himself and family as he does for his stock. That little neg- 
 lected patch serves as an excuse for not buying any berries (of 
 course not, for we raise them), and essentially for going with- 
 out. Now let us be honest, friends ; isn't this just exactly so ? 
 You set out a few plants, and let the weeds and grass choke 
 them almost out of existence, and from them comes (or, rather, 
 does not come) your family supply. Am I getting almost too 
 hard on you? Well, it is only to make you see yourselves as 
 others see you, so there may be some chance to encourage you 
 to do better. 
 
 To be sure, the farm crops bring the money that pays debts 
 and buys the necessities of life But surely a life supplied with 
 only the barest necessities is not what we want. We ought to 
 have some luxuries ; and what greater one can we ask for than 
 delicious ripe strawberries on our tables, in great abundance, 
 every meal, for some three weeks ? But let us look into this 
 matter and see whether we can not find out why the farmer's 
 fruit-garden is so frequently neglected. It is not that they do 
 not want good things. It is not that they care more for their 
 Battle than for their families, as my words above would seem to 
 
10 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 indicate. No, no. They usually have many irons in the fire, 
 and the large jobs naturally get the first attention. The result 
 is, when they get around to the fruit-garden it is too late to do 
 the work to the best advantage. I can not blame a man for 
 dreading the job if it has been neglected until the weeds have 
 obtained full possession. Again, they haven't, perhaps, laid 
 out the patch so it can be worked to the best advantage with a 
 horse. I am also convinced, by talking with many farmers, 
 that they do not know how to take care of strawberries and 
 other small fruits properly. All these things I will try to help 
 you out on in the following pages. But let me say right here : 
 Please do not let any thing I have said, or may say, influence 
 you to set out any strawberries unless you have made up your 
 mind that that crop is just as important, so far as it goes, as 
 any other, and shall be taken care of properly and promptly, 
 and not pushed off by all the big jobs. Unless you will do just 
 this, whether or no, I pray you do not begin. Better save the 
 money you pay for plants. 
 
 What I said in the first part of this chapter, about its being 
 better business policy, oftentimes, to buy berries than to raise 
 them, would not, of course, apply to very many farmers who 
 could not handily buy good fresh berries. Such must grow 
 them any way, or go without. Around us there are several 
 growers, in a small way, from whom we can get them fresh, 
 but still not quite as choice, usually, as those we grow our- 
 selves. Regular growers must pick them before they are ripe, 
 so they will stand sending to market. To have the strawberry 
 in its perfection you must leave it on the vines until dead ripe, 
 and then eat it very soon after picking. 
 
 Right here I may as well confess that, even if I was not 
 brought up on a farm, and thought I could buy what we want- 
 ed as freely as though we raised it, we have used more berries 
 since we grew them than we ever did when we bought them. I 
 do not remember that we ever bought more than five or six 
 bushels of strawberries in a season. Last year I suppose we 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 11 
 
 ate, canned, and gave away, nearly twenty bushels. The year 
 before, we canned and ate thirteen bushels. Did we use so 
 many more because they were so much better than those 
 we bought ? Not entirely. Our minister was here to supper 
 during berry time last year. When he noticed the great heap- 
 ing saucers full at each plate he remarked : ' ' Berries are a 
 luxury with us in town ; but I see they are a common article of 
 food with you. ' ' That is it exactly. Why should they not be ? 
 It takes but a few rods of land and a little labor, if system- 
 atized, to grow them. It is one of the compensations for our 
 isolation out here in the country. God does not give all good 
 things to any one class of people. Our minister can step right 
 into church, or a lecture, or to the depot, dryshod, and get his 
 mail while it is fresh. During the past winter of 1889 we liter- 
 ally had to wallow in the mud to get to town. But when it is 
 hot and dusty in town next summer, we can live on strawber- 
 ries and cream in a way our minister can not afford. And we 
 shall have better health all summer for it too. God arranged 
 to have strawberries come just at the time when we need them. 
 They are Nature's spring medicine. I get better-natured every 
 day after they come, and they are the best medicine to take I 
 ever got hold of. 
 
 Then they give the women-folks a rest, too, from baking 
 and cooking at least they do so at our house. We almost live 
 on strawberries and nice bread and butter, and milk and cream, 
 for three weeks. Meat and potatoes, and particularly pies and 
 cake and puddings, get a good deal of a rest. Of course, we 
 want some more solid food than strawberries, but it is usually 
 the most simple kind. One season that we kept count, we had 
 strawberries on the table for 66 meals in succession, just as free 
 as water. We call that living. Some farmers say they do not 
 care much for strawberries. Never mind what they say. There 
 isn't one man in fifty who wouldn't enjoy a big dish of large, 
 fully ripe Downing strawberries and cream, and be sorry when 
 the last berry was swallowed. 
 
12 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 Now, a table bountifully supplied with this health-giving 
 luxury for at least three weeks every season, and a few bushels 
 canned for winter, is what every one of us farmers ought to 
 have. We work hard, and we deserve it. Our families work 
 hard, and we owe them this enjoyment. Now, we can do this 
 thing if we will. Turn over, and read just how to do it. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 LOCATION CHICKEN QUESTION THE HOME ACRE HOW 
 MANY SHALL WE SET OUT? LONG ROWS AND CHEAP 
 CULTIVATION ROTATION MANURING PREPARING THE 
 GROUND WHEN TO SET OUT A PICTURE FROM LIFE. 
 
 When selecting a place for the strawberries, one of the 
 first things to be considered is the chicken question. Most 
 farmers keep chickens. Chickens like strawberries. Now, 
 shall the berries be put inside the picket fence along with the 
 garden ? Well, you can do that way or you can inclose a yard 
 to keep the poultry in when they would be doing damage at 
 large. The latter way would suit me best. However, we do 
 not keep any hens. They would have to be shut up about all 
 the season, or they would do altogether too much damage on 
 our little farm. We have tried it.* I know that a fenced gar- 
 den is not a place that an ordinary farmer likes to get in to 
 work ; and, besides, garden crops and strawberries do best (the 
 
 * There is a way of getting along with chickens, without having ei- 
 ther the garden or the chickens fenced ; and this is. the way we manage : 
 We have about ten acres of ground devoted to market-gardening ; and as 
 soon as our men start out with the plow or cultivator, a great drove of 
 ch ckens is sure to follow ; and that is just what I want. Why, my old 
 hens will oegin to sing just as soon as they see the cultivator or plow start 
 from the tool-house. Now about the berries or tomatoes, etc.: Just as soon 
 as the hens commence meddling with the strawberries we give them all 
 the shelled corn they will eat. In fact, I empty a two-bushel bag into a 
 
ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 13 
 
 same as all farm crops) where rotation can be practiced. How- 
 ever, one can rotate somewhat in a fenced-in garden which I 
 will speak of soon. 
 
 You want some good land just the richest and best you 
 have near the house. It will be a little better if it slopes to 
 the east or north, rather than the south or west. It will be 
 cooler, and that would just suit the berries. It should be land 
 that is pretty clean. If chickweed and purslain abound, you 
 will have more trouble in keeping your berries clean. You 
 must not set out strawberries on sod ground, for fear of the 
 white grub, unless you know there are none there. I set ber- 
 ries on clover sod, in regular rotation, the same as we do pota- 
 toes ; but we have no trouble to speak of with grubs. If there 
 are any in the ground they will eat the roots of your plants, 
 and ruin your patch. They are as fond of strawberry -roots as 
 chickens and robins are of the berries themselves. Thus we 
 have to look out for enemies on all sides. You should choose 
 land with no tree-roots in it. These would take up the mois- 
 ture that strawberries particularly need. Remember that tree- 
 roots extend a long way from the body, sometimes. 
 
 Strawberries can be grown successfully on almost any kind 
 of soil, from sand to heavy clay. I have seen big crops on 
 sand so light that much of it would blow away, if not protect- 
 ed ; but it took much manure to grow them. Very heavy-clay will 
 grow large fine berries ; but one must choose varieties fitted to 
 
 large tin can placed in the poultry-house. Then I make sure that drink- 
 ing-water is close by. If you let the hens get out of drinking-water, evt 11 
 for two or three hours, they will at once commence on the juicy strawber- 
 ries aud tomatoes. Or if they get hungry they will eat strawberries, both 
 green and ripe. Be sure they do not get hungry nor thirsty, and they will 
 ordinarily do very little damage. I think the corn and drink are cheaper 
 than a fence. Besides, if we fenced the chickens up and kept them from 
 the garden, they could not follow the cultivator in picking up angleworms, 
 
 frubs, etc. Our forty or fifty hens that almost board themselves and work 
 or nothing a great part of the year furnish us an amount of eggs for 
 the lunch-room that could tiot well be spared. It is true, they make trou- 
 ble in the garden and in the tool-house, more or less. Where mellow laud 
 is so plentiful, however, the year round, their scratching does not amount 
 to much unless they get into our hot-beds or something of that sort. 
 A. I. R. 
 
14 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 the soil. Some will do best on a particular kind of soil, and 
 some on another. I should rather prefer what would be called 
 a good potato soil, a happy medium, about half way between 
 sand and clay. Moist soil is good, but not wet soil. If it is 
 wet it should be tile-drained. Just what is best is a well-drain- 
 ed (naturally or with tiles) but still moist piece of land. Again, 
 it should be upland, not lowland, because late spring frosts 
 will be heavier on the latter. A frost, when the berries are in 
 bloom, does much damage ; hence, select land where there will 
 be as little chance as possible of loss in this direction. It is 
 pretty hard to work a whole year over a bed and keep them in 
 perfect order, and then have the frost take a large part of the 
 fruit in a single night. 
 
 Of course, I am telling you what is best all around ; but if 
 much is wrong for your location, set out some berries. You 
 can manage to grow enough for your own use some way ; so, 
 do not despair, but just come as near to the right as you can. 
 I would not set strawberries between rows of raspberries or 
 other small fruit in the fruit-garden. We tried it. The rasp- 
 berries, blackberries, etc., sent their roots under the strawber- 
 ries and robbed them of fertility and moisture ; and when we 
 were picking in the strawberries we packed the ground, walk- 
 ing back and forth so much, greatly to the injury of the other 
 small fruits. If you set strawberries in the garden, put them 
 all in a block by themselves. The accompanying figure shows 
 a plan for a farmer's garden, that would suit me. I have called 
 it " the home acre ; " and how much more homelike and en- 
 joyable would thousands of farms be if they had such an acre, 
 more or less, well started and well cared for ! 
 
 Suppose, to start with, that 1 is set out with strawberries, 
 and 2 and 3 are used for garden-stuff. The next spring you set 
 out a new bed of strawberries in 2, and use 3 and 4 for garden. 
 A year later you set out strawberries in 3, and have your gar- 
 den on 1 and 4, and so on, rotating on these 4 strips. This is 
 supposing you keep a bed in bearing but one year, which I 
 
ABC OF STRAWBERRY GUI/TURK. 
 
 15 
 
 think is the best way, and which we will talk more about be- 
 fore we get through. Now you want to know what the space 
 marked 5 is for, I suppose. Well, this is a strawberry-book ; 
 but when we are picking out the location we must sort o' fit it 
 in with all the other good things which the farmer should have 
 in his garden. On 5 I would set out raspberries, blackberries, 
 currants, grapes, and gooseberries, if you like them. I would 
 put the grapes on the right hand side of 5, perhaps two rows 
 through. This is because they will .be permanent ; but the 
 
 FIG. 1. THE HOME ACRE. 
 
 raspberries, etc., will need resetting in time, and had better be 
 set on new land (rotation). You can set them over on 1, or 1 
 and 2, using part of 5 for garden-truck and strawberries. By 
 this plan you can keep the kitchen garden and fruit-garden on 
 
16 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 a g'ven area for all time, and do it successfully. But we will 
 talk more about this plan soon. 
 
 First let us consider the question, How much land shall \ve 
 plant with strawberries? Well, in order that you may have a 
 great abundance, let me advise that you set out two or three 
 square rods for each person in your family. To the farmer a few 
 rods of land, more or less, amounts to nothing ; and when you 
 have the horse hitched to the cultivator you will hardly notice 
 the difference between cultivating a big patch and a little one. 
 I would have one, while I was about it, that amounted to some- 
 thing. The farmer must not expect to grow berries so as to get 
 a full crop. The frost may take half, or the drouth cut the 
 yield short. If the farmer, with such tillage and care as he 
 can probably give, gets from half a bushel to a bushel to the 
 square rod, he may well be satisfied. 
 
 Chas. A. Green, in a late number of the Rural New - York- 
 er, says : "My own family, not a very large one, consumed 
 strawberries for a month, and we have estimated the amount to 
 be over 20 bushels." If you get too many, remember your 
 neighbors, particularly the poor and the sick (remember them 
 any way ; a taste of your choice abundance may encourage 
 them to go and do likewise. One can be a missionary without 
 being a preacher of the gospel ) . For a family of six persons 
 on this plan, you would want 96 rods in the garden (Fig. 1), 
 besides the head lands that you turn your horse on when culti- 
 vating, and the strip marked 5. One half will be occupied by 
 the strawberries all the time, and the other half by your pota- 
 toes, corn, and other garden-truck. If you prefer raising your 
 potatoes in the field, and this would make too much garden, 
 seed down one strip each year and let it lie in grass, or, better, 
 clover, and plow under the entire growth. 
 
 To save time in cultivating I would have this garden long 
 and narrow. One can do the work quicker than where it is 
 square. In the plan given I have figured on having each of 
 the strips, 1, 2, 3, and 4, 24 feet wide, which will give six rows 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 17 
 
 of strawberries on a piece. I would have strip 5, say 64 feet 
 wide, which would give room for eight rows of grapes, rasp- 
 berries, currants, etc., which I would put 8 feet apart. For a 
 medium-sized family this would require a strip of land about 
 10 rods long, containing something over an acre. You will no- 
 tice the head lands in this plan. In a fenced garden these are 
 necessary for convenience and fast work. This is the small 
 fruit and vegetable garden. I would not have a tree in or near 
 it. Both are good things, but they do not go well together. 
 
 Now about the rotation in this plan. You can raise vege- 
 tables and strawberries for many years in the same ground, 
 without seeding down. It will take lots of manure, but it can 
 be done. It is not, however, the wisest plan. Nature teaches 
 us the wisdom of rotation, and the farmer always has use for 
 every load of manure he can get, and he should manage his ro- 
 tations so as to bring in a renovating crop often, to save manure. 
 Now, I would plow under the vines in plot 1, for example, just 
 as soon as the last berries were picked, and sow clover and 
 timothy seed on the strip, rolling it in. By the time it needs 
 plowing for garden-stuff the next spring there should be a 
 heavy sod, which would lighten up a heavy soil, and increase 
 the fertility considerably, or, in other words, diminish the quan- 
 tity of manure required. Then, as soon as the garden truck is 
 off from 2, the first year I would also seed that and let the 
 grass grow until ready to set out the strawberries. The vegeta- 
 bles that could be gotten off the earliest should be planted on 
 this strip, then it could be seeded in 'time to make a heavy 
 growth on rich land. With a very little trouble, in this way I 
 would keep my land mellow, and in good heart, without using 
 nearly as much manure. 
 
 I would put on the vegetable -ground what manure was 
 used, except, perhaps, some for mulching the strawberries. 
 There will be enough left in the soil for the strawberries, and 
 you can take care of grass and weeds, coming from seeds in 
 the manure, among the vegetables better than among strawber- 
 
18 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 ries. Plow the ground for strawberries as soon in the spring 
 as it is dry enough to crumble nicely from the plow. Spread 
 on the surface the ashes from the house, if you burn wood ; 
 then harrow thoroughly, making the land as fine as you can. 
 Last of all, go over it with a roller. Then you are ready for 
 the plants. The sooner these are set out after the ground is 
 dry enough to work in the spring, the better, in the latitude of 
 Northern Ohio. This is the best time, as our large growers all 
 say, to a man ; but with care they can be set out almost any 
 time during the summer, even as late as after early potatoes 
 have been dug. If you must set them out as late as that or go 
 without, why, do it, by all means ; but give them richer land 
 and extra care. Friend Root has had experience in this line, 
 and he can tell you all about it. You will want some of his 
 transplanting-tubes and the plants growing on your own laud, 
 or near by ; then if it is as black with manure as is that of Mr. 
 Root, and your tillage is as perfect, you may expect some ber- 
 ries "as big as peaches " the next year. But under ordinary 
 conditions, set your plants for a new bed about the first of 
 May, in this latitude. I would not freeze my fingers to do it at 
 the earliest possible moment that the ground would do (the 
 writer just about did that once, before he had had any experi- 
 ence, having read that they should be set as early as possible). 
 A few days one way or the other is not important, if all other 
 conditions are right. Supposing you are intending to set out 
 your bed in the spring, we will go on. 
 
 Before going to the 'next chapter, however, one experience 
 in this connection (selecting a place for the strawberries) has 
 occurred to me. A certain farmer's wife induced her husband 
 to get some strawberry-plants and set them out. Where do 
 you think he put them ? Well, he selected a place in one cor- 
 ner of the calf lot, drove some sticks down, and tacked on a 
 few boards to keep the calves out. The farmer never got into 
 that pen once, after setting the plants ; but the calves did ; 
 and between them and the weeds, not a berry was picked. The 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 19 
 
 next spring the good wife said : " Now, Joe, I am going to get 
 some plants and set them out in a bed in my flower-garden." 
 
 So she sent to Mr. Crawford for some, and put them in and 
 took good care of them. Joe determined to show her a thing 
 or two ("what does a woman know about plants?" this be- 
 cause she bought them), and went to a neighbor's and got some 
 plants from an old run out bed, and set out a bed in the garden. 
 Now, Joe did do considerable work on -his patch, just to carry 
 his point. However, his wife said that, before fall, it was hard 
 to tell whether he was trying hardest to raise weeds, grass, cr 
 berries. They were set out in such a way that all the work had 
 to be done with a hoe. Well, what was the result ? Why, Joe 
 never got one single berry (when " Mrs. Joe " told me this at 
 their fireside last winter he never contradicted the story in any 
 point for a wonder), while his wife had a fine little bed of 
 berries. Please contrast Joe's location and general plan for 
 taking care of the berries, with the plan given above, of six 
 rows some ten rods long, that can be rapidly cultivated with a 
 horse, and you have one of the morals. In other chapters you 
 may find out why Joe's plants failed to bear. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 VARIETIES TO PLANT ; WHERE TO GET THEM, AND HOW GOOD 
 AND BAD PLANTS ILLUSTRATED ; ALSO PERFECT AND IMPER- 
 FECT FLOWERS HEELING IN PLANTS RUST AND FROST. 
 
 Please take notice that I have no plants to sell. This lit- 
 tle book is written to tell you all I can about strawberry- grow- 
 ing, from a farmer's standpoint, not to advertise any thing. 
 Buy your plants of the nearest reliable grower. Tell him just 
 what your soil is, and leave it to him to select for you, if you 
 
20 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 are not posted. Tell him whether you are subject to late frosts. 
 I did this when I first started, buying of Matthew Crawford, of 
 Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, and he sent me just the varieties for my 
 soil and frosty locality. We made a success of growing straw- 
 berries the very first season, thanks largely to his selection. 
 
 Some varieties are very easily injured by frost the Sharp- 
 less for example. It would be worthless here on my farm. 
 Some will bring a part of a crop in spite of repeated heavy 
 frosts, the Sterling particularly. Some are best adapted to 
 heavy soils, the Sharpless and Jessie, perhaps, while others do 
 best on lighter soil. Tell your grower to send you only reliable 
 standard varieties. What you want is berries, not the latest 
 novelty, which costs high and may prove dear even if taken as 
 a gift. Have the plants sent you by express, if you get any 
 quantity, as they can be sent in better shape than by mail, and 
 you will naturally get larger plants. If you get only a dozen 
 or so of a kind, to start with, and grow your own plants for a 
 bed why, they may as well come by mail if it will be much 
 cheaper. 
 
 I would have none but the very best plants, and new 
 young plants that have never borne any fruit, and that were 
 grown from plants that produced no fruit. New young plants 
 have white fibrous roots : old ones have black roots that look 
 old and dead. I would not take such as a gift. Better buy the 
 best at high prices. I once sent several hundred miles, to a 
 grower who had a national reputation for having a certain vari- 
 ety in perfection, for some plants, expecting, of course, to get 
 some extra-choice ones. They were sent by express, as I wished 
 to spare no expense in getting the best and in the best shape. 
 Well, he sent me all old plants at least I received such. I 
 did not know any better then, but learned by sad experience. 
 Should such plants be sent me again I would return them.* 
 
 * May I suggest to friend Terry, that, instead of returning them, you 
 "heel them in " and await further orders? Where you return things .by 
 express, an additional expense is imposed upon somebody, and it must be 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 21 
 
 If you will look at the accompanying figures, 2 and 3, you 
 will sec a small, feeble plant, and a good strong one. 
 
 I set out only the latter kind, and throw the former away. 
 To be sure, the little ones with few roots will live ; but I have 
 set them out side by side with large thrifty ones, and watched 
 them ; and all through the season they kept just so far behind. 
 Use the best only ; this not so much for the first season, when 
 you buy the plants and have to take what comes (although 
 then I would try hard to buy only the best), as for after sea- 
 sons, when you take them up out of your own bed to set out in 
 a new one. Throw away any that are not strong and thrifty, 
 
 FlG. 2 A POOR PI,ANT. 
 
 FlG. 3 A GOOD PI.ANT. 
 
 like Fig. 3, with a large crown (the body from which the leaves 
 come out), and plenty of roots. In another chapter you will 
 find the names of the varieties I grow, and all about them, if 
 you wish to read up on the subject. 
 
 paid. By the time tfey get back they are doubtless of but little if any 
 value. Therefore do as above, and ask the shipper for further instruc- 
 tions. Some people leave them at the express office, and refuse to pay the 
 charges. Now, I would not do even this. I would pay charges and take 
 care of them as best I could, and write to the shipper. If he is reasonable 
 he will make things satisfactory. Even if the plants are in bad order, 
 and poor, if the variety is high-priced and valuable you can usually get 
 enough of them to live, so as to grow nice strong plants for the next sea_ 
 son. By all means use only the best plants, when you can get them. A.I.R" 
 
22 
 
 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 There is one matter connected with varieties that each 
 grower, no matter how few he has, should know about. Each 
 strawberry seed has a pistil through which it must be fertilized 
 to come to perfection. The clump of pistils makes the oval 
 central part of the flower, as seen in Fig. 4. The pollen which 
 does the fertilizing is given off by the stamens, which number 
 some 30, more or less, in a flower. These can be seen in Fig. 
 5, growing out from among the pistils. 
 
 The stamens are the male part of the flower, and the pistils 
 the female. Some varieties produce flowers having both sta- 
 mens and pistils. These are called " staminate," or perfect 
 varieties. Fig. 5 shows such a flower. Varieties having flow- 
 ers like Fig. 4 are called " pistillate," or imperfect. The cor- 
 rect names for these are staminate and pistillate ; but the 
 
 FIG 4. 
 
 FIG. 5. 
 
 AN IMPERFECT BLOSSOM. A PERFECT BLOSSOM. 
 
 farmer, or young beginner, will remember better if they are 
 called perfect and imperfect, and hence we will make use of 
 these terms only, in this book, to save all confusion. Perfect- 
 flowering varieties, such as the Charles Downing or Jessie or 
 Cumberland, can be grown alone. They have both stamens 
 and pistils, and fertilize themselves. Imperfect ones, such as 
 the Bubach No. 5, and Haverland, must have some perfect 
 plants near them to fertilize them. This matter of sex in 
 strawberries was not understood until quite recently. It is 
 claimed that Nicholas Longworth, of Ohio, was the first to dis- 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 23 
 
 cover the matter. Even as young a man as Charles A. Green, 
 the well-known horticultural authority, says that, when he was 
 a boy, he cultivated imperfectly blossoming strawberries year 
 after year, receiving no fruit, without knowing the cause of 
 failure. A great many have had the same'experience. 
 
 Growers usually have about every fourth or fifth row of a 
 perfect-flowering variety in a field of imperfect ones. You may 
 ask, "Why grow the imperfect kinds at all?" They are 
 usually more productive, hence in field culture they are largely 
 used with just enough perfect ones to do the fertilizing. There 
 is some difference of opinion about what proportion should be 
 perfect plants. Probably the season and locality have some- 
 thing to do with it too. Mr. Theodore F. Longenecker, of 
 Dayton, Ohio, a very careful grower, would set out nearly as 
 many rows of perfect plants as of imperfect never less than 
 three-fifths as many. I noticed when Mr. Crawford sent my 
 plants the first year (some- 1500) he sent half and half. 
 
 It is claimed that the variety used for fertilizing has an in- 
 fluence on the imperfect one. For example : Putney and 
 Woodward say, if you want firmness you should fertilize with 
 Wilson ; if sweetness, use Sharpless ; if dark color is wanted, 
 fertilize with Longfellow, and so on. But tke farmer will hard- 
 ly care to delve into. the subject as deep as this. Leave it with 
 the grower of plants to send you the proper varieties for fertil- 
 izing, or buy all perfect ones. The pollen is carried from one 
 variety to another by wind, bees, wasps, etc., probably ; but we 
 hardly know all about this just yet. A case in point about this 
 fertilizing business has just occurred on my own place. A 
 farmer called, and said that, from what he had learned, the 
 Haverland and Bubach were about as promising berries for his 
 soil as there were, and wanted to know if I could advise him of 
 any better ones to send for. I told him I could not, and he 
 started off, saying he would send for a thousand plants of each. 
 Just in time it occurred to be that he might not know they are 
 both imperfect varieties. He did not know, and would have 
 
24 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE 
 
 sent for them, and set them out alone, and the dealer would 
 have said nothing, supposing, of course, that he knew what be 
 was ordering.* 
 
 Some varieties of strawberries are subject to blight, or rust, 
 on the leaves. This usually injures the growth and yield more 
 or less. But a variety that fails from rust in one locality, or 
 under certain treatment, may be all right in another place, or 
 when grown under different conditions. The Sterling berry is 
 one of the very finest I have, to yield, in thin matted rows ; 
 but it utterly fails in hills, from rust. The rust first appears in 
 the form of little dark spots on the leaves, which may increase 
 until the leaves all die. I hardly think there is any practical 
 remedy yet, although some have told me of applications that 
 would stop the disease. The best practical remedy is to grow 
 those kinds that do not rust on such soil as yours. Two or 
 three varieties that I have tried were rendered almost worthless 
 by rust, while the Bubach, Jessie, and Haverland are almost 
 entirely free from it. 
 
 By this time you may think you had better buy your 
 plants, when first beginning, of a perfectly reliable man who 
 will study to send you what is best for you. Now, that is just 
 right. Do not buy any cheap plants, or of a man whom you 
 have any fear might send you whatever he had on hand any 
 way. Do not take plants as a gift, out of some old bed of a 
 
 * I confess that I have, until this season, been a little skeptical in re- 
 gard to the importance of planting as above ; but a year ago, wishing 
 some Bubachs near the office, that we might take up plants without go'iig 
 to the fields, I planted two rows right in sight of where I am writing now. 
 The ground was heavily manured, and they made a great profusion of 
 runners, which have been used for filling orders. At the time I did it, I 
 had only plants in mind, not thinking of fruit ; and when it occurred to 
 me that no other berries were near, I concluded I would wait and see if 
 they would bear fruit. The fruit is now ripening, but the berries are 
 small, gnarly, and knotted, and there is scarcely a perfect one in the 
 patch, although the growth of foliage is equal to any I ever saw. Our Bu- 
 bachs out in the fields are giving monstrous berries in great quantities, 
 with no knotted or gnarly ones among them. In the fertilized plot, a 
 great many of the berries are simply little knots, or knobs. I give this 
 for the benefit of those who, like myself, think there is some humbug or 
 superstition in regard to the fertilization of strawberries. A. I. R. 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 25 
 
 neighbor's. I have had farmers ask me if they could get some 
 plants from my bed after we were through picking, and just 
 when we were going to plow them under. They were for sav- 
 ing a few cents ; but it was "penny wise and pound foolish." 
 Get good plants to start with, and then I will tell you, further 
 along, how to have good ones ever after. I could not advise you 
 better than to write to the secretary of your nearest horticultu- 
 ral society, putting in some stamps, or attend their meetings 
 and ask your questions. Most of our agricultural papers now 
 have horticultural columns, and one can get advice from reli- 
 able sources by writing to the editor. 
 
 When your plants come, the sooner they go into the ground 
 the better. If they come at night, or. your ground is not quite 
 ready, you may set the box or basket they come in down cellar 
 until you are ready to put them out. If it is likely to be more 
 than a few hours, I would open the bunches (they come tied 25 
 or 50 in a bunch, usually), slightly spreading out the roots in a 
 little trench of moist mellow soil, and cover them with the 
 same, and then shade the plants. Where you send for a few 
 plants by mail to test, or get a start from, if they come when it 
 is not a favorable time to set them out you can dig a little 
 trench and "heel them in," putting the plants about three 
 inches apart, and covering the roots with moist dirt ; then 
 shade from the sun until they start to grow, when they can be 
 taken up carefully, with the dirt adhering to the roots, and set 
 out where they are to grow, some cloudy day, or just before a 
 rain. If I get plants by mail at night I heel them in before I 
 go to bed. 
 
 I have spoken in this chapter of late frosts injuring straw- 
 berries. Perhaps I may as well describe now just how it hurts 
 them. The leaves are not injured in the least ; but the blos- 
 soms that are touched by it will usually be killed that is, they 
 will produce no berries. If you want to know whether they 
 are injured after a frost, go out after the sun has shone on the 
 vines for a few hours ; and if the clump of pistils in the center 
 
26 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 of the flower, whether it is a perfect or an imperfect variety, 
 has turned black or quite dark, no berry will come from that 
 blossom. The frost has got the start of you. Quite a good 
 many blossoms may be killed, however, if your plants are 
 thick on the ground, and you still get a full crop, as the rest of 
 the berries will grow larger. It is like picking part of the ap- 
 ples off in June : one may get as many bushels in October, of 
 larger fruit. Judge Miller, in Popular Gardening, says a frost 
 is a good thing to thin out the fruit, and that, under some cir- 
 cumstances, it would pay to hire children to go through and 
 pick off part of the blossoms. But I think I will thin out the 
 plants, as you will learn in the back part of the book, and let 
 all blossoms remain on what are left, and then hope that frost 
 may stay away, or mulch heavy and keep my berries back. If 
 frost touches a berry after it is set it may destroy it, or it may 
 cause only a portion of the berry to wither and not grow any 
 more. A frost will injure some varieties while in the bud ; 
 they will blossom out all right ; but when the bud unfolds you 
 will see that the center is black. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 MARKING THE GROUND SETTING THE PLANTS THE DIS- 
 TANCE APART. 
 
 We left the land where the plants were to be set, very 
 thoroughly harrowed and then rolled. If you haven't a roller 
 ( but every farmer who has a plow and a harrow should have ) , 
 a clod-crusher will answer. Remember it must be very fine 
 and firm, if you want the plants to do their best from the start. 
 If you have any doubts about its being in the best shape, har- 
 row and roll it alternately two or three times more, when the 
 land is dry enough not to pack hard. Of course, you under- 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE 27 
 
 stand that you must be careful not to work land that is at all 
 heavy, for any crop when it is even a little too wet. It will 
 make it hard. What we want is a fine, mellow seed-bed, firm- 
 ly packed There is a difference between firm and hard. 
 
 Now take a line and stretch through where you want the 
 first row. I have used common binding twine. You want the 
 line attached to a stake at each end, of course. I would put 
 the first row three feet from the edge of the plowed land. If 
 you put it too near the edge it will bother you to get through 
 with the cultivator. After the line is stretched in place, take a 
 sharp stick (I have used the end rod out of my lumber wagon, 
 which was just the thing) and draw a little mark right by the 
 side of the line, from end to end. Then take the line up, one 
 person at each end, and put it down four feet further in on 
 your piece of land. Next, in a few minutes' time you can 
 make a little marker, something like the one shown in Fig. 6, 
 with which you can go along the rows you have marked length- 
 wise, and make, almost as fast as you can walk, little cross- 
 marks, to show where to set the plants. 
 
 FIG. 6. A MARKER FOR SPACING OFF ROWS. 
 
 The first plants we set out we measured with a stick which 
 we carried along, to get them the right distance apart. This 
 was slow and bothersome. So my son went to the tool-house 
 and made a marker like the above, in about ten minutes, which 
 is still in u^e.* I set the plants two feet apart. The rows are 
 
 *In regard to the use of the line-marker, etc., let me suggest that 
 market- gardeners have a plan which I think is much simpler. Iet your 
 line be of pretty good size say something like a small clothes-line. After 
 you have stretched it, walk the whole length by stepping the whole length 
 upon the entire line. This gives you a mark absolutely straight. In our 
 
28 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CUI/TURE. 
 
 four feet apart, and the plants two feet in the row. This is 
 about the usual distance apart for matted-row culture. Now 
 go to the cellar, or to where you may have heeled in your plants, 
 with a pail half full of water. If it is a cold day, warm the 
 water slightly by putting in a little that is hot, until it feels 
 comfortable to the hand. This is for the comfort of the one 
 setting out the plants. Next open your plants and put forty or 
 fifty in the water, being sure that all roots are under ; and if 
 the tops are too, it will not matter. Cover the rest of the plants 
 from the air again. You are now ready for setting. 
 
 You can make the holes to put the plants in with either a 
 garden-trowel or a brick-layer's trowel. But I found it easier 
 to take my narrow four-inch spade (English ditching-spade), 
 stand on one side of the row, push the spade down about five 
 inches, with the back to the long mark, and the front toward 
 me ; work it back and forth once, and then pull it out with an 
 upward and sidewise pull. This makes a hole about four inches 
 deep, with a nearly perpendicular bank in line with the row. 
 A man can throw out the holes very rapidly in this way. You 
 can make a similar hole with a trowel, of course, but not near- 
 ly as easily. Next take one plant from the pail of water ; 
 spread the roots out fan -shaped, as in Fig. 3, and with the left 
 hand hold this plant against the perpendicular side of the hole. 
 With your right hand take your trowel and throw two or three 
 inches deep of moist earth against the roots. Then press the 
 earth firmly against the roots, using both hands on the trowel. 
 Fill the rest of the hole with mellow earth, leaving it loose. 
 Never let the strawberry-roots get dry, nor put dry earth direct- 
 tool house we have a machine something like a wheelbarrow with a wheel 
 nearly a yard across. Movable pins are set in the rim of this wheel. It 
 is wheeled over the line like a wheelbarrow. Now, if you walk on your 
 clothes-line as you go over, you will make a plain mark, and the pins will 
 space it accurately. I think a common wheelbarrow will answer very well 
 by winding some wire or tying a cord around the felloe and tire, say on 
 each opposite side of the wheel ; that is, supposing you can get a wheel- 
 barrow with awheel of such size that half the circumference will be the 
 distance you need the plants apart. We mark out our ground by means 
 of a two-horse marker which will be described at the close of this book. 
 A. I R. 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 29 
 
 ly against them. If the surface is dry, scrape it off with your 
 trowel and get moist soil to throw next to the roots. Wet roots 
 put in moist soil, well firmed about the roots, and mellow or 
 loose on the surface, are the best conditions possible. 
 
 FIG. /.SET JUST RIGHT. 
 
 FIG. 8. SET TOO DEEP. 
 
 FIG. 9. SET TOO SHALLOW. 
 
 Some people laugh at such carefulness, and say that 
 " strawberry-plants will grow if stuck in almost any way ; even 
 a plant left lying on the surface, by the person setting out, will 
 
30 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CUI/TURE. 
 
 often take root." So it will ; but let me tell you that, when 
 you find a man farming in any such careless, slipshod, trust-to- 
 luck way, you will find a man who is not very successful in his 
 business. "No paius no gains ; " or, " Man's fortunes are ac- 
 cording to his pains." It would be better if the plants could 
 be set out on a cloudy day, or toward night, or just before a 
 rain ; but where one buys plants from a distance they must be 
 set when they come or soon after. If you set them just as I 
 direct, and they are good plants, they will not wilt a particle, 
 be the day ever so bright and hot. Do no watering or cover- 
 ing. If the soil is very dry (but fine soil, well firmed in the 
 early spring, will very seldom be so), pack it by stepping on it 
 next to the plant, after it is all set out, and scrape a little loose 
 soil over where you stepped. If you have no trowel you can 
 get a garden-trowel for a few cents, or you can make a paddle 
 of wood that will answer to set out a few plants. 
 
 Fig. 7 shows a plant properly placed in the ground. The 
 top of the crown, where the leaves come out, should be just 
 above the surface, after the plant is all set and the soil leveled 
 down around it. The lines in these figures indicate the surface 
 of the ground. 
 
 Fig. 8 shows a plant set too deep. Earth over the crown 
 will usually kill it, or at least prevent its doing well. Fig. 9 
 shows a plant set too shallow. The air can get to the roots, 
 and so can the sunshine, and the plant will not do well under 
 such conditions. The roots should all be in the ground. I do 
 not suppose any one would set a plant quite as deep as the one 
 in Fig. 8, nor quite as shallow as shown by Fig. 9. I have ex- 
 aggerated these cuts to make the lesson plain. Also the leaves 
 on the plants are a little more upright than you will usually 
 find them when setting out. They often crinkle down so as to 
 be in the way. Of coprse, we had to put them up out of the 
 way in these pictures so as to show you plainly just how to do 
 the setting. Do not dig holes, except as fast as you want to 
 put in the plants, so as to have the soil that the roots will touch 
 
ABC. OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 31 
 
 moist. Take the plants out of the pail of water, only as fast 
 as you are ready to set them. 
 
 To find how many plants you want, you have only to mea- 
 sure one of the rows and divide the number of feet by two, and 
 then multiply by the number of rows. Or if you know the 
 amount of land, it will be easy to figure, as it will take about 
 35 plants to the square rod. If you set out 500 or 1000 plants, 
 and do it well, you will be likely to have a first-class backache 
 before you get through, not being used to such work ; but just 
 think of those 66 meals with all the great, large, delicious, ripe 
 berries you can eat, and push ahead, and do not slight your 
 work. 
 
 Since writing the above I have been reading an article in 
 the Rural New Yorker, written by J. M. Smith, telling all 
 about how he sets out strawberry -plants. I was not surprised 
 to find that Mr. S. is extremely careful about how his plants 
 are set. He would not call what I have written over-particular. 
 He says: " There are but few things in either the marketer 
 home garden that are of more importance than setting out the 
 plants." He also says : "A few years ago, I lost heavily upon 
 some of my strawberry-beds, owing to some careless setters 
 who, when neither I nor my sons were with them, merely open- 
 ed the earth and laid the long beautiful roots about two or three 
 inches deep and covered them with earth. It came on very 
 dry, and I soon noticed that they were suffering more than 
 there was any apparent reason for, even though it was dry. In 
 fact, some of them were dead, and many more nearly so. Upon 
 examination I soon found the cause of the trouble ; but it was 
 too late to repair the damages, and the next season I suffered 
 the loss of hundreds of dollars through the carelessness of the 
 men who set those plants." You see the .men were too lazy or 
 careless to make the holes deep enough to put the roots straight 
 down, or nearly so, so that part of them would be in moist 
 earth in a dry time. Mr. S. speaks of another fatal mistake 
 neglecting to press the earth sufficiently close around the plant 
 
32 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 roots. After all this, my friends, it must certainly be your own 
 fault if you do not set your strawberry-plants so that they all 
 grow finely.* 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ABOUT CULTIVATING AND HOEING CUTTING BLOSSOMS 
 AND RUNNERS OFF, AND PLACING RUNNERS. 
 
 There is just one secret about taking care of a strawberry- 
 patch easily ; and that is, never let any weeds see daylight. 
 Do this, and the work will always be pleasant and profitable, 
 and it will not take .a great deal of time. I think it was Mr. 
 Putney who said first, "It is cheaper to hoe three times than 
 
 *In regard to the careful setting-out of plants, last spring I was visit- 
 ing a strawberry-grower in Leelanaw Co., Michigan, who grows several 
 acres every year He was just setting ut a piece of four acres. His 
 method of marking the ground will be described in the latter part of this 
 book ; and his way of setting the plants in the ground impressed me very 
 favorably. The tool used for making the holes was a long handled round- 
 pointed spade, such as we see in common use among laborers who handle 
 dirt. The point of the spade was pushed down vertically, right along the 
 line on the spot where the plant was to be set. The dirt was then pulled 
 away from the line so as to leave a perpendicular side of fresh earth a 
 sort of half-circle, say six inches deep, and nearly a foot across. A plant 
 was then taken from a bucket of water, the roots spread out fan-shaped, 
 and held up against this perpendicular wall of fresh earth until some of 
 the dirt that had been scooped out had been pushed back against the root 
 of the plant. The operator then pressed the dirt down with his foot, tight 
 up against the roots. The proprietor (Mr. James Hilbert, Bingham, 
 Mich.), nade the holes with the spade, and kept his eye on the setters to 
 see that every plant had the roots properly spread out so as to be evenly 
 distributed along this vertical wall of earth, and then he watched to see 
 that every man firmed the dirt aronnd the plant with his foot. I think 
 there were about half a dozen in the crowd setting plants, and the pro- 
 prietor's eye was on almost every plant in the whole 28,000 while they 
 were being set out. I have seen the plants several times this summer ; 
 and although a severe drouth followed not long after the setting, there is 
 scarcely a plant missing out of the 28,000. They were set in April ; and at 
 this writing, Sept. 16, almost every plant has a nice family of liitle plants 
 scattered to the right and left. You will notice this plan of setting the 
 roots along a straight line enables us to cultivate within an inch of the 
 roots that is, shortly after they are set out without injuring them. Of 
 course, the ground was kept constantly stirred so that no crust should 
 form after a rain, or no such success could have attended planting so 
 large a tract as four acres, almost without the loss of a plant. But the 
 next chapter considers the matter of cultivating. A. I. R. 
 
ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 33 
 
 ouce." Yes, and it is pleasanter too. The idea is, of course, 
 that, instead of waiting till the weeds get well started, and 
 working hard to hoe them up once, you just rapidly run over 
 the mellow surface two or three times, simply stirring it so no 
 weeds cau grow at all. This is the way we grow potatoes ; it 
 is the only correct way to farm, now, and it is just the way to 
 grow strawberries. Read this over and over ; learn it by heart. 
 It will help if the land set out in strawberry -plants was in 
 corn or potatoes or garden-truck the year previous, or corn one 
 year and potatoes the next, and was kept entirely free from 
 weeds. But even if the land is full of foul weed-seeds you can 
 keep them down quite readily if you, never let them get started 
 at all. Cultivate the ground once a week or oftener. I would 
 not go more than one inch deep within 6 inches of the plants, 
 and then in hoeing the little strip that is left, that you can not 
 cultivate, I would not hoe more than half an inch deep right 
 around the plants. I do not want to disturb them at all just 
 mellow the immediate surface, and make it fine, and prevent 
 any weeds from coming up. I set a somewhat careless man to 
 hoeing my strawberries once, and he did great damage by hoe- 
 ing same two inches deep, and breaking up the earth around 
 the roots too much. Do not pull any earth up around the 
 plants when hoeing, but leave it level all the season, just as it 
 was when you finished setting them out. With a little hilling 
 up, the rains may wash the earth over the crowns and rot them 
 and kill the plants My own experience is that a pronged hoe 
 is the best tool for stirring the soil between the plants that the 
 cultivator does not reach. This is just like a hoe, only there 
 are four or five tines in the place of the blade of the hoe. The 
 potato hook that some use to dig potatoes with is practically 
 the same thing. There is no better tool to stir soil about plants 
 with to keep weeds from starting and to break the crust, or 
 keep it from forming. This hoe is nice to use among the flow- 
 ers, etc., too. Walking backward I can stir the little strip be- 
 tween and around strawberry-plants very rapidly. But this is 
 
 3 
 
34 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 only for clean and timely culture. If weeds get started once 
 why, then we must use a common hoe to destroy them. The 
 pronged hoe acts as a rake or a weeder in the field. 
 
 Now, remember that just stirring the soil slightly to keep 
 weeds from growing or showing at all, is nice work ; but that 
 if you let them once get a good foothold you have got either 
 defeat or a discouraging job before you. I know how hard it 
 will be, with the press of work that often comes on the farm, 
 to attend to this matter always promptly ; but that is the way, 
 and I know you can do it. The first summer we had strawber- 
 ries (a quarter of an acre) we took good care of them without 
 much trouble until haying and wheat harvest and potato culti- 
 vating all came in a lump, without a breathing-spell between. 
 For two or three weeks then we did not have a moment to 
 spare for the berries, as it seemed to us. We were much trou- 
 bled with purslain. During that hot weather it got well started 
 in these berries ; and if we did not have a time cleaning them 
 after that ! We picked up and carried out bushel after bushel, 
 as it had got started so well that hoeing would not kill it. 
 Well, we conquered, but at great cost. Since then we have 
 taken time to stir the soil hastily, even during harvest time, so 
 as to prevent the purslain from starting, and our other work 
 has been done all right too, some way. Few men are now do- 
 ing so much that they can not do more by a little better man- 
 agement or more system. 
 
 I might say that the soil we selected for berries, although 
 moist, is a little better drained than some portions of our fields. 
 During a heavy shower water will collect in the low places in 
 the fields ; and although the drains take it away promptly, 
 these spots are not dry enough to cultivate as soon as the berry 
 ground where there are no low places. So we can have two or 
 three hours to work in the berries, after a shower, before the 
 land is dry enough to cultivate right through in the field. 
 Thus the berries have had proper attention without interfering 
 at all with field work, and we have all sorts of berries besides 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 35 
 
 strawberries, and liberal quantities of them too. Did I not tell 
 you, in a previous chapter, that, where there is a will there is a 
 way ? One of those farmers who never have any time for such 
 j jbs stopped to talk with me once, when I was hastily going 
 over my fruit-garden, before the fields were dry enough for cul- 
 tivating. He looked with longing eyes at the nice rows of ber- 
 ries, and said it would do for me to fuss with such things ; he 
 wished he had the time ; but it was no use to think of it, etc. 
 Meanwhile my man and son kept the horse and cultivator brisk- 
 ly moving, and I hoed row after row, long ones too ; and before 
 that man's business called him to move on we had cultivated 
 and hoed over far more ground than would be necessary to 
 grow all the berries he and his family could possibly use. 
 
 Some eighteen years ago we set out a strawberry-patch, 
 without having them in shape for horse culture, and the result 
 was that the money paid for plants would have bought more 
 berries than we ever picked. Perhaps we had all imperfect va- 
 rieties too ; I am sure I do not know. And I guess we were 
 about like the brother last spoken of hadn't time to fuss with 
 them. The " will " was lacking. I suspect we have lots of 
 company in that experience. I hope we may have as much in 
 our later practice. Man can do almost any thing if he sets out 
 with the determination to conquer. 
 
 Soon after your plants are set out you will see stems com- 
 ing up with buds on. There will be little leaves on the stems 
 also. Cut off all these stems as fast as they appear. It will 
 weaken the plant to grow any fruit the first year. What you 
 want is to grow as strong plants as you can, to become parents 
 of other strong plants, which will produce abundant and fine 
 fruit the following season. After a time you will see little 
 round shoots starting out from the plants you set. These are 
 called " runners." If allowed to grow, after running from six 
 to ten inches (according to variety ; late berries have long run- 
 ners and early ones shorter, usually), they will throw up leaves 
 and roots downward, and produce new plants. But you should 
 
36 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 cut all these runners off as fast as they appear, in this latitude, 
 until the latter part of July (this for farmers, not small-fruit 
 growers). Cut the runners as soon as they start. Do not It t 
 them exhaust the plant by growing out long, before they are 
 cut off. Some one should look over the patch once in four or 
 five days, and cut off all blossom-stems and runners. I use a 
 pair of common shears for doing this. 
 
 Now, this gives you a chance to cultivate and hoe rapidly, 
 and get the weed seeds in the surface soil about all sprouted 
 and killed. After the runners start it is more work to cultivate 
 and hoe, and keep the ground clean. After harvest you will 
 have more time ; then let the runners grow. Before they take 
 root I would go through the patch occasionally and spread them 
 out around, something like the spokes of a wheel, the old plant 
 being the hub. A clod or a little dirt placed on them will hold 
 them in place, if they are obstinate, until they get rooted. 
 The object of this placing, of course, is to get plants all over 
 the ground, instead of letting them grow five times too thick 
 in some places and none in others, as they often would natural- 
 ly. It is strange, but the first year we grew strawberries I knew 
 nothing about this helping of the runners to cover the ground. 
 I had not seen a word about it in the books, nor heard a word 
 about it at the institutes, where many men had told all about 
 strawberry-growing. Our quarter of an acre had made a splen- 
 did growth ; but the runners had gone out in bunches, or ropes 
 (pulled around together by the cultivator sometimes), many 
 times too thick and much of the ground was bare. Just at that 
 time my friend J. M. Smith paid me a visit. He told me how 
 to fix those runners, and the young folks worked for days trans- 
 planting them, as they had got rooted somewhat, and soon had 
 our bed in shape to do its best. I said to my friend : " Mr. 
 Smith, how is it that I hever heard you speak of this at an in- 
 stitute, when you were telling us how to grow strawber- 
 ries?" 
 
 " Why," he says, " I was talking to farmers, and I did not 
 
A B C OF STR.YWBERRY CULTURE. 37 
 
 know that they would care to learn all the little niceties of tbe 
 business." 
 
 I have given you the best way, and you can do as you 
 please. If the runners are entirely neglected they will produce 
 considerable fruit ; but not as much or of as fine quality. A 
 plant every six or eight inches, all over the ground, and no 
 more, is best. I am a little more particular in this part written 
 for farmers than I should be, because I hope that thousands of 
 farmers' boys and girls will get interested in strawberry-grow- 
 ing, from reading these pages, and I certainly want to advise 
 them to do their very best in whatever they undertake. It will 
 help greatly to make them successful men and women ; and al- 
 though I am only a farmer, I suspect that my berry -patch would 
 have to be just as good as I could make it, even if I grew only 
 enough for my own use. 
 
 For a garden-patch I would not cultivate any more after the 
 runners half covered the ground ; and if the tillage was perfect 
 in the early part of the season you will not usually need to do 
 much more hoeing. Let what you do do, be very shallow. 
 Simply hoe over the ground that is bare, half an inch deep, 
 leaving the plants all the soil possible to send their roots out 
 in. They are thought to be laying up food in the crowns then, 
 to make berries of next season. By winter the ground should 
 be well covered with strong plants, if the soil was rich. I 
 would keep a path about 16 inches wide, hoed up between the 
 rows. If you have different kinds you must be sure to do this, 
 to prevent the plants running together and getting mixed. 
 This would do no harm for fruiting ; but you want to get pure 
 plants from your bed to set out the next spring. But of this 
 in another chapter. 
 
 Of course, when hoeing, all through the season, you must 
 
 pull with your fingers any little weeds that may get started in 
 
 the hills, too close to cut off with the hoe. There need be very 
 
 little fingerwork, however, \vith the hoeing always done on 
 
 ime. 
 
38 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 AM, ABOUT MULCHING SPRING WORK ON OI,D BED SETTING 
 NEW BED HOW TO TAKE UP PLANTS HOW TO EAT STRAW- 
 BERRIES HOW TO CAN THEM. 
 
 The first time the ground freezes hard enough to bear up a 
 team, in the late fall or early winter (usually between the 15th 
 of November and the 1st of December here), the strawberry- 
 plants should be mulched that is, covered with some material 
 to prevent sudden freezing and thawing during the winter, or, 
 more particularly, the early spring. It is said by some good 
 authorities that the plants are perfectly hardy, and do cot need 
 any covering, so far as protecting them is concerned. But from 
 my short experience I should say that the plants stand the win- 
 ter better, and are stronger in the spring, for being covered ; 
 and I like to get the covering on before the frost has killed all 
 the leaves. But the main object of covering is to prevent the 
 frost from lifting the plants. 
 
 On your garden patch, probably the best mulching mate- 
 rial you can use is your strawy horse manure, if there are not 
 too many seeds in it.* Shake it up very finely and spread all 
 over the ground, just thick enough so you can not see the plants 
 through it. Spread over the paths between the rows as well as 
 over the rows. If your land is rich enough, or manure is scarce, 
 
 * In conversing with friend Terry in regard to straw for mulch, I ask- 
 ed him what he did to prevent getting grains of wheat left by poor thrash- 
 ing. He replied, first, that he did not have poor thrashers ; second, that 
 the straw was first thrown on to a platform of rails in order to shake out 
 all the grain as far as possible, that might be left. In purchasing straw of 
 the farmers I have been greatly annoyed by the amount of grain left in 
 it ; and on one occasion, when my strawberries were mulched with rye 
 straw, enough rye came up among the berries, after fruiting, so that it was 
 cut and thrashed, and it gave me a good yield. Of course, I was so much 
 ahead on my crop of rye, but I am sure I was a good deal more behind on 
 the berries in consequence of the rank growth of grain in my berry-crop. 
 Whatever you do, don't use any kind of mulch for your strawberries, un- 
 less you know it is free from seeds of weeds and grass, grain, etc. A. I. R. 
 
ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 39 
 
 use marsh hay (because there are no seeds in it), or, what 
 will be handiest for most farmers, wheat straw, spreading it 
 evenly over the bed, just so you can not see through. Do not 
 leave any bunches of either straw or manure, or you may 
 smother some plants. I have heard of mice destroying straw- 
 berry-plants on a mulched patch ; but they have never got into 
 mine. We use wheat straw for mulching. Our fields are kept 
 very clean, so there is no chance for mice to hide, and I think 
 you will hardly find one at any time within fifty rods of our 
 strawberries. Where they are abundant I would try a light 
 coat of cut straw for mulching, not over an inch or so deep. I 
 never have any mice in my stubble (wheat stubble, newly seed- 
 ed), because we mow them once or twice ; and all the growth 
 falls down and partly decays, hugging the ground closely. 
 Mice will not come into such a field. They are too exposed. 
 Cut straw will lie down closely about the strawberry-plants, af- 
 fording less shelter to the mice from the eyes of hawks. In 
 the spring, after freezing weather is about over, select a wet 
 day and rake about half the straw (if long straw was used) off 
 from the plants, and tread it down in the paths between the 
 rows. You can do this best when it is wet. The plants will 
 grow up through the other half, with a little help. If there 
 are any bare spots, leave all the straw on them. You must 
 watch, and not wait too long before removing part of the straw 
 from the plants. If they grow much under the straw it will be 
 a white, feeble, tender growth ; and taking the straw off then 
 would leave the plants liable to injury by a frost, or the hot 
 sun. Remove the straw, then, before they make much new 
 growth. Do it in rainy, cloudy weather, so they can get a lit- 
 tle used to outdoor weather before the sun strikes them. If 
 you use manure for mulch, and shake it very finely, you may 
 not need to remove much. The plants may find their way up 
 through it all right. I like to have all the mulch left on them 
 that they can comfortably grow up through. You will, of 
 course, keep watch and help any plants that find trouble in 
 
40 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CUI/TURE. 
 
 pushing their way up through the manure, or the straw either. 
 This help will consist in simply opening or removing the cov- 
 ering a little, where you may see a plant raising it up instead 
 of coming through. This manure, or straw, on the surface, 
 will serve two important ends. First, it will keep the fruit 
 clean. Soil is a good thing, but I do not like to eat it directly. 
 Sugar is preferable on berries. Mulched as I have directed, 
 your berries should be always perfectly clean ; the rain can not 
 spatter any dirt on them. To be sure, the berries can be wash- 
 ed ; but the best way is to fix it so they can not get dirty. And 
 then, again, if it is a dry year it will keep the ground more 
 moist, and thus increase the crop. Perhaps you may think 
 that manure would not be just the proper thing for a mulch to 
 keep berries clean. But all filthiness will be Mashed out by 
 the rains long before the berries are ripe Any weeds that may 
 start in the bed in the spring may be pulled up or cut off. 
 There should not be many if the tillage the season before wes 
 thorough.* 
 
 *This matter of getting the seeds of weeds into the strawberry-patch 
 along with mulching has made so much trouble that a great variety of 
 material has been used in place of straw and strawy manure. Friend Ter- 
 ry has alluded to marsh hay. We have had very good success with corn- 
 stalks. In this case the mulching was not removed in the spring at all. 
 The berry-plants climbed up through it. Some strawberry-growers use 
 green corn fodder. The corn is sown broadcast close to the patch, so as to 
 
 be just right to cut and spread between the rows just as the fruit is begin- 
 ning to ripen. But by far the most satisfactory material we have ever 
 used is dry potato-tops. When you dig your potatoes, rake up the vines 
 and put them in heaps somewhere out of the wav and near the strawber- 
 ry-patch. As soon as the ground freezes, cover the whole bed with these 
 dried-up potato-vines as thickly as you choose. They will not smother the 
 strawberries, and they contain no weed seeds, and they need not be re- 
 moved in the spring, for the plants will grow up through them. If put 
 on just right you can see the green foliage down through the potato top 
 mulching all winter long. They hold the snow better than any thing else 
 I know of, and they never settle down so compact as to smo'her the plants 
 
 and make them rot. In our potato-book you will see mention made of a 
 late s'rong-growing potato called the Craig. I often find vii 
 enough late in the fall to pull them up and wind them about my necl 
 
 while the other end remains in the ground. This potato makes a very 
 large amount of tops. After digging they can be raked up with a horse- 
 rake, and handled with a pitchfork, so it is very little trouble to put them 
 on strawberries. Potato-tops, when they decay, furnish a large amount of 
 potash, and this just suits the strawberry. A. I. R. 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY GUI/TURK. 41 
 
 When the plants come to bloom, examine them and seethe 
 difference between the perfect and imperfect flowers. I would 
 advise that you set out another bed in the spring, prepared as 
 before, with large nice plants from your own bed. Do not take 
 any of the old original plants, with their black roots. I think 
 it better, take it all around, to set out a new bed each year than 
 to try to clean out the old one. You have then the best of 
 plants to set out, of your own growing. If you keep a bed two 
 or more years, the plants then would not be such as I would 
 set out. You should always have plants that have never borne 
 fruit, grown from plants that also produced none.* Again, 
 enemies are becoming abundant in strawberry-beds, and the 
 longer we leave them the greater chance they have. Also, 
 treated as I have advised, you will get the largest crop and fin- 
 est berries the first season you pick a bed. 
 
 You may not know how to take up plants. I use a four- 
 tined potato-fork, sticking it down by the side of a few plants 
 as you would to dig a hill of potatoes ; then lift up the plants, 
 dirt and all, and shake them on the fork until most of the dirt 
 is off. If it is very dry weather, on heavy soil it pays to water 
 heavily, the night before, the plants you wish to take up. If 
 you have no potato-fork you might take up a few with a spade. 
 Many growers use the old-fashioned potato-hooks that used to 
 be used for digging potatoes. After shaking the plants clean, 
 cut the roots off at the bottom, leaving four inches on the 
 
 * I fear the above sentence will not be understood and acted on unless 
 I put a little more emphasis on it. It is very exhaustive work for straw- 
 berry-plants to bear a big crop of fruit. After the fruit season is over the 
 plant withers up, gets rusty, and for quite a time looks almost dead. Now, 
 if you pick all the blossoms off so the plant can not bear any fruit it is 
 spared from this exhaustive process. It keeps its leaves bright and green, 
 and it sends out strong and thrifty runners much earlier than it would 
 have done had it borne a crop of fruit. Therefore, to get the be&t plants 
 you must secure them from parent plants that have never been allowed to 
 bear. Set apart a portion of your bed, or, better still, have a nursery for 
 growing plants where the parent plants have plenty of room, say none of 
 them nearer than a foot, and where they are not allowed to bear a single 
 berry. This should be extra-strong ground : then you will have strong 
 bright young thrifty plants, ready to put out either in the spring or in the 
 fall, and plants that will " get right down to business." A. I. R. 
 
42 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 plant this for early spring. In the summer, leave them all on 
 so they can go down deeper. The old roots do not grow after 
 you set out the plants ; but they keep the plants alive until new 
 ones can start. Trim of! all dead leaves and runners, as they 
 will be in the way when setting the plants out. After shaking 
 all dirt off, place the choice plants in a pail of water, to take 
 over to set in your new bed. Mr. Crawford says he would 
 shake all dirt off any way, to get rid of any worms that might 
 be in the roots, to save transplanting them to the new bed. 
 He pulled up some plants on his grounds, and showed me the 
 little enemy that was not wanted, quietly suggesting that shak- 
 ing thoroughly, and keeping in water, was bad for him. Skill 
 is better than luck to trust to. Of course, you will understand 
 that the roots of your plants should not be exposed to sun and 
 wind when you are taking them up. Some growers throw 
 them into a wet bag as fast as taken up, and remove them to a 
 cellar to trim. But we trim them right on the ground, one 
 person taking them up while two trim and put in water, having 
 a plant exposed but a few seconds. For transplanting in your 
 own grounds, use such care as I have spoken of, and your plants 
 will grow right along, every single one of them, as though they 
 had not been moved. 
 
 There are many ways of growing strawberries. The farm- 
 er will not care to be perplexed with the details and advantages 
 of the different systems. I have given you a good, simple, and 
 safe way to grow berries for your own use. All is now told, I 
 believe, except how to eat the berries and how to can them. 
 Go out some morning while they are cool and moist with the 
 early dew, and bring in for breakfast a quart for each member 
 of the family, of great, large, dead-ripe Downings or Bubachs 
 or Jessies. Put on sugar and cream if you will, but it can 
 hardly improve them. After trying this princely way of living 
 for 66 straight meals, or longer, own up that you never knew 
 what luxury was when you bought your berries, now and then 
 a few quarts (picked before they were fully ripe, and common 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 43 
 
 fruit like the Crescents), or depended on a little neglected patch 
 a few feet square only. Do not forget to send a big mess to 
 each of your neighbors who do not grow them yet. I have al- 
 lowed plenty of land, so you can have enough. Offer them 
 some plants to set out the next spring ; lend them this book ; 
 help them up to where you have got. 
 
 Some have called the writer extravagant for using berries 
 so freely. Well, friends, I use no liquor, not even preserved (?) 
 cider, and no tobacco ; drink no tea and coffee, even ; and if 
 you can not let me eat what strawberries I can grow on two or 
 three square rods of ground, why, then I shall have to do it 
 without your letting. This is a free country, and I live on my 
 own little bit of it, and I am going to enjoy all the nice things 
 that God has given us that I can raise ; and I am not going to 
 eat ten parts bread to one of berries, as I had to when a boy, 
 but just make the proportion to suit myself. 
 
 Canned strawberries, of course, do not have the flavor and 
 deliciousness of fresh ones. But in the winter and early spring, 
 when we can not get fresh ones, a few canned ones would be 
 relished by most people. There is a peculiar acid flavor to 
 them that is very pleasing for variety, and to the writer, at 
 least, certainly healthful. I get very much used up attending 
 farmers' institutes winters. Often when I get home Saturday 
 night I feel as though I could not eat a mouthful of any thing. 
 Not long since I returned home late one evening in this shape, 
 and wife said : " What can I get you to eat ? " 
 
 I replied, " I do not want to see a particle of any thing;" 
 but nevertheless she got me a can of strawberries and some 
 nice bread and butter and a glass of milk, not whitened water 
 such as I get at the hotels, and as soon as I saw the berries I 
 felt better. Quite a hole was made in that can. No fruit agrees 
 with me so thoroughly well as the strawberry, fresh when it can 
 be had, and canned occasionally, after the fresh ones are gone. 
 But we are not all built alike. My wife cares little for canned 
 strawberries. Some who read this will not care for them ; but 
 
44 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 I think most people will, if the berries are properly canned, 
 and that they will find them a healthful sauce. They are rath- 
 er expensive when one has to buy them, sometimes ; but the 
 farmer who grows them need not mind this. He can have 
 plenty if he likes them. L,et him make money from his farm 
 crops, but take care of his little fruit-garden for his own plea- 
 sure, first of all, and that of his family. As friend Root puts 
 it : " Thank God that there is one place where he isn't work- 
 ing for the almighty dollar." The last two seasons we (I mean 
 " we," literally, for I always come in and help if possible) put 
 up about 80 quarts each year. Not one quart has ever spoiled. 
 We think them about right, so I will tell you just how we did 
 it. 
 
 After picking over good ripe berries, we take a common 
 coffee-cup, full of granulated sugar, to each two quarts of hull- 
 ed berries, and fill a porcelain-lined kettle about two -thirds 
 full. No water is put in. The kettle is stood on back of the 
 stove until sugar dissolves. Then we put it on in front and 
 bring it to the boiling-point, and boil slowly for about twenty 
 minutes, stirring very carefully so as not to break the berries. 
 The most of the stirring necessary is to help the berries on top 
 down into the syrup, so as to be sure all. are well cooked. 
 While this kettlef ul is boiling we set another mess on the back 
 of the stove in a tin pan, for the sugar to dissolve and to warm 
 up a little, so it will be ready to put into the kettle and boil as 
 soon as the first kettleful is canned. This, of course, is to hur- 
 ry up the business. From the kettle, the berries are dipped 
 into glass cans, and the tops screwed on in the usual way. My 
 wife is very careful in dipping them and putting in the can to 
 not mHsh up the berries. She thinks they look so much better 
 when they keep their shape. You will find some varieties of 
 berries better for canning than others. We find some cans 
 look better than others, and the flavor is better. Our Sterlings 
 are good. The Warfield is, I think, about the same. The old 
 Wilson is good. When cool, and all covers have been tight- 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 45 
 
 ened over, the cans are put away in a dark cupboard in the 
 cellar. 
 
 And now perhaps the/armer will not care for the rest of 
 this book ; but read the first part of the next chapter, any way, 
 for it may do you good. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 CAN FARMERS GROW BERRIES TO SELL? NO AND YES PRO- 
 FESSIONAL MEN AND VILLAGE PEOPLE (LADIKS AS WELI, 
 AS MEN) ADVISED TO GROW STRAWBERRIES FOR RECREA- 
 TION, AND TO IMPROVE THEIR HEALTH HILL CULTURE 
 USUALLY BEST FOR SUCH FRUIT-BEARING FLOWERS. 
 
 I heard a good German friend say once, at an institute, 
 that mixed farming and berry-growing didn't splice. He was 
 correct. On most farms there would be the clover to cut, and 
 the corn and potatoes needing constant cultivation, and wheat 
 harvest coming right on, all this at just the time when the new- 
 ly set strawberry-beds must have frequent tillage, and the ber- 
 ries from the old ones must be picked and marketed daily, or 
 the fruit lost. Truly, under these circumstances, ordinarily, 
 the berries had better be left alone. A few things well done 
 pay better than more half done. But if the farmer has children 
 whom he does rot need at other work, large enough to set out 
 the plants, cut the runners and blossoms off, pull the weeds, 
 pick the fruit, and perhaps do some of the hoeing, and has a 
 home market for his sxirplus, he might sometimes, when pre- 
 paring the ground for his own patch, fix up, say, a quarter of 
 an acre and gh*j the children a little business to attend to. It 
 would be lit lie more trouble for the farmer if the piece were 
 the right shape (long and narrow), to cultivate 40 rods, or even 
 80, than 20, after he had got hitched up ready. Of course, 
 every one could not do this or there would be no market for 
 
46 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 the surplus ; but there are thousands of farms where it could 
 be done. The consumers could get nicer, riper, fresher berries, 
 and the young people make quite a little spending money. 
 Our people are fast becoming more of a fruit-eating people. 
 In many small towns several farmers could make a good mar- 
 ket for a small surplus of berries, particularly if they were ex- 
 tra nice. In a great many towns the berries come from the 
 large cities, where they have been sent by those who grow in a 
 large way. The home grower could cut out such trade without 
 any trouble, and then, in a great many towns where but few 
 berries are now sold, a market could be gradually made for 
 more. 
 
 Now, this isn't preaching not founded on practice. Let 
 me tell you just what we have done ourselves. In the spring 
 of 1887 we put out a quarter of an acre of strawberries. My 
 two daughters and son did the most of the work of setting out 
 and caring for them, and about all the picking ; at any rate, 
 "the writer did not do any. He helped some about the market- 
 ing. The cultivating was done for them, as, when we were cul- 
 tivating the rest of the field, which was in potatoes, we went 
 right through the strawberries too. It was hardly any extra 
 trouble. My man and myself helped some about the hoeing 
 also. The strip set out was about 3 rods by 14. They were set 
 out and cared for just as I have advised in the first chapters of 
 this book. Do not think it was all play, though. Four of us 
 worked hard all day setting out the plants (oh the backache ! ), 
 and then did not get through. An expert would have put them 
 out in three or four hours ; but we did it well, any way. They 
 all grew nicely. Our young folks had the promise of the mon- 
 ey from berries sold. They had charge of the business ; and 
 their books, neatly kept, show that they sold, for cash, berries 
 to the amount of $83.57. We ate and canned about 13 bushels. 
 These could have been sold, choice berries as they were, for 
 $50 ; so the actual cash returns from that little patch of land 
 were $133. The berries were sold at wholesale to dealers in 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 47 
 
 town, not at retail. In another chapter you will find that qual- 
 ity had much to do with finding us a ready sale in a market 
 oversupplied with a common shipping grade of berries. Our 
 crop was not a large one. We were entirely green at the busi- 
 ness, practically. Too many plants were allowed to grow in 
 our matted rows, for one thing. Again, there were three nights 
 in June when the leaves of the vines froze stiff, and the blos- 
 soms on one variety were seriously injured. Then the rust hurt 
 another kind. An old grower who called here and looked them 
 over said the frost killed at least a half (we live in an unusually 
 frosty locality), and the rust would considerably reduce our 
 yield. But with all these discouragements the above success 
 was attained, the first time trying. What we had for our own 
 use would have paid well for the rent of land, plants, labor, 
 etc. ; so the $83 was clear profit. The young folks had every 
 cent of it. It was not " their calf and father's cow." There 
 was nothing fancy or beyond the reach of any bright boy or 
 girl in the way this crop was grown. 
 
 Matthew Crawford, who can be depended on, told the writ- 
 er that he knew a woman over 60 years old who grew, that 
 same season, a quarter of an acre of strawberries that brought 
 her $145, besides furnishing enough for family use, and a good 
 many for friends. I can easily believe this, as, if we had had 
 no late frosts, our own yield would almost certainly have been 
 as great. Now, I hope these experiences may encourage hun- 
 dreds of young people who are situated so they can do some- 
 thing of this kind to start out ; but they had better not expect 
 as large returns as these, for it is better to be disappointed the 
 right way. And still, to be truthful, I know of cases where, 
 beyond all doubt, very much larger yields have been grown on 
 acres, when managed by an expert. This is told to encourage 
 you, my young friends, if at first you do not succeed, do not 
 stop short of a pretty high round in the ladder. The remain- 
 ing chapters in this book are for any young friends or others 
 who may grow some strawberries to sell, and are interested in 
 
48 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 studying over the different points that come up to one who is 
 trying to do his best. But before going en, just a word to tcwn 
 people who may happen to see these pages. 
 
 There is a story told of St. John which is not in the Biblt-,. 
 but which we have good reason to think is genuine. It is said, 
 that while he was residing at Ephesus there came one day a 
 sportsman who had heard so much of this wise old man that 
 he went out of his way to see him ; and his surprise was great 
 when ke found St. John engaged in gently stroking a par- 
 tridge which he held in his hand. The sportsman could not 
 help telling how surprised he was to see so great a man em- 
 ployed on anything so small. Then St. John said: "What 
 have you in your hand ? " 
 
 "A bow," replied the sportsman. 
 
 St. John asked, " Why is it not bent ? " 
 
 The sportsman replied : " Because if always bent it would 
 lose its strength." 
 
 "That is just the reason," said St. John, "why I play with 
 the partridge. It is that my mind may be kept strong by not 
 being always at work." 
 
 Now, we have thousands of ministers, doctors, lawyers, 
 business men, clerks, etc., in our town, who need to rest their 
 minds with something that is an entire change. Many of them 
 have garden-plots, or at least a little land where they could 
 grow strawberries. Would that they could be interested in this 
 most delightful pursuit. Allowing me to judge, it would be 
 far ahead of St. John's plan for recreation. There would be 
 profit in it as well as pleasure. There would be exercise in the 
 pure sunlight, and contact with mother earth the best medi- 
 cine in the world. There is something that can be done on a 
 strawberry-bed almost every day, from the time spring opens 
 until winter closes in. The strawberry is so lovely and refined 
 that no lady need be ashamed to be in its company. We have 
 amateur growers who have come to love this method of recrea- 
 tion, and who from constant daily attention have grown berries 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 49 
 
 seven inches or more in circumference, and a jield per square 
 rod, or hill, that I would hardly dare mention. 
 
 Again, there are a great many village people who have 
 their gardens, but no horse to cultivate with (where they have 
 a horse, of course they can cultivate berries on the same plan 
 that is given in the first chapters of this book, for farmers). 
 All of these can grow strawberries successfully ; but they 
 should be set out a little differently from where horse culture 
 is to be used, and treated in a different way. For this class of 
 growers, as well as for ministers, doctors, etc., I should advise 
 hill culture. Set the plants, say, in rows 2 feet apart, and 15 
 to 18 inches in rows, and keep the ground properly stirred be- 
 tween them by hand. If the land is rich enough (and I would 
 make it very rich for this method of growing) they will almost 
 cover it, and give very large fine berries. One should get va- 
 rieties suitable for hill culture and the soil where they are to 
 be grown. Near-by reliable growers could advise best on these 
 points. Of course, all runners are to be kept off during the 
 entire season, when strawberries are grown in this way. A 
 good wheel-hoe could be used to advantage, such as the Planet 
 Jr. When kept in hills on nice rich ground, the plants will 
 stool out and form immense hills. I have had them grow in a 
 single season from 18 inches to 2 feet across. These hills can 
 be kept for two or three years, if desired, although they will 
 probably yield the best the first season they bear. I would set 
 out the plants in the spring, the same as recommended to farm- 
 ers, in former chapters, although, with rich soil and constant 
 care, half a crop could be obtained from early fall setting. 
 
 When a person in a village has to hire all the work done 
 by one who is not an expert, and where he does not understand 
 all about it himself, it would probably be better economy, finan- 
 cially, to buy his berries. But if he could interest himself in 
 the study of the strawberry, and its habits and wants, and do 
 all the work himself, or nearly all, then it might be made to 
 pay in cash as well as better health, oftentimes, and real enjoy- 
 
50 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 ment. The. writer was visiting at a home in one of our large 
 cities once, where there was a blooming, rosy-cheeked young 
 lady. She showed me just & square rod oi land, no more, which 
 she had attended to all alone, and from which she had picked 
 108 quarts of delicious strawberries that were measured, besides 
 some that were eaten right from the vines, and this in a single 
 season. These berries were worth to them $15 ; but that was a 
 very small part of the enjoyment this lady got out of them. 
 Of course, to yield like this they received the best treatment 
 known to the art. She treated them somewhat as the man did 
 who, some years ago, received the prize offered for growing the 
 largest quantity of berries from a dozen plants of a new variety. 
 As nearly as I can now remember, he said he watered and fed 
 them as regularly as he did his horse. I have had two letters 
 from another city lady whose health has been very poor for 
 years. She has two or three rods of strawberries now, in which 
 she is deeply interested. It begins to look as though strawber- 
 ry culture might cheat the doctors out of any further job. 
 Many people who raise flowers might get as much enjoyment 
 out of strawberries on a part of the ground. A neatly kept 
 strawberry-bed would not be out of place anywhere. If there 
 is any prettier flower-bed in Ohio to-day than our strawberry- 
 patch, new in full bloom, I should like to see it. We like oth- 
 er flowers. We used to have five beds on the lawn for them. 
 This spring we sodded over all but two of them. We are get- 
 ting more interested in the flowers on strawberries, currants, 
 raspberries, blackberries, grapes, etc. fruit-bearing flowers, 
 useful flowers. Still, I would not have you love the other kind 
 less, but rather these useful ones more. Can you think of any 
 plant that would afford any more enjoyment than a strawberry- 
 plant cared for so that, when it comes to bear, it shall be loaded 
 down with berries from four to seven inches in circumference, 
 and as handsome as any flower too ; and not only that, but de- 
 licious to eat, also, after you are through looking at it ? 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 51 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 A TAI,K ON VARIETIES. 
 
 Every year there are a number of new varieties of straw- 
 berries brought before the public. Each one is usually better 
 than any thing that was ever introduced before, if we may be- 
 lieve all that is said about it. Well, now, it is a nice thing to 
 have so many horticulturists trying to bring out strawberries 
 that are better than any thing we have. Without such men we 
 should not have the improvement of the last fifty years. The 
 first improved strawberry of importance, Mr. C. A. Green says, 
 was the Hovey, which originated with Mr. Hovey, of Boston, 
 in 1834. After that came the Wilson, then the Downing, Cres- 
 cent, Sharpless, etc., until now we have a great many varieties. 
 It is a fact, however, that of these new varieties brought out, 
 not one in ten turns out in the end to be any real improvement. 
 
 When at Mr. W. W. Farnsworth's, a year ago (who grows 
 berries largely, at Waterville, Ohio, for the Toledo market), I 
 found that he was trying all the new and high-priced varieties 
 of strawberries, having an acre- and a half set out with them. 
 I was quite surprised to find that, for his field culture, Mr. F. 
 had only Crescent and Sucker State berries, four rows of the 
 former and then one of the latter, and so on through the field. 
 Tae rows of Sucker States were, of course, set out to fertilize 
 the Crescents, which have an imperfect blossom. I said to Mr. 
 Farnsworth : ' ' Would not some of these newer varieties, such 
 as the Jessie, do better? " 
 
 He answered : " Possibly there may be some kind among 
 the many new ones that will prove to be better than the old 
 ones ; I hope so." 
 
 Determined to get at the whole truth, I then asked him 
 how that acre and a half of new, choice (so-called) varieties 
 would yield, compared with his Crescents. His answer quite 
 
52 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 took my breath away. He said: "If I get as many berries 
 from that acre and a half as I do from half an acre of those 
 Crescent and Sucker States over there (pointing to one of his 
 large fields), I shall be well satisfied." 
 
 " Why, I thought from the reports of reliable men that the 
 Jessie was the best berry yet brought out," I said. 
 
 " Well," he answered, " these are not all Jessies, and I can 
 not say what the Jessie may amount to ; it may prove better 
 than what we have ; but I do say that my statement about the 
 average of new varieties will not come far from the truth." 
 
 My next question was: " Why, then, do you fuss with 
 these new kinds at all? " 
 
 "Oh! "he said, "I want to test them, so as to know 
 whether any thing better than we have does come along ; and 
 then, being in the business, I must have the plants to sell, of 
 all the newer varieties. People will have them." 
 
 Mr. F. also remarked: "I can always tell when an order 
 received for plants is from a beginner, because such will order 
 many different kinds, while an old grower will send for but two 
 or three, and these of well-established merit." 
 
 Mr. J. M. Smith stands by the old Wilson berry yet, for 
 his main crop, although many other much lauded kinds have 
 been tried by him. There must be a great deal of money paid 
 out for these new varieties that are brought out every year, 
 with, as Prof. Henry says, only a " catalog reputation " behind 
 them, and much of it comes from green hands at the business. 
 I could give you the experiences of other well-known growers 
 on a large scale (who get their living from selling berries), 
 right in this same line. They stick to the old standard kinds 
 like the Wilson, Crescent, Sbarpless, Downing, etc. I asked 
 Mr. Farnsworth if some of the larger varieties like the Sharp- 
 less, Bubach, etc., would not pay him better. He said they 
 would often bring more money per bushel ; but after years of 
 watching and trial he was sure that the Crescents yet brought 
 him the most dollars per acre, for his market, as they outyield 
 
ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 53 
 
 the large-growing varieties so decidedly, in ordinary field cul- 
 ture. You see, Mr. F. grows many acres, and must sell them 
 at wholesale to a large jobber ; and a good common berry that 
 will yield largely is what he wants, for his particular market. 
 There is an unlimited demand, almost, for such, for a rather 
 cheap berry within the reach of the laboring classes. He said 
 to me, however, that for one growing berries in a small way, 
 for home market or a fancy city trade, some of the choicer, 
 
 GAN 
 
 larger varieties might be belter ; but his trade in a large way 
 would not pay enough extra for them so he could afford to 
 touch them. 
 
 This let me out, as I do not want any Crescent berries to 
 eat myself, nor to sell for my trade. I want something larger 
 and of finer quality. Theo. Longenecker says the Crescent 
 will stand more neglect than any other berry, and still yield a 
 
54 
 
 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 fair crop. But I do not propose to neglect them, and prefer to 
 do more work, and have something much nicer. And I have 
 found that the people in our little town would take the finest 
 every time, at a much higher price. I have watched closely, 
 and noticed that those with little money to spend will go right 
 by common Crescents, to pay more for large choice Downings 
 and Sterlings. Mr. F. hit me also when he spoke of beginners 
 
 ordering many varieties, etc. But, how else is one to learn 
 what they will do on his grounds ? Certain ones do best on 
 certain soils, and no one can tell surely which is the best berry 
 for him to grow, except by experience. And it may seem an 
 easy matter to pick out the best one or two kinds, after you 
 have grown a number of varieties side by side for two or three 
 years : but I have not found it so. One may have the healthiest 
 foliage, another may produce the largest berries, another the 
 
ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 55 
 
 finest-flavored ones ; still another, which is a little behind in 
 these respects, may yield tremendously ; then another may be 
 just perfect, only the fruit-stems are too short or too weak, let- 
 ting the berries lie on the ground and making them hard to 
 pick, or perhaps it is liable to rust, and so it goes. Take it all 
 in all, the perfect strawberry is easiest found on paper yet ; but, 
 do not let me discourage you from looking for it, and trying 
 the most promising new varieties in a small way. 
 
 A friend who wanted to set out half an acre of strawber- 
 ries wrote me to know what varieties he had better get. He 
 wanted to grow what they could use at home, and then sell the 
 rest in town, close by. He wrote that he wanted early and me- 
 dium and late varieties, so as to prolong the season. This re- 
 minds me of a remark of Mr. Crawford when I was getting the 
 plants of him to set out our first bed, some three years ago. I 
 wanted early and medium and late berries also. Mr. Crawford 
 did not seem to think that an important point for me ; but in 
 my simplicity I did. So I questioned him to know whether 
 there wasn't considerable difference in the time of ripening of 
 
56 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 different kinds. He laughingly replied : "Oh! there maybe 
 fifteen minutes or so." 
 
 Well, he sent me two varieties, one perfect and the other 
 imperfect. But nevertheless I sent and got some of the earliest 
 and latest berries, as advertised, afterward ; and now, after eat- 
 ing the fruit and watching results, I am in a better state of 
 mind for appreciating Mr. C.'s remark. What fools we all 
 are, often, that we can not take the advice of one who knows, 
 but must each learn in the costly school of experience ! 
 
 The Monmouth was advertised as the earliest berry out ; 
 and the Carmichael, through its originator, promised me ber- 
 ries in abundance long after all others were gone. These were 
 just what I wanted, of course. As to the latter, we did not get 
 five decent berries from 24 feet of matted row. The Monmouth 
 proved no earlier than other standard kinds that were vastly 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 57 
 
 better no earlier to speak of than one kind Mr. C. sent me. 
 I found the Gandy also advertised as the latest of all strawber- 
 ries. Well, now, you know that caught me again. I did want 
 to prolong the season a week or so. Well, it did ripen its first 
 berries ten days later than ordinary varieties. It is a good 
 grower, and the fruit very large and fine ; but for some reason 
 we picked the last good berries, to amount to any thing, only 
 about " fifteen minutes " after the other standard kinds were all 
 done bearing. It is a late berry to begin to ripen, but did not, 
 last year, hold out at the latter end of the season.* 
 
 * We, too, had great expectations of the Gandy. The first ripe berry 
 we got last year from it was on the 4th of July, and the plant was such a 
 beautiful grower the berries so very large that we made quite a little 
 planting of the Gandy. This season they made a magnificent growth; 
 but only about one plant out of four bore any berries at all. The old 
 plantation of last year has done very little better. We also noticed what 
 friend Terry mentions that, although it was so very late before it ripened 
 a single berry, the season was so short that they were gone almost as soon 
 as the Jessie, that gave us our first berries. 
 
 Later, June 20, 1890. Since writing the above I have been down to the 
 patch where the old original Candies stand. I picked a quart of berries 
 from perhaps two dozen plants. Out of this quart I selected a heaping 
 
58 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 All this was a little discouraging to a beginner ; but still 
 he learned by experience, without any great harm being done. 
 He did have sense enough to let Mr. C. pick out the main va- 
 rieties for him, and to experiment with the novelties in a small 
 way. We bought only a dozen plants of each kind tested. 
 Among them we shall find some, probably, that will stay. The 
 Gandy is worthy of trial as a late berry, in a small way. The 
 Haverlands, with us, just lie in piles.* They are of good size 
 and fair quality, and hold out well. The Bubach gives us extra 
 large, choice fruit, and both it and the Haverland and Gandy 
 have very healthy foliage. The Summit is large and choice, 
 but not as free from rust. The Cumberland does well for us. 
 The berries are large. It is an old standard variety. May King 
 proved very ordinary good enough if we did not have much 
 better kinds. The quality was more satisfactory than the yield 
 and size of berry. We bought it as an early berry ; but it is no 
 
 pint of the largest, finest, and most beautiful berries I ever saw in my life. 
 Each one was a model of beautiful shape, color brighter and more be- 
 witching, it seems to me, than any thing I ever saw in the shape of a 
 strawberry, and the whole set off to wonderful advantage by a remarka- 
 bly large, bright-green petiole surrounding the stem. The stalk is very 
 strong, and the biggest part of these berries stood up clear from the 
 ground. For beauty of foliage, and for rank, luxuriant growth, I have 
 never seen any thing to equal the Gandy. Now, my friend, if you will be 
 satisfied with a quart of berries from one picking of two dozen plants, it 
 will pay you to plant the Gandy. My impression is, that they should be 
 at least two years old before you can expect a fair crop. 
 
 * We want to emphasize the remark, that the berries just lay in piles. 
 It was a refreshing contrast to look at the Haverlands, after we became 
 disgusted with the poor fruiting of the Gandy. Why, some of our large 
 old plants of the Haverlands had fruit in piles not only on the south side, 
 but on the north and east and west sides. Some writer, in speaking of a 
 new strawberry, said that no mulching to keep the berries out of the dirt 
 was required, for the plant bore so bountifully that the berries lay three 
 or four tiers deep all around the plant; consequently only the lower tier 
 got in the dirt. All this has been literally true with these Haverlands. 
 Unless I had seen them down on our rich creek-bottom land, with my own 
 eyes, I should never have believed that any single strawberry-plant could 
 ripen such a quantity of fruit. I felt like saying to one of them, " Why, 
 you poor, silly, dear little plant ! you can never ripen all this great mass 
 of fruit, any way in the world." But I tell you, friends, they are ripening 
 up nobly. The first that turned red were so long and large that they com- 
 pared quite fairly with the neighboring Jessies and Bubachs. We are just 
 now making preparations to plant tremendously of the Haverlands. Per- 
 haps I should say that this ground that gives berries in piles has been very 
 heavily manured for several years. A. I. R. 
 
ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 59 
 
 earlier than the Haverland, which will outyield it two to one. 
 The Mammoth (bought for the largest berry) was a failure. 
 We got a dozen or two tremendous berries from our trial row 
 of 24 feet, but no larger than the Summit or Bubach gave at 
 the same time. After that the berries were few and inferior. 
 After all my trouble I am not sure to-day that I have any better 
 berries, all around, for my purpose, than Mr. C. sent me the 
 first year, the Sterling, with the Downing as a fertilizer. The 
 
 former is a failure in hills ; but in thin matted rows it has done 
 grandly. Mr. C. said its only fault was short fruit-stems ; but 
 that is one of its advantages with me, probably, as the leaves, 
 I think, protect the fruit better from our late frosts. 
 
 We have half an acre of berries now in full bloom (May 
 26), and another half-acre which we set out the first' of the 
 month. It may be of interest to some to know just what we 
 set out this spring, after all our experiments, and just the pro- 
 
60 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 portion of perfect to imperfect kinds, etc.; so I will tell you, 
 and I assure you we did considerable studying over the matter 
 before a plan was settled on. There are 17 rows of plants. 
 The following list gives the varieties in order for the 17 rows : 
 
 1 Sterling, I(mperfect) 10 Bubach, I. 
 
 2 Downing, P(erfect) 11 Cumberland, P. 
 
 3 Sterling, I. 12 Bubach, I. 
 
 4 " I. 13 Haverland, I. 
 
 5 Downing, P. 14 Jessie, P. 
 
 6 Sterling, I. 15 Haverland, I. 
 
 7 Gandy, P. 16 " I. 
 
 8 Bubach, I. 17 Jessie, P. 
 
 9 Cumberland, P. 
 
 Mr. Kellogg, of Wisconsin, and others, prefer the Jessie* to 
 fertilize the Bubach ; they say it makes a strong team. Per- 
 haps so ; but the Cumberland and Bubach blossom more nearly 
 together, and, on our soil, I think now they will do the best to- 
 gether. The Jessie is considerably too early for the Bubach, but 
 just exactly right for the Haverland. I shouldn't wonder if 
 they made us a strong team. The Downing fertilizes the Ster- 
 ling well. We have three strong teams. I hardly know which 
 is the strongest. That row of Gandy is put in where it may 
 help to fertilize some of the late blossoms on the Bubachs and 
 Sterlings, which are medium late in blooming. 
 
 Of these varieties, a careful watching this year shows that 
 the Jessie and Downing are the most easily injured by frost. 
 The three imperfect varieties were very slightly injured. The 
 Jessie was the first berry to bloom ; but the Haverland came 
 close after. All other varieties which we have tested have been 
 dropped out. 
 
 Now, this experience is not given for others to go by blind- 
 ly, in a large way, unless it agrees with that of your nearest 
 horticultural authority, who knows your soil and locality. But 
 you may safely set a few plants of the above varieties for ex- 
 periment, and more, perhaps, if your soil is like mine a good, 
 
ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 61 
 
 deep, rich loam, neither too light nor too heavy. For experi- 
 ment, buy a dozen plants of a kind. Set them two feet apart 
 in your rows, but leaving four feet (skipping one place) be- 
 tween varieties in the rows. See to it that no runners get 
 across from one row to another, or from one variety to another 
 in the row, otherwise you will have your plants mixed to set out 
 another year. After glowing them two or three years you may 
 find out what two or three kinds best suit your soil and treat- 
 ment and taste. 
 
 I would not be understood as condemning all the varieties 
 mentioned above that failed to do well for me. They might 
 succeed better undtr different conditions. 
 
 The pictures in this chapter will give you a fair idea of the 
 looks of six of the seven varieties we have set out this spring. 
 Of course, these pictures are of the largest, finest specimens. 
 The Sterling is from a photograph of one grown by Mr. Craw- 
 ford, and is life size, exactly. We picked some benies last 
 year of each variety as large as these pictures, and many that 
 came near it. You may notice the Bubach quite closely resem- 
 bles the Sharpless. The Cumberland is as perfect in shape as 
 though turned in a lathe almost to?; perfect. The Haverland 
 is thimble shaped. The Downing, with us, so closely resem- 
 bles the Gandy that we thought one picture would do for both. 
 I have seen larger berries than these on exhibition at a berry- 
 show ; but they were grown specially for the occasion by forc- 
 ing. Some as large as these can be grown with good ordinary 
 culture. 
 
62 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 HOW MARKET-GROWERS MARK OUT MAKING PLANTS GROW 
 RIGHT AI,ONG IN DRY WEATHER TlI^AGE TOOI^S AND HOW 
 TO USE THEM A STRAWBERRY HARROW WORK BRINGS 
 THE BERRIES. 
 
 Most growers who set out only a quarter or half an acre cf 
 strawberries will hardly be able to do better in the way of mark- 
 ing out and setting than to use a line, spade, and trowel, as 
 spoken of in a previous chapter. I know some who set a good 
 many more than that, who set by a line, as they consider it so 
 important to have their rows straight. Where berries are grown 
 on a large scale they are sometimes put in in a faster manner ; 
 but I would do my best, and let speed be a secondary matter. 
 If you happen to have an Aspinwall potato-planter you can 
 dispense with the line and spade, however, and still do as 
 straight and perfect work. I used this tool for marking out 
 my half-acre, last year and this year. The coverers were taken 
 off, and the plow set to run nearly five inches deep. This im- 
 plement can be driven so as to make furrows almost perfectly 
 straight, and just the right depth. They are narrow, and just 
 the thing. Some of the dirt falls back into the furrow ; but it 
 is loose, and quickly thrown out with the trowel, where the 
 plant is to be set. We mark but two rows at a time, leaving 
 the team standing on the planter, so as to have the ground 
 fresh and moist to set the plants in that is, if it is a drying 
 day. The plants, of course, are all set out on one side of the 
 mark, or furrow, so as to keep them in line. After marking 
 with the planter we walked through with the hand marker, 
 shown in Fig. 1, and scratched on one side of the furrow where 
 the plants were to be set. So well pleased have I been with 
 this way of opening a furrow, that, if I grew berries by the 
 acre, and had no use for a potato-planter, I would either make 
 a marker something after the same plan, or buy the necessary 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 63 . 
 
 parts of a planter to do the marking ; viz., the wheels, shaft, 
 seat, marker, pole, and plow. 
 
 Mr. W. G. Farnsworth was visiting me last summer. He 
 also is a large grower of berries, like his brother W. W. F. 
 His way of opening a furrow to set plants in (and I think his 
 brother does the same) is with a light plow. Then he places 
 the plants against the land side of the furrow, and, with a gar- 
 den-trowel, th r ows some soil against them and packs it, after- 
 ward doing the rest of the filling with the Planet Jr. cultivator, 
 with the side-shovels on. Mr. F. was much interested in my 
 straight rows, and I think he went home determined to study 
 up some way of opening a straighter, nicer furrow, than he 
 can with a one horse plow. One needs some implements on 
 wheels, or runners, that he can drive two horses to, in order to 
 open a straight furrow. And, aside from looks, every grower 
 knows that, the nearer the plants are in line, the closer the 
 cultivator or harrow can be run, and hence the less hand labor. 
 If I used a plow to mark out, I would attach it to a sulky and 
 use two horses, and fix a marker to swing over from side to 
 side, to make a mark to drive the pole over. Then one could 
 do perfect work. Friend Pierce 's plan of setting out is good 
 for a small grower. If you want to set plants two feet apart in 
 the rows, make knots in your line, or tie in tags, that distance 
 apart, from end to end. Then after your line is stretched, 
 leave it there and set a plant at each knot. I haven't tried it, 
 but it might suit some better than my way of making a scratch 
 by the side of the line, and then taking it away. It would 
 seem to me that the line would be somewhat in the way, when 
 setting out the plants ; but it would save the time I spend 
 marking the places to set plants, and a trifle more. 
 
 Let me emphasize the following points by repeating them : 
 
 Set out only large, choice plants ; and when transplanting 
 
 on your own grounds, let them go from the soil directly into a 
 
 pail of water, and from there into moist soil, and do not forget 
 
 to pack the soil next to the roots, even with your feet, if it is 
 
.64 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 very dry (plants should not be set out when the soil is wet), and 
 to also have the ground very fine and firm before you begin. 
 I notice some fancy growers, in a small way, talk about having 
 the soil so mellow they can run the hand down in to the 
 shoulder. I should not care to set out plants in soil as loose as 
 that. One spring it was very dry for some weeks after straw- 
 berry-setting time. But by using care in the above lines, our 
 plants grew right along, splendidly, all of them. It was dry 
 when we set them out ; but we put moist earth in contact with 
 the plants, and tramped them in with the feet. We could not 
 have had a better season to show the benefits of firming the 
 soil. It happened that a large grower called here about a 
 month after setting time. He walked back and forth on my 
 half-acre for some time without saying a word. At last I said 
 to him: "I suppose your berries look better than mine. I am 
 quite a new hand at the bu'siness, you know." 
 
 He replied: "No, they do not. I wish they looked as 
 well. It has been so dry that they have scarcely started since 
 they were put out, and many are dead entirely. Yours are 
 growing right along." 
 
 This was pleasing to me, although I felt sorry for my 
 friend. Of course, however, as he was a large experienced 
 grower I did not presume to tell him what I thought was the 
 cause of the difference. But let me ask you, reader, if you do 
 not think it was simply better care all the way through? We 
 never tried to see how fast we could do any of the work, but 
 how thoroughly well we could manage in every particular. It 
 being dry, we set the plants so they could stand it and grow 
 right along, and they did. 
 
 In a former chapter I think I spoke of a grower saying 
 that a strawberry-plant would often live and take root when 
 thrown away and left on the surface of the ground. This is 
 true, for I found some once when cultivating a newly set patch. 
 One plant was actually in blossom, and about as large as those 
 set out. But that was a very wet season. A little less care in 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 65 
 
 setting might have answered then ; but that year I know some 
 large growers lost half their plants. It won't do to take the 
 chance of half doing any part of our work. Well, the friend 
 last spoken of used this fact, that berries would grow when 
 thus carelessly treated, as an argument to prove that it was 
 useless to spend so much time in keeping the roots wet and set- 
 ting out so carefully. He said it was a pretty hard matter to 
 kill a strawberry-plant. We have too many men of that sort, 
 both among horticulturists and agriculturists. If such can 
 make a living in their line, reader, rest assured that there is a 
 good profit for you in thorough work. 
 
 Mr. C. A. Green says : " But let me tell you that it is work 
 that brings the berries ; work, I say, and hard work too, tug- 
 ging and sweating. Don't take stock in those poetry fellows. 
 Don't get the notion that a big crop of berries, growing as rank 
 as horseradish, without gaps along the rows, came there by 
 whistling for them. Just bet your life that the man who owns 
 that patch nearly broke his back planting and weeding and 
 hoeing ; and if he hadn't he would not get any profit out of 
 them." These are the words of one of our most successful 
 horticulturists. 
 
 In the way of tillage implements, we use the Planet Jr. 
 one-horse cultivator, with narrow 1^-inch teeth on it, and a 
 wheel to keep it from going too deep. This is a good tool ; but 
 we found one trouble which doubtless many growers have ex- 
 perienced. The teeth, although narrow, would throw some 
 dirt over the leaves of the plants, if we ran very near, and even 
 on the crowns. So we had to be satisfied with cultivating about 
 two-thirds of the land, and hand-hoeing the rest. By going 
 very slowly with the cultivator (which we do not like), and 
 stopping to uncover plants occasionally, we might cultivate 
 three-fourths of the land. Well, this sort of work was not sat- 
 isfactory. It occurred to me that small harrow-teeth would 
 throw no dirt, and would run close to the plant, pushing the 
 leaves aside instead of covering them, thus leaving considera- 
 
66 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 bly less for the hoe to do. So I went to the tool-house and got 
 a piece of plank, about two inches by six, and two feet long. 
 Then I took some round half-inch harrow-teeth, that were 
 sharpened,* and, boring holes, I drove them through the plank, 
 as shown in Fig. 10, a tooth at each dot. The holes were bor-. 
 ed through square, not slanting. A slanting tooth would cut 
 off the leaves instead of pushing them aside. Next with two 
 little hook bolts, shown in Fig. 10 at B, which were found 
 among the old irons, I fastened this little harrow under a Plan- 
 et cultivator-frame (leaving the wheel on), after having taken 
 off all the teeth and teeth-standards. I then had a cultivator 
 with nine harrow-teeth instead of five curved teeth. One can 
 
 FIG. 10. HARROW ATTACHMENT FOR CUI/TIVATOR. 
 
 buy something of the kind ; but one made in this way, as an 
 attachment to the cultivator, costs but little, and it can not 
 track. The bolts B hook up over the cultivator frame, one each 
 side, and the nuts, of course, go under the plank. To use it, 
 the land must be clean no rubbish or stones of much size. 
 Under these circumstances you will be pleased with the harrow, 
 to use in connection with a cultivator. You can put in more or 
 less teeth, according to the condition of your land. I tried 
 about fifteen at first, but had to reduce the number to nine. 
 With this harrow one can stir the soil about an inch deep, very 
 close to the crowns of the plants, leaving it level, and do it at 
 quite a rapid pace, as the teeth throw no dirt, no matter how 
 fast you go. The tooth next to the row we did not drive 
 through as far as the rest, by about half an inch, so as to be 
 sure not to disturb the roots of the plants. We go through 
 twice in a row, of course, in our four-foot rows, once on each 
 
 * See last chapter in regard to the manner of sharpening the teeth. 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 67 
 
 side of each row. After a hard rain, which packs the ground so 
 a harrow would hardly touch it, we use the cultivator first, not 
 running very close to the plants, and then finish up by going 
 over again with the harrow, and then continue the use of the 
 harrow until another hard rain packs the soil. I suppose we 
 used that harrow about twice a week last season, on an average. 
 We put it on an old cultivator-frame and left it on. 
 
 The Iron Age cultivator and harrow combined is a good 
 tool in the strawberry-patch, if you raise enough to need a 
 special tool. I can go within an inch of plants with this and 
 throw no earth on leaves. 
 
 For the hoeing we use a pronged or common hoe, like most 
 other growers, except after the runners partly cover the ground. 
 Then we use, to work in between them, to stir the surface in 
 little places where a common hoe would not go in handily, a 
 little V-shaped hoe. Needing two one day, my son made a 
 second one by nailing an old mowing-machine section (a large 
 one) on to the end of a broom handle, so the point would be 
 down at right angles to the handle. The hoe we bought was 
 not hung right for this business. We heated the shank and 
 bent the V-shaped blade down until it stood about at right an- 
 gles with the handle. Then we could use the point or sides to 
 hoe in among the runners, nicely. 
 
 This sort of hoeing may not pay always, at least I presume 
 few would take the trouble to do it. The writer is called some- 
 thing of a crank on tillage. Well, he likes to see every thing 
 just do its best ; and you know one can grow $50 worth of 
 strawberries on half an acre, or $500 worth, or anywhere along 
 between (there is a little luck about the matter, however), ac- 
 cording as he does his part. And in this matter of a surface 
 kept mellow all the time lies part of the secret of a great yield. 
 
 A farmer was asking at an institute in Pennsylvania, last 
 winter, why his berries did not do better. My old friend Sisson, 
 who has sold over a thousand dollars' worth of strawberries 
 from an acre, inquired all about how he cared for them ; and 
 
68 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 at last, laughingly, told him that he didn't think he "dropped 
 quite enough sweat " on his patch. 
 
 For preparing the ground, the best farm tools are all that 
 are needed. If I were now buying new the best of tools for 
 both purposes, I would get a good plow with a jointer on (Oli- 
 ver chilled 40 is my favorite have two), a cut-away harrow 
 and a Thomas, and a good roller. After plowing the land as 
 deep as it was ever plowed before, I would run over it with the 
 Thomas the same way it was plowed ; then roll it. Next take 
 the cut-away and go lengthwise and crosswise, lapping half 
 each time (four times over the land). Then level and smooth 
 down with the Thomas, and roll ready for marking. If it were 
 not just as fine and nice as a garden bed I would harrow and 
 roll more. All this, of course, when the land was sufficiently 
 dry. Fine, mellow, but firm soil, is what you want. On some 
 soils a subsoil plow following the other would help, beyond a 
 doubt. The subsoil in my patch is not hard enough to be ben- 
 efited by stirring. If I had a hard clay subsoil (underdrained, 
 of course) I would plow narrow furrows, say 8 inches wide, 
 and follow with a subsoil plow, drawn by one stout horse walk- 
 ing in the furrow. With a narrow furrow the subsoil plow 
 would break up all the subsoil. Careful experiments have 
 shown that subsoiling did not pay on our porous subsoil. 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 69 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 ALL THE DIFFERENT WAYS OF GROWING STRAWBERRIES 
 TALKED OVER MATTED BEDS ; MATTED ROWS, THICK AND 
 THIN, WIDE AND NARROW ; ROWS OF STOOLS ; CHECK ROWS, 
 ETC. WHEN TO LET RUNNERS GROW JUST HOW OUR HALF- 
 ACRE WAS MANAGED CIRCUMSTANCES ALTER CASES. 
 
 Before the writer began strawberry-growing he talked with 
 many growers in Ohio and Wisconsin, while attending insti- 
 tutes. Almost without exception he was told that the best way 
 to grow for market was in matted rows. But some favored 
 narrow rows ; and some, wider ones. Right here it had better 
 be explained to beginners, that growing in matted beds means 
 setting out the plants in tows, say four feet apart, and then let- 
 ting the runners entirely cover the ground. When grown in 
 what is called matted rows they are set out in the same way ; 
 but by the use of the cultivator and hoe, and what are called 
 runner-cutters by some, they are kept in rows or drills var}ing 
 in width according to the grower's notion. When I was at Mr. 
 Farnsworth's I judged his rows of plants were about 18 inches 
 wide. He said the cultivator had been kept busy in the rest of 
 the space. In the spring, after taking out what plants he wants 
 from the outside edges of the rows, in such a way as to leave 
 them a,bout a foot wide, he hoes up all the other plants neces- 
 sary to reduce the rows to this width of one foot throughout. 
 In this foot of row he prefers to have the plants stand rather 
 thinly. Mr. F. considers this the best plan for field culture in 
 a large way, or did at the time of my visit. He grows ,a good 
 many acres of strawberries. If grown in hills he says he would 
 expect larger berries, but does not consider it possible for him 
 to make as many dollars per acre in that way. 
 
 Mr. F.'s plan is about the same as that of most growers I 
 visited or talked with, although on an average the jowsof 
 plants aie left wider. However, growers were found who kept 
 
70 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 the drills down to eight or nine inches in width, claiming that 
 all the large fine berries, or nearly all, grow on the outside of 
 rows, and therefore they might as well be narrow ; also that 
 the plants get more benefit from the tillage in the narrow rows. 
 In wide matted rows the soil could not be stirred around the 
 plants, or near enough to help them any, after the runners got 
 well started. From the bulk of testimony, probably the berries 
 will average somewhat larger in very narrow rows, unless the 
 wide ones are considerably thinned but, at least ; but I doubt 
 the yield per acre being as large. What I want is a large yield 
 per acre of large berries ; but we will come to that soon. Now, 
 on the other hand, growers were found who left their rows two 
 feet or even three in width, leaving just a narrow path to get 
 through when picking. 
 
 Again, there is another method of growing which I have 
 spoken of before as hill culture. The plants are kept in hills, 
 or stools, by cutting all runners as fast as they appear. For 
 growing in. this way, the plants are set out from 12 to 20 inches 
 apart in the rows, which may be from 3 to 3> feet apart. It is 
 commonly stated that larger berries can be grown in hill cul- 
 ture, but not as many bushels per acre. 
 
 Now after getting all this general information, I set out 
 our first quarter-acre in rows four feet apart, and intended to 
 keep them within two feet, leaving two feet for cultivation and 
 a path. But I found it hard to hoe up any plants that, could 
 possibly be left, and have even a very narrow path left between 
 the rows ; so from my tender-heartedness the rows were proba- 
 bly three feet wide, and from the same reason, along with some 
 greenness, they were terribly thick. And, to tell the truth, I 
 thought that, where my thickest and heaviest growth of vines 
 was, there I should get the most berries. Well, I did not, by 
 any means ; but we had taken such good care of them other- 
 wise that we had a very fair crop any way, and the size aver- 
 aged unusually large too. 
 
 When we were picking, a friend called here who had had 
 
ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 71 
 
 much experience in growing strawberries, and he shook his 
 head sadly at the great thick growth of vines I had (what a 
 time we had plowing them under, or trying to, after picking 
 the fruit ! ) and said if I had kept the runners all cut off, and 
 just had my single hills 2 feet by 4, I would have had larger 
 berries, and more of them, and more satisfaction. This, with 
 the generally expressed opinion that hill culture produces the 
 largest, finest fruit, caused me to decide to keep the most of 
 the new bed set out that season in hills. We did so, and they 
 grew finely (except the Sterlings) and stooled out so as to make 
 very large hills. When friend Root and Dr. Fenn (an authori- 
 ty) were looking at them in the fall, the doctor remarked : 
 "Those hills," pointing to some of the best, "will yield two 
 quarts apiece." This made me happy, for one quart to the 
 hill was all I had hoped for. But when picking time came, I 
 do not think the average was over a pint to the hill. I learned 
 something at a cost of, say, $75. Do you think that perhaps 
 the same varieties in matted rows would not have done any bet- 
 ter, that season, under the same conditions ? Well, I was smart 
 enough to grow a few that way, some in narrow rows and some 
 in wide, some thick, and some thin. An exact account was not 
 kept of the yield from the different strips, as I had no thought 
 of ever telling of. it, and it was so decidedly in favor of the 
 wide, thin matted rows. An old bachelor brother-in-law of 
 mine, who gets a little impatient sometimes when things do not 
 go right, helped pick these berries. He would run over two or 
 three rows of the hills to get a peck basketful ; but when he 
 came to that wide, thin matted row, he would bring in his bas- 
 ket full and say : "Confound that row! I have picked there 
 for an hour, and there is another basketful there yet ! " (a little 
 exaggerated). 
 
 Another point which I could hardly believe : There was 
 very little if any difference -in the size of the berries, on an 
 average. Could we have had our harvest-time experience a 
 year beforehand, we could easily have made one hundred dol- 
 
72 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 lars more from that little patch experience as to the methods 
 of growing, and the best varieties for us, etc. Now, this was 
 but a single experiment, and you must not give it too much 
 weight. It may not settle the matter for all growers and all 
 conditions, by any means ; but it did for us, taken in connec- 
 tion with former experience. All our berries were set out last 
 year in rows four feet apart, and two feet apart in the rows. 
 The plants were set in the spring, before we knew how the dif- 
 ferent varieties would yield, of course ; so some kinds were set 
 out that were rejected this spring. But we got the matted-row 
 experience in time, and all our half-acre was trained in thin 
 wide matted rows. We didn't even care to leave a few in hills, 
 or keep them in narrow rows, to further test the matter. 
 
 Another point : Having large choice plants right from our 
 own grounds to set out, and doing the work so carefully that 
 practically their growth was not checked at all, and the land 
 being pretty clean, it semed to me unnecessary, and, indeed, 
 not best to keep the runners cut off the newly set plants until 
 the middle of Jnly or first of August, as most market-gardeners 
 advise, and as I have advised farmers to do, in a previous chap- 
 ter. I reasoned that my plants were as large and strong and 
 able to grow runners that were thrifty by the middle of June, 
 or soon after, as plants under ordinary field culture \vere a 
 month or six weeks later. Again, that the sooner the plants 
 which were to bear the berries the next season could be started, 
 with a sufficiently thrifty parent, the larger and stronger they 
 would have time to become, and the better able to prcduce a 
 big crop of berries.* Therefore we set out the plants as early 
 
 * Friend T., on account of the value of our land, and the close crop- 
 ping we give it, we put out our strawberries after early peas or early corn 
 or potatoes. We have not the ground to spate at any other time. I^ike 
 yourself, I want the very best plants I can get, and I want to get them go- 
 ing as soon as possible, that I may get at least part of a crop next season. 
 AHer selling them out, of course we keep the runners off. it being so late 
 in the season. Well, with verv rich ground and gnod treatment we get 
 enormous plants, usually, by November, and often plow them under after 
 getting just one crop of fruit. So you see our strawberry-patch gets really 
 no more time than a crop of cabbage, corn, and many other vegetables ; 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 73 
 
 in the spring as the ground was fit to work, and let the runners 
 grow as soon as the plant was able to throw out strong and 
 thriity ones in abundance, which was about the 20th of June. 
 We went over the piece two or three times, training the runners 
 a little, after they got well started, so they would as soon as 
 possible cover all the surface with plants. By the middle of 
 August the vines were a beautiful sight, about covering the 
 ground, and people began to stop and look at them and praise 
 them. We went through from time to time between rows of 
 different varieties, and cut the runners just enough so they 
 would not cross and get mixed. This after they had made such 
 a growth that we had stopped using the cultivator. Where 
 two rows were of the same variety we let them cover the ground 
 entirely between let them grow and run according to their 
 own sweet will. There was practically no ground on the half- 
 acre, except where the runners were cut off to prevent mixing 
 of varieties, that thiy failed to cover, with a little help from us 
 in the way of training. 
 
 Aside from my experience, it seems as though this was the 
 natural way for strawberry-vines to grow. They are vines, run- 
 ning vines, and not bushes. They were just running in clover, 
 so to speak (literally as to their roots). But in the fall, Nature 
 had to be looked after a little, so that she should not overdo the 
 
 for after their fruiting, cabbages and many other things can be put on 
 after. Bat I have been curious to know whether we should get less fruit 
 by letting the runners grow in the spring. On one occasion we had a nar- 
 row strip of very nice mellow ground along the outside row of berries. As 
 we wanted some plants, we let the outside row of Jessies (and this row 
 only), send runners over into this mellow ground. Then I asked the boys 
 to see how many less berries this outside row produced because it furnished 
 plants and berries both at the sam-- time. To my astonishment they said 
 it not only gave those great handsome plants, but it gave rather more ber- 
 ries than the other rows where the runners were carefully cut off In this 
 case the runners were all pulled over to one Mde in this bed of mellow 
 soil, and they were spaced by laying a handful of dirt on the end of the 
 runner. With this treatment the young plant was very quickly self-sup- 
 porting. Perhaps the reason why these plants bore just as well as or better 
 than those where the runners were picked off. was because the ground 
 was so very rich, and possibly this strip of mellow soil, extending clear up 
 >the row of plants, may have given this outside row more thrift and vigor. 
 
 A. I. R. 
 
74 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 matter of plant-making. Man, having given her such an excel- 
 lent chance, must keep the reins in his hands, although the 
 controlling should be in the most natural way possible. To cut 
 off the runners all summer is not natural. We let them have 
 their own .way until the season's growth was about over. About 
 the middle of October, when we had our work done up so we 
 had plenty of time (perhaps a little earlier would be better), 
 we stretched lines through between the rows ; and one man 
 with shears cut runners, and another, with a hoe, cleaned out 
 paths 16 inches wide. This left two-thirds of the ground cov- 
 ered with plants. Next we went through these plants and took 
 out the old ones, set in the spring, all the little weak ones, and 
 enough of the strong ones so that what were left stood not less 
 than six inches apart, on an average. We did this work with 
 an old table knife, having about two inches of the end of the 
 blade bent nearly at right angles with the rest. We could cut 
 them out pretty well with this ; but friend Smith afterward wrote 
 me that, if I had taken my garden-trowels and ground the ends 
 sharp, I could have taken out, or, rather, cut off the plants we 
 wished to destroy, much faster. By the way, while I think of 
 it, we did not cut quite low enough down on some of the plants. 
 Some few that were cut near the surface, although all the top 
 was taken off, sprouted and grew some weak shoots from the 
 sides of the decapitated crowns. We will look out and cut a 
 little lower next time. When we got through this thinning 
 process, about two-thirds of the plants had been destroyed. 
 But my expectation is, that I shall get more fruit, and finer in 
 fact, the largest possible yield per acre. Great care was taken 
 not to disturb any plants except those taken out. The plants 
 left have grown in a natural way, and, since the others were re- 
 moved, have had, each one of them, reasonable feeding-ground. 
 It was no small job to take out these plants with an eye to the 
 " survival of the fittest. " Our rows were some 25 rods long. 
 It was a pretty good day's work for a man to go over one row 
 a day, with some varieties. Others, however, which naturally 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 75 
 
 made less plants, could be thinned faster. But it seems to me 
 that it may easily make a difference of one or two bushels 
 in the yield of a row, or two or three cents a quart in the size, 
 on half a dozen or more bushels, or perhaps both. In thickly 
 matted rows, all the plants do not bear fruit to amount to any 
 thing, and these non-yielders are using up the fertility of the 
 soil are, in effect, so many weeds ; why not treat them as 
 such, and remove them ? It might be wiser not to let so many 
 runners grow ; but this would take endless watching at a busy 
 season, and would not be quite as natural. 
 
 But, now, there is a difference in the habits of growth of 
 different varieties. I am studying and trying to do my best 
 with those we grow. The Crescent, I am told, will stand the 
 most negltct, and yield better in a thick solid matted row, than 
 any other variety having the same treatment. Possibly this 
 thinning would not pay for them ; probably not as well. Of 
 this I do not know, however. I do not want any Crescents, 
 any way On the other hand, it is said that the Sharpless and 
 the Jewell do well in hills, on certain soils and in certain local- 
 ities, with the runners all kept off. But I can not grow Sharp- 
 less ; my land is too much subject to late frosts, which they en- 
 dure poorly, and is hardly heavy enough to suit that berry. 
 For the rank growing kinds that I grow, the above appears to 
 me now to be the very best. 
 
 Mr. C. E. Chapman said, in the Country Gentleman, last 
 fall, in regard to my taking out the old plants set in the spring : 
 "This is contrary to my experience. The old plant is in its 
 prime, not having borne fruit during the season. It has a vig- 
 orous, healthy growth, and will give more and larger berries 
 than any of its runners. Why take it out ?" True, it hasn't 
 borne fruit ; but, has it not exhausted itself sending out run- 
 ners? But I took it out because some other growers told me 
 they would, and because, with two varieties we grow, we 
 had tried leaving the old plants and found they produced 
 next to nothing. Probably Mr. C. is right, for the varieties he 
 
76 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 grows, and I may be partly wrong. How many things we have 
 to learn yet, and how circumstances alter cases ! I wish I could 
 tell every grower who is just starting out in the business, ex- 
 actly what to get and what to do, but I can not. This would 
 be an impossibility for any mortal man. Selling plants is no 
 part of our business, or such a wholesale thinning-out of plants 
 in the fall would be wasteful. We grow berries and sell no 
 plants. Some grow plants and sell no berries. Mr. Chapman 
 thought we might sell the plants we destroyed in the fall, and 
 make considerable. Well, I would not set plants under ordi- 
 nary circumstances in the fall, for myself, nor would I advise 
 others to. If I sold a man plants, I should want him to have 
 them when there was the best chance for him to get some good 
 from them. It wouldn't be right, even to keep still and make 
 money out of my brother's ignorance.* I do not know a mar- 
 ket-grower in the State who practices fall planting. Again, 
 these plants taken out are mostly the poorest. In this respect 
 I should not like Mr. Farnsworth's way of getting plants from 
 the outside of rows for setting. They would hardly be the best. 
 The first runners to +ake root around the old hills will 
 usually be the strongest, thriftiest plants. To get plants to set 
 myself, I prefer to take the row clean, as far as I go, throwing 
 away all poor plants. This saves tramping the ground, too, as 
 one would in taking up plants all along between the rows. 
 Usually in the early spring I should not want any one tramp- 
 
 * Friend T., I fear this remark is a little too sweeping, and perhaps 
 unjust to some. I am very well aware that there are plant sellers who 
 recommend the fall of the year, in the fall, and then in the spring they 
 recommend the springtime; but with the excellent success we have had 
 in receiving plants, both by mail and express, during all the summer and 
 fall months, we can not feel that it is a risky business. Besides, there are 
 quite a few people who have leisure in July and August, or in September, 
 who have not at other seasons of the year. They can attend to it then, 
 and do well, whereas they could not in the springtime. Another thing, 
 untidy gardens may be slicked up and made a thing of beauty and a source 
 of profit by planting strawberries during the months when gardens as a 
 rule look most untidy. Yes, this can be done, and a crop of ' erries secur- 
 ed in It- ss than one year from the time the plants were put out. Very like- 
 ly, where land is plentiful, and where berries are grown largely for mar- 
 ket, the springtime is preferable. A. I. R. 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 77 
 
 ing between my strawberry -rows. But Mr. Farnsworth's soil 
 is very ligbt and sandy, and would not pack like mine ; per- 
 baps not so as to injure it at all. " Circumstances alter cases," 
 again. 
 
 Tbere is still another way of growing strawberries. Tbis 
 is tbe way Mr. Little, of Canada, tells of it, in a late number 
 of tbe American Farm and Horticulturist; 
 
 "Tbere are different modes of planting and cultivating 
 the strawberry ; but very few have adopted the best. The most 
 careless way is to allow the junneis to fill the beds and form a 
 dense mass of plants." (I agree so far.) " Another mode, a 
 compromise between good and bad, is the matted-row system, 
 the plants growing thickly in the row, but admitting cultiva- 
 tion between." (O. K. again. ) " A still better way is to keep 
 the plants in stools, with the runners cut off, which gives fine 
 berries and abundance of them." (Sometimes, if one has the 
 right variety, and no worms to trouble the roots when they are 
 kept in bearing two or three years, as Mr. L. suggests. ) " But 
 there is a still better mode, costing less to keep in perfect order, 
 than the matted bed or matted rows, or rows in stools with cut 
 runners" (Has friend L. forgotten that there is " no excel- 
 lence without great labor? ") " This is the check-row system. 
 Set the plants in squares, or in rows both ways, say two feet 
 apart." This, it is claimed, gives a chance to cultivate both 
 ways, and reduces the amount of hand labor required. It is a 
 question in my mind whether the amount of hand labor is re- 
 duced, and it would take twice as much cultivating. Rows two 
 feet wide would be too narrow for my horses to walk in. It 
 seems to me that I would make the squares three feet, and let 
 several plants f trm in each one. I once heard Mr. Ohmer say 
 that, if he were intending to set out 20 acres, he would put 
 them all out this way. But I did not intend to discuss Mr. 
 Little's plan, oaly give it to you. Mr. Little knows a great 
 deal more about berry-growing than the writer of this. Mr. 
 Hale, of Connecticut, I think, grows berries on about the same 
 
78 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 plan. With varieties adapted to it, it is, of course, a good way. 
 But each reader must study out for himself his best way. This 
 talk is intended to set you to thinking and hunting for it. 
 
 I have no hobby on this point. I should like this last way of 
 growing berries if it would surely bring best results, and were 
 practical for me. But there are objections to hill culture in 
 some localities, which I have not mentioned. Single plants 
 will sometimes die out during the winter (because they have 
 been unnaturally treated?) even if well mulched. If one hap- 
 pens to have any white grubs in his soil, when they destroy a 
 hill wheie they are set in squares there will be quite a loss. In 
 a thin matted row there is less risk. 
 
 I have now explained about the different ways of growing 
 strawberries, and told you just how I did last year (and am do- 
 ing this year) and why I did so. The best of results are ex- 
 pected, and the show for berries at this writing is all that man 
 could ask for. Much study has been expended on this point ; 
 but I shall undoubtedly know more about it a few years in the 
 future. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE MULCHING QUESTION CUT STRAW AS A MULCH THE 
 EARTH MULCH MULCHING TO PROLONG THE SEASON COV- 
 ERING WITH STRAW TO PROTECT FROM FROST MULCHING 
 VS IRRIGATION. 
 
 The first two years that we grew strawberries we mulched 
 them with long wheat straw, as told in a former chapter. It 
 worked well ; but we tried another plan last fall which we have 
 reason to think will be an improvement. We cut the straw 
 into about two-inch lengths, and then covered the entire sur- 
 face over plants and paths with it. The cost of cutting was not 
 much, as we have the straw all in the barn, and it was cut when 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY GUI/TURK. 79 
 
 we could not work outdoors. It is hard to tell just how thick 
 we put it on, but probably something over an inch. Then after 
 that we put a light coat of long straw over all the land. We 
 put this on so that, when finished, we could just see through 
 and catch sight of strawberry leaves here and there ; not so as 
 to entirely hide them (they were pretty tall rank vines). The 
 cut straw was taken out in our big wagon, which, with side- 
 boards on, will hold probably 100 bushels. The boys brought 
 it to me from the wagon in bushel baskets, from which I scat- 
 tered it out by shaking from side to side. We tried to spread 
 both cut and long straw as evenly as possible. In the spring, 
 just as the plants were pushing up through the cut straw, we 
 raked the long straw into the paths and trod it down. This 
 was done on a wet day. In fact, we went over the piece three 
 times, when the straw was soaking wet, poking it into the path 
 with a fork or rake, and treading it down, before we got it all 
 to stay where it was wanted. The cut straw was left to mulch 
 the ground among the plants in the rows. They came up 
 through it without any trouble at all. Perhaps more could 
 have been put on safely and to advantage. It lies closer around 
 the plants than long straw, and hence must answer the purposes 
 better for which it was put there. Our short- stem varieties are 
 least hurt by frost, and probably are what we shall have to 
 raise largely. This fine mulch so entirely covers the surface of 
 the ground that it will keep the berries clean, even where they 
 lie right on it. The grower of choice berries, hoping to get 
 fancy prices, doesn't want any earth on his fruit. Many large 
 growers of market berries do not mulch at all. Our market 
 berries from Cleveland are usually very sandy after a rain. 
 
 But when there is no rain this mulch will probably do the 
 most good by checking the evaporation of moisture from the 
 soil, and thus giving us a crop instead of a partial failure. 
 There is plenty of water in the subsoil and earth beneath, as a 
 rule, that will be brought up by capillary attraction, if a man 
 will only manage to prevent unnecessary evaporation. The 
 
80 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 long straw makes a better mulch in the paths than cut straw. 
 This is one reason why we put on both kinds. It is not so easi- 
 ly moved out of place by tramping, after it is once trodden 
 down in the paths, and then much more of it can be kept there 
 than could be of cut straw. We think we have enough so it 
 will not dry out under it, in any weather It will be nice to 
 get down on to pick the berries. This heavy mulching will re- 
 tard the ripening a little ; but this is no matter to us. By sav- 
 ing us from frost it may be an advantage. Shipped-in berries 
 break down the market before we can get any ripe any way, 
 the same as it is with early potatoes now. With us, choice 
 berries sell as well late as early that is, as early as it would 
 be possible to get any ripe here. 
 
 Now, this way of mulching is an experiment, from which 
 we hope to get the best results, for reasons given above. Up to 
 this time (June 2) I can see no reason why it is not just perfect. 
 Several fruit-growers from other States were here last week, 
 and, after a careful examination of the mulching, and the 
 thinned wide matted rows, with the ground almost covered 
 with loaded fruit-stems, they one and all said it was the finest 
 half-acre of strawberries they ever saw. Now, I don't want to 
 brag ; but I do believe I am on the right track. Here is a pho- 
 tograph of the piece to show you ; but, of course, you can not 
 see the fruit, and you wouldn't know that many of the leaves 
 are from four to five inches long ; but it will give you a general 
 idea of how the patch looks. 
 
 The quantity of mulching I used may be thought by some 
 to be excessive ; but some very successful growers have put on 
 more. Mr. Sitson, of Pennsylvania, told me that he had put 
 on an acre as high as 1200 bushels of forest-leaves (12 loads 
 drawn on a wagon that would hold 100 bushels), and then two 
 or three tons of straw besides. He has great faith in heavy 
 mulching for small fruits. His strawberries were grown in 
 hills, or narrow rows, when they were mulched so heavily, and 
 were helped through the mulch, of course. I think we shall 
 

 STRAWBERRY - PLANTATION SET OUT IN THE SPRING, AND 
 PHOTOGRAPHED THE JULY FOLLOWING. 
 
 6 
 
82 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 risk it to put the cut straw on a little thicker this fall. Mr. 
 Crawford says he never had any berries m olched too heavily. 
 And right here I think comes in a point that is at least of as 
 much importance as getting early and late varieties ; namely, 
 mulching heavily to keep the berries (a few of them so as to 
 prolong the season) from starting at the usual time in the 
 spring. It had better be done with a perfect-flowering kind, 
 as, if an imperfect one were kept back ten days, there might 
 be a scarcity of pollen to do the fertilizing. I know of no bet- 
 ter berry to try this with than the Gandy. The extra mulch 
 should be put on when the ground is frozen solid in mid-win- 
 ter, or toward spring, and not at the usual time of mulching. 
 It might smother the plants to give them a double dose in No- 
 vember ; but you will, I think, run no risk after the ground is 
 frozen deep. The effect then will be to keep it frozen, or cold, 
 and the vines from starting as soon as they otherwise would. 
 I find that they will partly catch up afterward, however. It 
 seems to be their nature to try to be on time ; but still, I have 
 made probably a week's difference in the time of ripening of 
 the same variety, side by side. But, of course, this kind of 
 work must be done with great care. The extra mulch must be 
 removed (I would make it of long straw) just in time when 
 the ground has got warm enough so the plants will grow any 
 way. This work should be done (the extra mulch removed and 
 the other partly) just before a rain, or on a cloudy day. 
 
 Mulching, like every other good thing, has its drawbacks. 
 The soil is colder, and there will be quite a frost on our mulch- 
 ed berries when there isn't any on the rest of the field. I have 
 been out nights and watched, and the berry leaves surrounded 
 by straw were the first vegetation on the place to freeze. But 
 still we can not get along without the mulch, take it all around, 
 although once in a while it may be a damage. Our berries are 
 probably a week later, on an average, from being mulched, so 
 the mulching may sometimes keep them back so they just es- 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 83 
 
 cape a frost. It is about as broad as it is long ; but still, if a 
 late frost does come, the mulching will do harm. 
 
 There is a way out of this difficulty. A mulch of long 
 straw or marsh hay can be taken off in the spring, and the sur- 
 face kept stirred with a hoe or rake, about half an inch deep, 
 wherever any of the gound is uncovered by vines, and then cut 
 straw or cut hay couM be put back just before the fruit begins 
 to ripen. But it can not be done as perfectly as when put on in 
 the fall, and the plants grow up through it. Some of our best 
 growers do this way. Mr. P. M. Augur does, except that he 
 does not cut the mulch that is returned. Mr. J. M. Smith takes 
 off the mulch (marsh hay) and hoes the surface that is expos- 
 ed, and puts no mulch back. He says the berries do not get 
 very sandy on his soil. 
 
 There is another point in this connection that is worth 
 thinking of. You know that a light shower would do a great 
 deal of good in Mr. Smith's well-hoed strawberry-patch. He 
 says himself that he has been astonished to see the effect of a 
 light shower that would hardly lay the dust in the street for 
 more than two hours. The change was almost marvelous ; 
 while upon similar soils not cared for, the suffering plants 
 would scarcely be affected at all. On a patch where a straw 
 mulch is left on all the season, will the light showers do as 
 much good as on a field where the earth mulch is used and the 
 soil is all mellow, and exposed directly to the precious drops 
 from the clouds ? Who can tell us? I have time and again 
 noticed the same thing in the potato field. Where a man has 
 done his best, and the surface is all fine and mellow, a light 
 shower will do so much good that one can not fail to notice it 
 with the eye, while it will have no noticeable influence where 
 the soil is hard and neglected. Between bare surface, mellow, 
 and the same hard and unbroken, in the strawberry-field, there 
 can be no question as to which is the better ; but between bare 
 surface, mellow (the earth mulch), and the same surface cov- 
 ered with a straw mulch, I should not dare to decide positively. 
 
84 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 Either is very good. I incline to think the latter way the most 
 practical for me. Certainly the straw once taken off can not 
 be put back among the plants as evenly as my straw now lies. 
 Last spring (1889) we covered most of our strawberries two or 
 three times to prevent their freezing. We used the straw that 
 was between the rows partly, and brought in considerably more. 
 By careful watching we found that blossoms not so covered 
 were mostly frozen, while those covered escaped injury from 
 the frost as far as we could see. But at fruiting time we were 
 not as well pleased with the result of this plan. Many berries 
 did not amount to much. They were small, or had hard spots, 
 or parts that failed to grow. We thought this might be owing 
 to injury to the blossom while putting that straw on or taking 
 it off. The short-stem varieties were the least injured, which 
 would be naturalif the straw or handling of it did the injury. 
 But I have not yet light enough on this subject to advise one 
 way or the other, except to exercise caution in covering. Bet- 
 ter try it on a few. 
 
 A very successful grower wrote me last fall that I could not 
 make any better use of perhaps 20 loads of manure (strawy 
 horse manure, which is the kind we have) than to put it on my 
 half-acre of strawberries as a mulch, spreading it very evenly, 
 and letting the berries grow up through. The same idea may 
 come to some readers of this book, therefore I had better ex- 
 plain. I am a farmer, and not a gardener or fruit grower reg- 
 ularly. We grow clover, potatoes, and wheat, in rotation in 
 our fields, and the strawberries take the place of potatoes on 
 the half-acre we have. After the beriies are picked, the land 
 where they are will be plowed ; and then after the potatoes are 
 dug, this fall, the entire lot will be sown to wheat. Now, that 
 land is rich enough to yield at least 40 bushels of wheat per 
 acre now, which is all that the straw will stand up under, and 
 probably more. More manure would ruin my chances for 
 wheat, although it would probably pay on the berries Again, 
 I am a farmer, and need what manure we make for the fields, 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 85 
 
 and can not rob them to enrich a pet half-acre for fruit. Take 
 it all around, I had better put in a little more ground to berries 
 than to fertilize any higher, as I am situated. My friend Smith 
 is a market-gardener, and some truck crop will follow his ber- 
 ries (never any grain), and he can not get his land too rich. 
 But many friends can to advantage profit by the advice sent 
 me, and mulch with manure. There is little land rich enough 
 to grow wheat as large as can possibly stand up. 
 
 Along with this question of mulching comes another one 
 that of irrigation. I have talked with several large growers, 
 some of whom have tried it, about watering strawberries in a 
 dry time, and they all said they did not thiak it practicable. 
 But in Popular Gardening for June, 1888, that well-known au- 
 thority, P. T. Quinn, says it is practicable, and gives his expe- 
 rience with watering in 1887. As he reports, he made 10 acres 
 yield 85 bushels per acre, in spite of an unusually severe drouth. 
 He says there is no doubt in his mind but that those who desire 
 to realize the largest results from strawberry growing will have 
 to resort to irrigation. Now, how much water did he put on ? 
 As I figure it, 64 tons to the acre, twice each week, or 128 tons 
 per week. Or, as a ton would be a fair load for soft ground, 
 say 128 loads of water per acre each week. Do you realize 
 how much labor that means, even where the water is right han- 
 dy by, and at the surface of the ground ? It was put on with a 
 sprinkling-cart, which saved all labor in unloading ; but there 
 is a good deal of work connected with loading 128 tons of wa- 
 ter, under ordinary circumstances. To the great mass of grow- 
 ers this way is simply impossible, because they could not get 
 the water. I have well-water within 16 feet of the surface. 
 With a windmill and large tank I might irrigate a quarter of 
 an acre ; but I do not think Mr. Quinn would advise me to go 
 to this expense for this purpose alone. If we had a large wind- 
 mill to raise water for stock, or for use in case of fire, we might 
 use the surplus for irrigation to advantage. 
 
 But no AT let us look and see how our friend Smith got a 
 
86 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 crop in that same dry year of 1887, and how large a crop he 
 got, and compare it with Mr. Q 's that was saved by irrigation. 
 The years 1886 and 1887 were each very dry seasons in Wiscon- 
 sin so dry that ordinary growers met with almost entire fail- 
 ure. Mr. S. raised, the first year, over 250 bushels of strawber- 
 ries per acre, and the next year 223. This was without any wa- 
 tering I might almost say without any rain. Now, how did 
 he do it? He says that drainage was at the foundation, and 
 plenty of manure and tillage did the rest. (There was one oth- 
 er important point, however, which I will try to speak of again; 
 viz., naturally moist soil plenty of water not far down.) I 
 have told you how he mulches and takes off the straw or hay 
 in the spring, and keeps the surface, where exposed, slightly 
 mellowed with hoes, or, rather, mellowed to a slight depth. In 
 a dry year he goes over the patch three times with hoes, the 
 last time just before beginning to pick the berries. Thus he 
 forms a mulch on the surface, which greatly checks evapora- 
 tion. Mr. Smith says he thinks this mulch of stirred soil pro- 
 tected the ground much more perfectly than any straw mulch 
 could have done. Now, practically, for large fields, tillage 
 makes the cheapest and best mulch, perhaps, as far as tillage 
 can be used ; but I should like to have had two or three rows 
 of Mr. Smith's berries covered among the plants all through, 
 as well as between the rows, with straw, the same as mine are, 
 and know the result. 
 
 That noted veteran, J. J. Thomas, says that stirred soil is 
 the best possible mulch for newly set trees. N. Ohmer tells of 
 selling $3000 worth of raspberries from four acres, when his 
 neighbors' berries all dried up on the bushes. A slight mulch, 
 made with a cultivator kept constantly moving, did it. But 
 would not straw have done it just as well ? Alas ! we do not 
 just exactly know. Another well-known authority in the 
 Northwest, Mr. C. H. Hamilton, told me that, in that terribly 
 dry year of 1886, berry-growers in his vicinity reaped rewards 
 just in proportion as they kept the cultivator and hoe moving, 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY GUI/TURK. 87 
 
 shallow, to make a mulch of earth. Those who did their best 
 had little to complain of ; those who said, "It is of no use ; 
 they will all dry up any way," got just what they expected 
 nothing. Those who half way tended to them got a half-way 
 crop. 
 
 Now, I hope all these experiences may throw a little light 
 on the irrigation question. I came back from visiting Mr. 
 Smith, with the idea in my head that either mulching or tillage 
 is vastly more practicable to accomplish the desired end than 
 irrigation. That idea still remains there. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 MANURING, AND THE USE OF FERTILIZERS. 
 
 For the market-gardener who does not grow small grain 
 crops after his strawberries, one of the secrets of great success 
 will undoubtedly be very heavy manuring. The strawberry- 
 vines do not exhaust the land particularly, but they do a good 
 deal of business in a short time, in the second spring and early 
 summer ; and to do all they can, they must have an abundance 
 of available fertility right at hand. From all I have picked up 
 on the subject, I would not advise any one attempting to grow 
 200 to 300 bushels per acre to put all this manure on the land 
 before setting out the plants. It has been found sometimes to 
 make an overgrowth of vines, which do not produce fruit as 
 expected. I would rather put part of the manure on the pre- 
 vious year, say enough to make the land rich enough to bring 
 40 bushels of wheat or 250 of potatoes per acre, and then use 
 the rest of the manure as a top-dressing, or mulch, putting it 
 on as soon as the ground freezes hard in the fall or early win- 
 ter. In this way you will get a strong healthy growth of plants, 
 
88 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 but not an overgrowth ; and the last applied manure will be 
 used largely for making fruit. I know some think that there 
 is stored up in the crowns, in the fall, the substance from which 
 the fruit is made, largely ; but nevertheless I think you will 
 find that manure applied in the fall will help greatly to increase 
 the crop. 
 
 I think it was at Black River Falls, in Wisconsin, that I 
 stopped with a Mr. Lake, who beat any thing I ever saw or 
 heard of in the way of heavy manuring. His strawberries 
 brought him $500 an acre the year before. The soil (?) was 
 about as clear, sharp sand as we are able to get here for mortar. 
 Between three and four acres of his berries were covered with 
 manure in such quantities as I never saw put on land before. 
 It did not seem possible that it could be spread so as not to 
 smother the plants. It had been drawn on snow and dumped 
 in piles. It was pretty much all one pile. The snow had just 
 melted, and they were getting ready to spread it when I was 
 there. The snow is all the winter protection needed in that 
 latitude. There were over 500 " pinery loads " on the three or 
 four acres. Unless you have been up in the pine woods of the 
 Northwest, and seen their huge sleds, you will not have much 
 idea of a " pinery load." The growth of vines where this ma- 
 nure was to be spread was about such as can be found on my 
 patch in the winter. But if that immense quantity of manure 
 does not smother any vines, the yield ought to be enormous. 
 Mr. L- expected a good deal more than $500 an acre. Now, 
 one reads often of such manuring as this without getting all 
 the circumstances connected with it. There were two impor- 
 tant ones in this case. The manure did not cost any thing, ex- 
 cept the hauling, and the land was so podr it would not grow a 
 thing without heavy manuring. 
 
 Mr. J. M Smith's success is partly due to heavy manuring. 
 He uses about 40 large loads per acre on his land each year. His 
 land is worth too much, being near Green Bay, quite a city, to 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 89 
 
 practice rotation with clover. It is cheaper to get more manure 
 from the city, and keep it in garden crops all the time. 
 
 Hon. H. C. Adams uses about 60 loads per acre of manure, 
 drawn from the city, for the most part, although when I was at 
 Madison he was keeping a fine lot of Jersey cows to make ma- 
 nure. His sales of strawberries and cream to one restaurant in 
 the city he told me had been $1000 in a season. Thirty or forty 
 cords of good stable manure per acre are probably necessary to 
 raise such crops as these men do on land of moderate fertility. 
 Of course, much of this manure will remain in the soil for fol- 
 lowing crops. On land as good as mine, with clover worked in 
 every three years, I doubt whether more than fifteen to twenty 
 cords of manure could be used on an acre to advantage, and 
 perhaps not that. But still, I may be wrong. 
 
 Mr. Putney, in his admirable little book on strawberries, 
 says : " All heavy crops are grown on rich soils. Measure the 
 profit by the amount of manure." 
 
 Friend Crawford evidently speaks from experience when 
 1ae says : "It is a mistake to grow strawberries, or any other 
 crop that requires hand labor, on poor land. The same labor 
 that will produce 50 bushels on poor soil will produce 150 on 
 rich. (This extra hundred bushels will pay for all the manure 
 needed to make it rich, and a very large profit besides. See ?) 
 He who cultivates poor land works for small wages. It is too 
 much like running a ten-horse-power engine with a three horse- 
 power boiler ; or like driving a poor horse that can draw but an 
 empty wagon." 
 
 But now the question will come up with some who haven't 
 stable manure in abundance, and can not buy it, whether com- 
 mercial fertilizers can be made to take its place. On my own 
 soil they can not. I have tested this matter most thoroughly 
 during the last two years. Bone meal was tried, and also 
 Mapes' special vine manure, made on purpose for strawberries. 
 We put on large quantities, in the most approved style ; but 
 'they did us no good whatever. It is strange, but we have had 
 
90 A B C OF STRAWBERRY GUI/TURK. 
 
 the same experience in the use of commercial fertilizers for po- 
 tatoes, also, on our soil. The remark of Prof. Green, of our 
 Experiment Station, to the effect that, where a good heavy 
 clover sod was turned under, one need not expect any returns 
 from commercial fertilizers, throws some light on this point. 
 On certain soils, other growers have had no better returns from 
 fertilizers than I ; and, again, on some soils they pay well, 
 more particularly on poor land or heavy soil. 
 
 I have taken single plants and worked the fertilizer into 
 the soil for a foot around, all through the season, with a liberal 
 hand, but failed to make them show a particle of gain over 
 their neighbors, either in foliage, growth, or fruit. The same 
 thing has been done, also, with whole rows. So I think that, 
 before investing largely in fertilizers, one had better carefully 
 test them on his own grounds, and know whether they pay or 
 not. As a rule, berry growers on quite heavy soils have had 
 the best results with fertilizers so far as I have been able to 
 learn. Mr. Crawford says bone meal and ashes or potash are 
 the best fertilizers for strawberries. His soil is much heavier 
 than mine, and I presume it does not get a heavy clover sod 
 turned under once in three years. I will not attempt to say 
 (because I do not know) why fertilizers do not show good re- 
 sults wherever more stable manure would on my farm ; but I 
 know, from years of experience, that they do not. 
 
 To show more clearly the different results on different soils, 
 and to encourage all to test this matter thoroughly for them- 
 selves, I quote some from a report published in the Rural New- 
 Yorker : 
 
 " I have been experimenting with fertilizers on strawber- 
 ries, but have not been, to any great extent, successful either 
 in increasing the size or improving the quality of the fruit. A 
 plot on which no fertilizer was used produced as much and as 
 good fruit as any of the fertilized plots near it. This has been 
 the result of my experiments for five years. A few years ago 
 Mr. Hale recommended a heavy application of bone dust, two 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 91 
 
 parts; ground fish, two parts; muriate of potash, one part. 
 He said in substance : ' If you want a good crop, use 1200 Ibs. 
 to the acre ; if you want a better crop, use one ton to the acre ; 
 and if you want a big crop, put on all you can afford. Then 
 shut your eyes and put on as much more, and it will pay every 
 time ' Early in the spring of 1882 I prepared a tenth of an 
 acre, carefully measured and staked off, and applied 400 pounds 
 of the above mixture, at the rate of two tons per acre. It was 
 thoroughly harrowed in after plowing, and the plants were set 
 three or four weeks later. There were six rows. Three rows 
 were kept in hills, and three were allowed to form matted rows. 
 The plot was part of an acre set at the same time, and all were 
 treated alike as to cultivation, etc. Variety, Wilson (same as 
 Mr. Smith manures so heavily). Great was my disappoint- 
 ment when I found, in the picking season of 1883, that the 
 rows not fertilized produced as many and as good berries as the 
 fertilized ones. T' e growth of plants was a little stronger on 
 the fertilized plot than on the rest of the ground. In 1884, 
 however, there was quite an appreciable increase in the size of 
 the fruit, but not enough to render the fertilizing profitable." 
 
 Now, Mr. Hale was right, of course, for his farm, and so 
 was the other man for his, and still they arrive at entirely op- 
 posite conclusions. It is the old story circumstances alter 
 cases. We must know our own soil and be our own experi- 
 menters. We can get hints and ideas from others ; but on 
 some points like this we must learn by experience, and be care- 
 ful that we do not lose too much while learning. 
 
92 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 PICKING AND MARKETING A FARMER WHO DIDN'T HAVE 
 THE PRICE FIXED FOR HIM GROW FEWER BERRIES AND 
 BETTER ONfcS. 
 
 In the small way that we grow strawberries, we have not 
 yet had occasion to hire any pickers by the quart. We have 
 had regular help enough to do all the picking ourselves, so we 
 do not need to have the berries measured as picked. We use 
 common peck baskets (grape-baskets) to pick in ; and when 
 the picker gets four or five quarts they are brought to the cel- 
 lar and emptied into half-bushel drawers (those that are used 
 in the common two- bushel stand). The berry-patch is right 
 close to the house, so it is little trouble to take the berries to 
 the cellar. Sometimes when it is cool, however, we fill the 
 drawers under a tree. Oar dealers here prefer to have the ber- 
 ries in bulk, in these drawers, rather than put up in quart bas- 
 kets. They say people like to see the berries measured, and 
 see what they are buying ; and then I suppose a well-filled half- 
 bushel drawer will measure out 18 or 20 quarts, sometimes. 
 The drawers are certainly less trouble to us than quart boxes. 
 They cost 40 cents per stand of two bushels (four drawers), if 
 bought new of a manufacturer. Second-hand ones can be had 
 of any dealer who buys Southern berries. Mr. Farnsworth 
 writes me that he buys second-hand stands in Toledo, nearly as 
 good as new, for 25 cents each. Dealers here ask 40 cents, as 
 the Cleveland firms allow them that for them if sent back. But 
 I guess they have the freight to pay, and could afford to sell 
 for about 30 cents. 
 
 We do not measure the berries into the drawers, but simply 
 fill them as full as we can. Mr. Crawford says a bushel of 
 strawberries should weigh between 38 and 39 pounds, but he 
 always gives 40. We can not get enough in our drawers so 
 they will weigh over 40 pounds. When we sell less than half a 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. . 93 
 
 bushel (to some neighbor who calls here, as we do not retail in 
 town) we weigh them instead of measuring, giving 1^ pounds 
 for a quart. This saves all extra handling, which, of course, 
 is injurious to the berries. When picking, our folks put either 
 a quart or two-quart tin can in one end of the basket, and into 
 this they put all small berries, and any that for any reason are 
 not strictly first class. We have used these for canning, or sold 
 them at a reduced price to others for that purpose. Parties 
 have told us that they found them far superior to common, 
 shipped in market berries, as there was no waste to them. I 
 do not thiuk they are quite as nice for canning, unless you 
 mash them up and make strawberry jam of them. However, 
 the difference is mostly in the looks. I hardly think one could 
 often tell the difference by the taste alone, if his eyes were clos- 
 ed and the berries mashed up.- But my wife thinks the looks 
 fully as important as the taste ; and I am sure that, if she could 
 see them, small canned berries would not taste as good to her 
 as large ones. 
 
 These small berries (not very small, by any means) do not 
 cost any thing except the trouble of picking separately, as the 
 large choice ones will bring in our market as much as or moie 
 than the entire crop would unsorted. We live near a town of 
 half a dozen or so stores and groceries. The first year we grew 
 berries, not a word was said in advance to any dealer about our 
 having any. They knew nothing about it. Many readers of 
 this little book will know that the writer has always preached 
 that there is plenty of room for excellence in any line, and he 
 determined to test this matter in the berry line in our little 
 town. There is never any scarcity of berries here, as we are 
 close to Cleveland, and there are several small local growers 
 also. Now, into this market, where it would seem that a new 
 man stood no chance, we determined to go, entirely unan- 
 nounced, and st 11 what we had, on the merits of the article. 
 Nothing but large, fine, choice berries, just ripe enough to be 
 at their best for eating, were taken. With these we usually 
 
94 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 went in twice a day, so as to have them in perfect condition, 
 and we sold to dealers only, unless some one else wanted half a 
 bushel and we had too many for the grocer. 
 
 The first berries we took in were carried to the store of Mr. 
 R. P. Williams, an old merchant with whom we had dealt for 
 25 years. He looked at them with considerable surprise. 
 " Why," he said, " I didn't know you grew any berries." 
 
 " We shall have a few bushels to sell this year like these." 
 
 " What do you want for them ? " 
 
 " They ought to retail for 15 cents." 
 
 " Why, we have been selling for 12^ cents for some time." 
 
 " Never mind that ; I think these will sell for 15." 
 
 Just then Mr. Williams' head clerk, Mr. Blackman, came 
 up and said : " Yes, sir ; those berries will sell for 15 cents." 
 
 "Well," Mr. Williams said, "if they do I will pay you $4 
 a bushel." 
 
 A clerk reported to me afterward, that the first half-bushel 
 went in twenty minutes after they were put in sight. Folks had 
 then got a taste of berries such as few ever get in market, and 
 there was no more trouble about prices. You see berries from 
 a distance have to be picked before fully ripe to stand shipping, 
 and in quality they can not compare with those fully ripened 
 on the vines. Again, in how many small towns can one buy 
 large choice Downings and others of our sweetest and finest- 
 flavored berries ? 
 
 Having too many berries for Mr. Williams, I one day called 
 on another grocer, Mr. G. V. Miller, and asked him if he want- 
 ed any. He said he had been selling about a bushel a day, and 
 then had a bushel and a half on hand, and they were getting 
 stale, they went so slowly. He was retailing them at 10 cents 
 a quart. He wanted to know what I asked for mine, although 
 he could not use any more. I told him $4 a bushel. Well, he 
 looked just sorry for my simpleness, and look out and handed 
 me a bill from a Cleveland house which showed that his berries, 
 received that morning, cost him only $1.75 a bushel. In an- 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 95 
 
 swer I said : " Now, my friend, come out and see what I have, 
 any way ; no matter about buying them." "Oh, yes ! I should 
 like to see what you raise," he said, coming out to the wagon ; 
 and didn't I enjoy the sudden change from utter indifference 
 that came over his countenance when I laid off the cover? 
 Now I will give you exactly all that was said. 
 
 "Are these berries the same all through as on top?" 
 
 (Wasn't I glad just then that they were?) 
 
 "Yes." ^ 
 
 " Then bring them in." 
 
 It took perhaps ten seconds to make the sale after the ber- 
 ries were uncovered. I left as soon as possible, but not too 
 soon to see him measuring them out to customers as fast at 15 
 cents a quart as he could. Trade had suddenly stiffened ! Aft- 
 er that, Mr. Miller had our berries fresh twice a day through 
 the season. At the end of the season, Mr. Williams said to me 
 when settling up : 
 
 ' ' We never managed our strawberry business so satisfacto- 
 rily all around as we have this year. Everybody was pleased 
 and satisfied, and there was no waste or loss. We have made a 
 little something, and helped you to get a paying price." 
 
 Now, this is an exact statement of how we came out in our 
 first attempt t get into the upper- story of strawberry- selling. 
 But not the half has been told, by any means. Those berries 
 were the talk of the town for some days, and ever so many peo- 
 ple spoke to us about them how choice they were, etc. , and 
 were anxious to know how long they would hold out. I couldn't 
 help but think of the old cry that the farmer has the price of 
 every thing he sells as well as what he buys fixed by the dealer. 
 This farmer fixed his own price once, that is certain. 
 
 Please do not think I am telling all this to brag of what we 
 did. We have had our fill of glory and praise from our friends 
 here in town ; but I do want to show that it pays to practice ex- 
 cellence. And many others have done far better than we. A 
 friend in Indiana told, in the Country Gentleman last year, 
 
96 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 about how hie grew Sharpless berries on heavy soil, in hills, and 
 they were so large and fine that " they never brought less than 
 20 cents a quart in his market, while Crescents and others were 
 selling as low as 5 cents, and bushels of them spoiling, and 
 not finding sale even at that price." 
 
 I could fill pages with just such experiences. We have a 
 great many people in this country now who do not think of 
 price if the quality is high enough. I was talking with a friend 
 last winter who makes fancy butter for private customers, and 
 they are not wealthy city people either. He gets 50 cents a 
 pound. "There is no money that would tempt me," he said, 
 " in butter at market price, say 25 cents a pound. But if I can 
 get 25 cents a pound for a little extra care and skill in making 
 and marketing, then there is big money in it." 
 
 Now, it is a fact that most of this man's customers have an 
 income of less than $1200 a year, and still they are ready to pay 
 two prices for a gilt-edged article, that is strictly tiptop every 
 time, delivered with the fresh aroma in it, in the finest shape 
 known to the art. It is a good deal the same with the straw- 
 berry-grower who has a quarter or half an acre, such as I am 
 writing for particularly. He will not make much selling ber- 
 ries at 5 or 6 cents a quart. It is a grand thing, however, that 
 many large growers, like Mr. Farnsworth, can grow common 
 berries cheaply for the masses, who couldn't afford to pay for 
 the best, and must have cheap ones or go without. 
 
 As hinted at above, I would have the berries, in whatever 
 package they are sold, just the same all through. A reputation 
 can soon be built up in this way. Hon. H. C. Adams told me 
 he thought it pud him to "place " all the berries on the top of 
 his quart boxes which he sells in that is, turn them all stems 
 down. This, of course, is honest, where the berries are the 
 same all through the basket, as it is simply turning the berries 
 so they will look attractive. But it is not honest, under any 
 circumstances, to " top out " a box or drawer of berries. Ask 
 a paying price for a choice article, and then give good measure 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE 97 
 
 and straight goods every time, and you will make money, and 
 it will be clean money. 
 
 I should like to have you read the following lines, selected 
 out of an article from Prof. L. H. Bailey, of Michigan Agricul- 
 tural College, which I think first appeared in Popular Garden- 
 ing. They express my ideas in better words than I could put 
 them in : 
 
 "The tendency of fruit-growing is to specialize, to grow 
 one or two products on a large scale, and solely for the money 
 there is in them. Fruits which endure rough handling and 
 long shipments are taking the places of the better fruits. The 
 person who depends solely upon the city markets can not know 
 or appreciate good fruit. Quality must always suffer when des- 
 sert fruits are grown and handled by the wholesale. The flavor 
 and relish of the individual varieties, the appreciation of deli- 
 cacy of taste, the appetizing influence of the best and freshest 
 products of the thrifty garden do not appear. The commercial 
 tendency of the times is toward the money rather than the 
 product. 
 
 " Still, there is an abundance of people who are willing to 
 pay for the best. Every town contains such people. They 
 mike it possible for the gardener who is ambitious, to exercise 
 his skill in the production of the very best product. I rarely 
 advise my students to pursue horticulture on a large scale. I 
 urge them to grow less and grow better. Superior fruits com- 
 mand remunerative prices at nearly all times." 
 
 These are excellent words for any one growing strawberries 
 on a small scale, to ponder over. Grow larger ones. Grow 
 choicer ones. Get them to the consumer in more perfect con- 
 dition. You can not hope to compete with large growers in 
 the ordinary market, nor can they hurt your trade much in the 
 direction pointed out so forcibly by Prof. Bailey. 
 
98 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 SHAU, WE LET OUR BEDS BEAR MORE THAN ONE YEAR? 
 MR. SMITH'S GREAT YIELDS, AND TWO OF THE SECRETS 
 SOME FIGURES ON THE COST OF GROWING BERRIES. 
 
 You will learn, from the first part of this book, that the 
 writer thinks it best to plow strawberry-vines under after they 
 have borne one crop. One gets the finest fruit and the largest 
 crop the first year. It seems to be but little more work, if any, 
 to set out a new bed than to clear up and care for an old one. 
 Keeping a bed more than one year in bearing gives all injurious 
 insects a better chance to multiply. Some must be set out 
 every year, any way, in order to have proper plants for setting. 
 Do not be so unwise as to set plants from an old bed. On this 
 point Mr. Smith says : " If we allow a strawberry-plant to bear 
 fruit, and then plant the weakly, dwarfed runners that it pro- 
 duces, we can not hope for a healthy, vigorous continuation of 
 the variety." 
 
 Mr. S. has grown the Wilson since 1861, and has found no 
 berry yet that can go ahead of it for market. He plants but 
 once on the same ground, using only healthy, vigorous runners 
 (or new plants) from plants that have not borne fruit, and con- 
 siders this one great secret of his success. So if you let a bed 
 stand more than one season, at least set out a few plants each 
 year so as to keep vigorous and proper plants for setting. 
 
 There are quite a number of our best growers who agree 
 with me in regard to keeping a bed in bearing only one year ; 
 but there are also some who do not. You shall have both sides. 
 Mr. W. W. Farnsworth has kept his bed in bearing two years. 
 I asked him if the second crop was not mostly smaller and in- 
 ferior fruit. He said they got some choice fruit at the first 
 pickings, and the berries ripened somewhat earlier than on the 
 newly set plantations. Further, his pickers always wanted a 
 
ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 99 
 
 good many berries, and he let them have the last pickings on 
 the old patches at a reduced price. But still the last time I 
 heard friend F. talk at an institute on this subject, he seemed 
 almost converted to the plan of leaving his berries to bear but 
 one season. At any rate, he spoke of that as " probably the 
 best way. ' ' I think he would be more positive where one grows, 
 say, only part of an acre a year, and that is the class of grow- 
 ers I am writing to. 
 
 Mr Adams, of Wisconsin, when I was. there, left his beds 
 to bear two years. He says they will not produce as well the 
 second year, but that the second crop costs him but little more 
 than the picking. His land must be quite free from weeds 
 and grass. My friend Sisson, of Pennsylvania, says he lets his 
 berries bear two years. The first jear they are kept in hills, or 
 quite narrow rows. After the fruit has been picked he plows 
 the soil away from the rows on each side, leaving a strip only 
 about eight inches wide. This plowing buries the mulch and 
 vines so that they soon decay. Meanwhile he cleans the little 
 eight-inch strip that was left, with hoes. After two or three 
 weeks, the soil plowed up in the middle between the rows is 
 worked back by the use of the cultivator, and then the runners 
 are allowed to spread and form a matted row. Mr. S. is an ex- 
 cellent cultivator, and when berries are left to bear two seasons 
 perhaps his plan is as good as any. The weak point is, that 
 the parent plants that send runners out to make his matted 
 rows are old, exhausted plants, which Mr. Smith would think 
 not capable of producing the most vigorous of runners. Of 
 course, heavy manuring, and his most excellent tillage, would 
 somewhat balance this. He will get a large crop, any way. 
 But couldn't he get a larger one? 
 
 I have had much to say about friend Smith, of Green Bay. 
 Let me now tell you just what he did the year before I was 
 there, which was a very dry year too. I saw 3^ acres in his 
 40-acre garden, that yielded $2215.24 from strawberries. I 
 looked over his sales and tcok the figures right from his books, 
 
100 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CUMURE. 
 
 at his request. S'xty thousand plants were taken from the 
 same land in the spring, worth $300, and then between $700 
 and $800 worth of celery and cabbages were grown on the same 
 3) acres after the berries were plowed under I could not get 
 the exact figures on the vegetables, as they were not all sold. 
 These figures fairly take one's breath away. Mr. S.'s largest 
 yield for a single season was 446 bushels per acre. Certainly 
 we may all give careful attention to all friend Smith saj s on 
 any point connected with strawberry-growing. But I believe I 
 have not given you what seemed to me one of the great secrets 
 of his wonderful success. Heavy manuring, and the most 
 thorough tillage that man knows how to give, and the choicest 
 plants that can be grown, with such a man as Mr. Smith at the 
 helm, are important factors ; but there was one more point, as 
 it seemed to me : Mr. S.'s land is very sandy, and but a few 
 feet above the water of the bay. There is abundant moisture 
 at all times. Capillary attraction brings it up readily, through 
 the mellow sand, and with Mr. Smith's tillage his crops suffer 
 little or none for water, whether it rains or not. He has tile- 
 drained and surface-drained, in beds, his land, to take the sur- 
 face water, after a shower, off quickly, sandy as it is ; but there 
 is a never -failing supply but a little way down. His land is 
 notably such as I spoke of in a previous chapter as best for 
 strawberries well drained, but moist. Much of your success, 
 my friends, may depend on your selecting land of this charac- 
 ter. 
 
 Now, some readers, perhaps, would like to know about 
 what the profits are in strawberry -growing on a large scale. It 
 has been difficult to get figures on this point from growers. In 
 fact, the only man who has followed the business for years, and 
 would tell just what he made, was Mr. Adams, of whom I have 
 spoken before. The following are his figures as to the cost of 
 growing an acre, on the average, for a term of years : 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 101 
 
 Plowing $ 1 25 
 
 Harrowing 1 00 
 
 60 loads of manure 30 00 
 
 7000 plants 28 00 
 
 Planting 5 00 
 
 Hoeing 7 times 21 00 
 
 Mulching 8 00 
 
 Work second spring 5 00 
 
 Picking 50 00 
 
 Boxes .. 25 00 
 
 Total |174 25 
 
 His average crop for a term of years has been 5000 quarts 
 per acre. The cost of production, then, not including land 
 and marketing, is about 3^ cents per quart. The actual price 
 he has received on the average has been 8 cents a quart, or $400 
 an acre. This leaves him a net profit, certainly of $200 per 
 acre a fine showing. Knowing the gentleman well, I have no 
 doubt it is a fair statement of what he has done. His manure 
 cost him but 50 cents a load, delivered, from the city. It is 
 very seldom one can get it at that price. Some of Mr. Adams' 
 figures would seem very low to a beginner. For example, I 
 could not set 7000 plants for twice $5 00 ; but I am told that an 
 expert would set that many well in 3 days. I can hoe an acre 
 for $3, however, so I am up to Mr. Adams in that respect. My 
 man will hoe our half-acre in a day, nicely. By the way, I have 
 just noticed that our friend forgot to put in the cultivating ; 
 but that would not add a great deal to the cost. 
 
 Now, friends, take just this thought with you in parting : 
 Do not be satisfied with any thing short of the very best. 
 
102 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 YIELD OF OUR HALF ACRE THIS YEAR (1890) QUALITY RIDES 
 OVER A GLUTTED MARKET NUMEROUS NOTES ON THE SEA- 
 SON'S EXPERIENCE. 
 
 Since writing the previous chapters the berry season has 
 come and gone, and a few words in regard to this year's expe- 
 rience may be of interest. The cash sales from our patch were 
 $237.00. We were painting house and barn, and building an 
 addition to our covered barnyard, during the berry season ; and 
 as we had to board the carpenters, tinners, painters, etc., as 
 well as four men of our own, besides our own folks, we had a 
 very large " home market " for berries. We certainly ate, can- 
 ned, "jammed," and gave away $50 worth, probably more, as 
 some days I know by actual measurement that we ate three 
 pecks. We may safely say that the total value of the crop at 
 wholesale prices was $287. No attempt was made to get the 
 last dollar out of them, or the receipts might have been pushed 
 up to $300. We all got pretty tired of picking ; and when the 
 yield got so light that there was not much profit in it we let 
 them go and told the neighbors to help themselves. One lady 
 picked more than a bushel. As we had taken up plants from 
 one end of the patch, taking all clean as we went, the above 
 yield was obtained from several rods less than half an acre. I 
 haven't figured up the exact yield in bushels ; but it was over 
 100, or considerably over 200 bushels per acre. With the ex- 
 ception of three bushels the berries were all sold at the door, 
 or in our little town of Hudson. That we were able to do this 
 was a surprise to us. j^There are plenty of other growers here, 
 and the'streets were full of peddlers all through the season. 
 They took the berries from door to door. We sold to dealers 
 only, or to families who wanted a half-bushel drawer. I fixed 
 the price of our best selected berries at $3.20 a bushel, and the 
 
ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 103 
 
 small ones for canning at $2, and held it there without any re- 
 gard to how low others were selling. I believed our town peo- 
 ple would appreciate a good thing, and be willing to pay for it, 
 and they were ; and after the first day they took all we had, so 
 that we did not have a single quart of berries spoil after they 
 were picked ; and the demand was so great that we could not 
 get a chance to can any for ourselves until the very last, when 
 we shut down and positively refused to sell any more. Noth- 
 ing in the world but extra quality gave us this good market in 
 this season when berries were so plentiful. The markets were 
 all glutted with common berries ; but such as ours were not 
 crowded in the least, and never will be. I went through the 
 market in Cleveland during the best of the season, and through 
 the most fancy groceries on Euclid Avenue ; and in all that 
 great city there was not half a bushel of berries that would 
 match what I was furnishing to our grocers. Now, talk is 
 cheap ; but photographs tell the truth. It occurred to me, when 
 I was going to town one day, that a picture of the berries in 
 the drawers, just as sold to customers, would be more convinc- 
 ing as to the soundness of my method of culture than pages of 
 mere writing, and so I drove to the gallery and had some pic- 
 tures taken. The berries are exactly the same size all through 
 the drawers (not " topped " at all), and these drawers were no 
 better than many others which our dealers had. One picture 
 shows the Sterling and Haverland. When the Gandies first 
 came, some eight days after the others, they were so magnifi- 
 cently large and fine that I got a picture of two drawers of them 
 also. They sold readily at $4 a bushel. These two drawers 
 that you see a picture of brought me $4, and retailed just as 
 fast as they could be handed out, almost, at 15 cents a quart, 
 when, I was told, people were peddling berries at 8 or 10 cents, 
 and when you could buy common berries in Cleveland for $2 
 a stand of two bushels. By the way, I give you a picture of a 
 drawer of these common berries, so you can better judge the 
 size of the others. My wife says these are better than the aver- 
 
i 
 
 si 
 
106 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 age of what we used to get from Cleveland. Farmers complain 
 much about there being no money in 80 cent wheat. I should 
 think there must be a great deal more than in berries sold by 
 the dealers at $1 a bushel. The dollar-a-bushel man has to take 
 just what he can get, and has the world to compete with ; the 
 $4-a -bushel man can set his price, and his market will never be 
 glutted. I do hope my experience may teach this lesson. I 
 was anxious to go to a fancy store on Euclid Avenue with a 
 bushel of those magnificent berries, just to see what I could 
 get for them ; but our people wanted them all, and more, and 
 we let them have them. 
 
 But the first day we picked almost too many to suddenly 
 put on our little market, and early the next morning I drove 
 to Akron (12 miles) with three bushels, to see what I could do, 
 not dreaming that Hudson would take all we had after that. 
 Before I got there I met men returning who said I might as 
 well turn around, as Akron never knew such a glut of berries 
 before, and no more could be sold at any price. But I went on. 
 In fact, my spirits began to rise. I cared little about the three 
 bushels I had; but I thought to myself, "Here is just the 
 chance I want to prove whether or not excellence pays." I 
 drove up before a grocery, the owner of which I knew appre- 
 ciated a good article. I found him at his desk, and for a time 
 could not induce him to look at the berries at all. " What is 
 the use? " he says. " I know they are nice, from the potatoes 
 we have bought of you ; but we are overloaded, and can not 
 sell what we have, and there are so many new growers that I 
 can not see any prospect for any thing better. The growers 
 can not sell any more to dealers, and now they are going from 
 house to house, selling at very low prices, and utterly demoral- 
 izing our trade. We are just ' stuck.' In twenty years I never 
 saw such a glut. I should gladly help you out if I could, but 
 we can see no possible outlet." 
 
 I told him that, of course, I did not ask him to take any 
 more berries. I would take them back home ; but it would 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 107 
 
 give me pleasure to show him what I could do in the berry line* 
 It was with much difficulty that I at last induced him to come 
 out ; he was utterly sick and disgusted with berries. But he 
 finally came. I uncovered them. He bought them. I went 
 home. Before night of that same day he wrote me to bring 
 him four bushels more of these berries, offering an advance of 
 25 cts. a bushel, and $1 if his market should recover any so 
 that he possibly could. But our home trade wanted them all, 
 and I did not go to Akron again. I dislike to blow my own 
 horn, friends ; but I see no other way to make this important 
 point so plain to you. The plain truth is, such berries will 
 make a market for themselves. People who wouldn't have 
 looked at ordinary fruit couldn't pass such berries without tak- 
 ing home some ; and after they had one taste we were sure of 
 them for the season. Even our canning berries were made to 
 advertise themselves. If one box went into a neighborhood, 
 every family near would want some. For example, I sold to a 
 Mrs. C. a drawer at 4 P. M., and called there in the evening to 
 get the drawer back, and took orders from four neighbors, who 
 were waiting there to see me, for 2>^ bushels. Good fresh ber- 
 ries that there would be no waste to, and good measure did the 
 business. We put about 18 quarts in every drawer, 41 pounds 
 on the scales ; and if that didn't seem to fill the drawer very 
 full, we put on a few more. 
 
 Now, while there are plenty of people able and willing to 
 pay for our best selected berries what such an article deserves, 
 it was with a great deal of pleasure that we sold many bushels 
 of good berries, but not the very largest, at prices that any one 
 could afford. Many families who could not afford 15 -cent ber- 
 ries bought half a bushel of 6 -cent ones, and ate them freely, 
 and canned the surplus. We sold a good many berries at $2 in 
 this way that we might have got a little more out of, and we 
 were real sorry that we did not have enough to go around even 
 then. We had to refuse many of our friends. 
 
 I have now told you of the yield and the income therefrom. 
 
108 A B C OK STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 May I ttll j ou what was done with the money ? I have one 
 son and two daughters, and we all worked hard during the ber- 
 ry season, I tell you, and my wife also had to keep a boarding- 
 house for the time being. Well, when we got through I just 
 handed them 850 apiece to do what they please with. Certain- 
 ly I can afford them the returns from a paltry half -acre of land. 
 My wife and I are partners, and I do not believe in her earning 
 money separately ; but I had heard some hints of a certain new 
 dress wanted, and thought it a pretty good time to put some 
 bills in her private pocket book. She doesn't take enough 
 when I leave her to help herself. The $37 left will more than 
 pay all money I am out for extra help ; and the fun of succeed- 
 ing, and all the berries we could eat, are pay enough for me 
 
 Let me tell you how we managed so as not to have tl;e 
 farm work suffer. I hired two good extra men, and then my 
 son and two men took care of the crops and farm work, while 
 I, with the rest, handled the berries. Our largest picking in a 
 day was about 13 bushels, which sold for $36.55. It rcquiied 
 from four to six good pickers to keep right up. I did the mar- 
 keting, and looked over every drawer, and knew they wt re 
 right. 
 
 In regard to the yield of different varieties : The patch we 
 have set out this year, which I have told you about, has just 
 about the right kinds in the right proportion. I must change 
 my mind a little. I told you that, when I found out the two or 
 three kinds that did best for us, I should not grow so many va- 
 rieties. I believe I was wrong for our fancy trade. People like 
 a change. When they tire of a sweet berry, one with a little 
 more acid will fill the bill. Then they want something beauti- 
 ful to look at now and then. By a little careful changing we 
 can hold our customers to the end, constantly giving them new 
 surprises. The two rows in the foreground of the picture (fee 
 page 81 ) of our patch for this year are Haverlands. Doubtless 
 they are the greatest yielders, and one of the most beautiful 
 berries to look at that I ever saw. There is one-sixteenth of an 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 109 
 
 acre in those two rows. We usually picked two bushels a day 
 from them, and practically all first class $3 20 berries By the 
 wiy, I should'have said that the drawer of Htvtrlands that had 
 its picture taken was just as they grew no sorting. Now, this 
 I know : that that sixteenth of an acre brought us at the rate 
 of over $1000 per acre. The berries just lay in piles all ovtr 
 the ground, and visitors said they never saw such a sight. I 
 took a sample to an old dealer in the city, and he said, " You 
 may talk quality to people to the end of the world, and 
 every mother's son and daughter of them will buy that which 
 pleases their eye. That berry is beautiful, and it will sell 
 high." He is abou". right. The Hiverland is a little weak in 
 flavor, and rather soft with us ; but it is beautiful, and enor- 
 mously productive. 
 
 The Bubachs were very large ten or twenty per cent larger 
 than the S.erlings shown in the picture, at first ; but the yield 
 was quite moderate. The Sterling was grand, as usual, holding 
 out to the very last, not in size, but in quantity. I think this 
 berry has nearer the wild-strawberry flavor than any other I 
 know of. The Jessie, on our soil, is the poorest ) ielder of all. 
 The Cumberland did only moderately well, and the Downing 
 also. In fact, all our perfect-flowering varieties were away be- 
 hind in yield. The imperfect ones brought in the bulk of the 
 dollars. Do not grow perfect berries for market, except what 
 may be necessary for fertilizing. Wouldn't I except the Gandy, 
 which brought me such magnificent berries? No, except that 
 you might grow a few to make a change for your customers. 
 They are small yielders. The first picking was grand ; the 
 second, fair; the third, hardly ordinary. As to lateness, it 
 will not prolong the season at all It is eight days or so later 
 in ripening its first Serries ; but the last picking of Haverlands 
 and Gandies was on the same day, and the former are the larg- 
 er. It has a peculiar flavor, something like pineapple, which 
 I should soon tire of, but some people were delighted with it. 
 It is also a wonderful keeper. Ripe berries will keep perfectly 
 
110 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 in our cellar for two days. I should not be afraid to pick them 
 Saturday night, for sale Monday morning early. 
 
 Now, do you want to know what berries, of all tested this 
 year, I would grow for my own eating? (We tested several 
 varieties not mentioned). By all means the Downing and Ster- 
 ling, with perhaps a few Summits to surprise our friends with. 
 These would fill the bill with us for family use. The Downing 
 is just deliciousness itself, and the Sterling more tart and ex- 
 cellent in fact, the best I have, to can. 
 
 I am more than ever convinced that the very heavy manur- 
 ing practiced by some is all unnecessary on good soil where 
 clover is grown in rotation and the best of tillage is given ; 
 also that fresh manure plowed under is better than rotten ma- 
 nure harrowed in on the surface. The latter will be more like- 
 ly to grow an excess of vines, on my soil, with small fruit-yield ; 
 and the former, moderate vines and abundant fruit. 
 
 In our strawberry-harrow we used, this year, teeth sharp- 
 ened flat, like a chisel, at the bottom, instead of round-pointed, 
 putting the beveled side back. They take hold and work bet- 
 ter. See cut, p. 66. 
 
 We found the width of our rows all right except with the 
 Haverlands. They throw out their fruit- stems over on the 
 straw iu the paths so far that it would have been better to have 
 the rows fiv^ feet apart, giving the additional foot to the 
 path. The photograph of our bearing bed was taken a few 
 days before picking time ; that of our newly set bed July 3, 
 just as we had let the runners begin to grow. A few had taken 
 root. Our boys had ust finished tearing up the soil with the 
 cultivator, roughly, after a heavy rain had packed it down, and 
 were about to hitch on to the strawberry-harrow, to stir the 
 light-colored strip of soil you see under the leaves of the plants, 
 as well as fine what the cultivator had left so rough. I tell you, 
 this harrow leaves little for the hoe. 
 
 Our plan of mulching, which was something of an experi- 
 ment, we consider now quite perfect, and shall do exactly the 
 
112 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 same another year. Our berries were perfectly clean. The lor g 
 straw which you can see in the paths (see p. 81) made a nice 
 carpet for the pickers to kneel on, and protected the fruit on 
 the outside, the cut straw doing the same in the beds. Many 
 customers said to us, in substance : " We never used strawbei- 
 ries before without washing them ; but it is labor thrown away 
 on yours." 
 
 Since I wrote the above, the Ohio Farmer for July 5 has 
 come. In it Dr. Chamberlain, now president of the Iowa Ag- 
 ricultural College, says, in speaking of our berries : 
 
 "I did not see his (Terry's) farm this year in hurriedly 
 passing through Hudson, but I saw some of the fruits of it. 
 Passing a grocery I saw finer stands of strawberries than I ever 
 saw in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, or Washington mar- 
 kets. It was nearly nine o'clock at night, and they had just 
 been brought in for next morning's sales. Having a curiosity 
 to test them I said to the grocer, ' Put me up a quart, and count 
 them as you put them in.' He heaped the measure to its ut- 
 most capacity, and there were just twenty eight strawberries." 
 
 Some quarts, the grocer told the writer, counted out but 
 twenty-two berries, earlier in the season. It was a little late 
 when Dr. C. saw them. He continues : 
 
 " I took them in the next door, ordered a dish of ice-cream 
 and a large extra saucer, hulled the twenty-eight strawberries, 
 stirred the ica-creara until it mellowed down, poured it over 
 them, and for one of the first times in my life I realized what 
 perfection in strawberries means. The whole country smihd 
 last year when Mr. Terry told of eating a quart of strawberries 
 at a meal for each member of the family. Shall I confess, with 
 shame and confusion of face, that I performed the same amrz- 
 ing feat, and felt the better for it ? " 
 
 I put this kind notice in along with the photos and my re- 
 port, hoping that all these things together may make it plain 
 to you that strawberries can be grown finer and larger than 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 113 
 
 many city people ever saw. I have told you how ready they 
 are to pay for such, and just how to grow them. 
 
 In one corner of the picture of our new strawberry-bed you 
 can catch a glimpse of our small-fruit garden, containing 100 
 rods of land. I wish you could see how the bushes are loaded. 
 We are hardly through with the strawberries yet, and still there 
 are black raspberries, and red ones, almost as large as strawber- 
 ries, waiting to be picked, bushels and bushels of them ; and 
 such a show of blackberries I never saw. As a visitor to-day 
 remarked : " They fairly touch each other all over, a hedge of 
 berries." (The rows were cut back last spring, much like a 
 hedge.) These bushes, grapevines, etc., have been growing 
 only two seasons, and we had probably ten bushels of berries 
 last year. 
 
 After you have mastered the strawberry business, push 
 ahead until you get all the other choice small fruits. Severa 
 farmers have been here (two to-day) to see about getting plants. 
 Our little success has roused them up, and quite a revival in 
 strawberry-growing will take place around here. Would that 
 the same may be true in every locality that this little book 
 reaches, that the people in the towns may be able to buy choice 
 fresh berries in abundance, and particularly that the farmers 
 may have such, as free as water, for three weeks every season ! 
 I have been around to-day gathering up my strawberry-drawers 
 (this chapter is being written piecemeal, as I can get a few 
 minutes to spare), and I just wish those who talk about there 
 being no market for berries could have been with me. At every 
 place it was, " Mr. Terry, can't you bring me a bushel of nice 
 large black raspberries to can?" or, "Half a bushel of those 
 beautiful Cuthberts (red); " or, "Don't you forget, now, I wan 
 a bushel of those splendid blackberries." Why, friends, it just 
 makes me want to keep out of sight, I so dislike to say to these 
 good people that we can not begin to supply them. 
 
 This afternoon a well-known clergyman from Pittsburg call- 
 ed here. I should say he was 60 years old. He went all 
 
 8 
 
114 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CUI/TURE. 
 
 through my fruit-garden, and satisfied himself with the great 
 beautiful berries. I showed him the photographs of strawber- 
 ries that you will see in this book. At last he said to me : 
 11 Friend Terry, I am quite disgusted with myself." 
 
 " What do you mean? " I answered. 
 
 "Why, I have half wasted my life so far." 
 
 I couldn't think what he was driving at, and asked for 
 further information. 
 
 "Why," he said, " I have land enough, and have only my- 
 self to blame because I have not lived like a prince, as you are 
 living, all these many years. To be sure, we have bought some 
 market berries. But this feasting of the eyes and body on such 
 luscious fruit, month after month, is something we know no 
 more about than that horse of yours does." (The horse was 
 drawing the harrow through the strawberries. ) I think my 
 friend will not neglect any longer these healthful and beautiful 
 luxuries that God gives in such abundance and magnificence to 
 those who will work for them. Reader, have you any cause to 
 be " disgusted " with yourself for the same reason? I hope 
 not ; but if you have, there is just one noble way out of the 
 difficulty " Bring forth fruits meet for repentance." 
 
ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 115 
 
 STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 BY THE PUBLISHER. 
 
 Of course, I have been for many years interested in the 
 cultivation of the strawberry, or I should not have been so 
 anxious to have friend Terry write this little book for me. Be- 
 fore, however, I undertake to tell you any thing about my ex- 
 perience and my ideas in regard to strawberries, I wish to tell 
 you of a visit I paid to friend Terry while his berries were right 
 in the height of the season. As the following sketch was taken 
 mainly from Gleanings in Bee Culture, our readers will please 
 bear in mind that it was written with the supposition that the 
 reader was conversant with former numbers of Gleanings : 
 
 When the first chapters of the strawberry-book came we 
 were so full of business I did not pay very much attention to 
 them. I knew that, when the printers got ready to take hold 
 of them, I should have to read them any way. In fact, I have 
 become so tired of reading letters and following out the differ- 
 ent lines of business through the letters, that I do not know 
 but I have lost energy somewhat. Before I got through with 
 the strawberry-book, however, it all came back. Why, in the 
 concluding chapters I could hardly sit still. I looked at my 
 plants out in the plant-garden, and I looked at the ground on 
 the hill by the windmill where I am preparing to plant berries, 
 and I could hardly contain myself. Before I got many pages 
 further, I got into a fever to visit friend Terry. But there were 
 the letters piled up, many of them grievous complaints because 
 the writers had not got their goods. I could not be spared one 
 whole day, that is, in the month of June, and I did not feel as 
 if it would be right for me to desert my post so long. I did, 
 however, write to friend Terry that I wanted the privilege of 
 dropping in upon them some night between nine and ten 
 o'clock ; and I wished them, also, to let me go back about sev- 
 
116 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 en or eight o'clock in the morning. I bade him tell his good 
 wife that all the preparation she need make for my entertain- 
 ment was plenty of bread and butter for breakfast. With the 
 berries I could help myself to, I should be quite satisfied and 
 happy. Then I counted the hours until a reply should come. 
 A reply did come not in answer to my letter, however, for it 
 was written before my note had been received. Here is a part 
 of friend Terry's letter : 
 
 Friend Root : Our patch is a grand success, bringing us about {15.00 
 a day. We get our price, without a bit of trouble, in spite of great competi- 
 tion. Plenty of room up above. T. B. TERRY. 
 Hudson, O., June 18, 1890. 
 
 I received it just before noon. Friend Terry lives about 25 
 miles from us; and a little before four o'clock one of our Clydes- 
 dale horses was standing before the office, waiting for me to 
 get the letters looked after so I could be spared until the next 
 day at noon. My wife admonished me that the barometer was 
 falling, at a pretty good jog. But the strawberry fever was too 
 strong to be allayed by a summer shower, so off we started. 
 My teamster has always been rather skeptical in regard to Mr. 
 Terry's farming ; and I am sorry to say that a great many farm- 
 ers and teamsters throughout our land are somewhat the same 
 way, and yet I do not believe that they could give any good 
 reason for it if they were to try. I rather enjoyed his proposal 
 to go along with me to take care of the horse. Mrs. Root said, 
 before I went away, something like this : "Now, husband, re- 
 member that Mr. Terry's folks are in the midst of farming, be- 
 sides taking care of their berry crop, and very likely Mrs. Ter- 
 ry is burdened. Stop somewhere and get your suppers, and 
 feed the horse, so that you may make them as little trouble as 
 possible." 
 
 We came into the pretty town of West Richfield just about 
 six o'clock. Did I ever tell you that I have a special liking for 
 hotel-keepers ? Well, I have. I like every thing about a hotel 
 especially the country hotel. I like the landlord and the 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 117 
 
 landlady ; I like the girls who wait on the table (as you may 
 renumber); I like the boy who tends to the horses in the stable; 
 yes, and I like pretty well the folks who lounge around the 
 door and bar.* I should like them better, however, if they 
 were busy in something good in the line of our text,f for in- 
 stance. These country hotels are homes for homeless people ; 
 and I always enjoy seeing how well they carry out this idea. 
 
 " My good friend, we want some supper just as soon as our 
 horse can eat his feed. We have quite a piece to drive yet, and 
 we wish to get there before the people have gone to bed." 
 
 I was pleased to see how quickly he moved to the kitchen 
 to tell the women-folks to start it going. Then he directed in 
 regard to the care of the horse, and stepped briskly to the 
 meat-shop ; and almost before the kitchen door was shut we 
 heard them pounding steak. Before I had time to become im- 
 patient or nervous, we were called to partake of the nice steak 
 and potatoes, with a couple of fried eggs, nice sweet butter, 
 good bread, and a good saucer of strawberries. If you want to 
 see me have a good appetite, just let me ride twenty miles 
 across the country. For serving us thus handsomely, the 
 whole charge was only 25 cents apiece. The horse counted 
 the same as a man. Now, when I get promptly served, and yet 
 on such short notice, and at so small a price, do you wonder 
 that I thank God for hotels, and that I feel kindly toward hotel- 
 keepers ? 
 
 Just a little before nine o'clock I had the pleasure of telling 
 my companion, Mr. W., that this was friend Terry's home. I 
 watched him as he looked at the bright pretty barn and tool- 
 
 * When I use the term " bar " I do not mean a place where drinks are 
 sold, as used to be the custom forty years ago. A good many of our coun- 
 try hotels here in Ohio do not sell any thing at the bar not even cigars or 
 tobacco. Perhaps the term " bar " had better be changed for "office." 
 I wonder how it is with you, friends. Do the hotels in your small towns 
 nowadays sell drinks of any kind? 
 
 t The text alluded to is, "I/ay up for yourself treasures in heaven, 
 where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break 
 through nor steal." 
 
118 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 house in the dim moonlight. Friend Terry was off to Hudson, 
 with berries; but his son and a hired man welcomed us. 
 
 " You said you would be here between nine and ten ; but 
 you are a little ahead of time, are you not?" said the young 
 man. 
 
 I always like to be ahead of time. It is a grand idea, in busi- 
 ness, boys, to make your promises, even in traveling, so that 
 you are on hand a little sooner than you agreed to be. You try 
 it awhile, and see if you don't find I am right. We were warm- 
 ly welcomed by all the family, even if we did come three or 
 four days before we were expected. Friend T. soon returned, 
 then got a lantern, and we went to see those wonderful straw- 
 berries. The first glimpse I ever had of the Grand Rapids let- 
 tuce was by the light of a lantern. I shall never forget it. By 
 the way, there is something wonderfully fascinating to me in 
 going about among the plants after dark. How cool and beau- 
 tiful the ground looked in friend Terry's new plantation of 
 strawberries ! (See cut on p. 81.) The beautiful, thrifty little 
 plants, each one as much like its neighbor as two peas can be 
 alike, at exact distances (rows four feet apart, plants two feet 
 apart in the rows), with all the intervening ground in process 
 of being raked until nothing could live except the strawberries 
 why, I fairly ached to get hold of a fine-tooth steel rake, just 
 to stir the beautiful, fine, soft rich loam. If there were any 
 weeds, they had not come to the surface of the soil. In fact, 
 weeds never get so as to be visible on the Terry plantation. 
 Then we went with the lantern over to that half-acre in full 
 bearing. (See p. 81.) But no photograph can begin to do jus- 
 tice to the sight we beheld. The varieties of strawberries are 
 selected so as to have no rusty leaves. . Every leaf is thrifty, 
 perfect, and has that bright new look that indicates a rank lux- 
 uriant growth. The whole ground between the plants is car- 
 peted with cut straw, so not a berry can find any thing gritty 
 or that will soil it in the least. Strawberries growing and rip- 
 ening on the "straw"! and, oh what clusters of them! It 
 
ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 119 
 
 seemed as if there were hardly room enough for them to ripen 
 without lying piled up on each other. Paths were provided for 
 the pickers, a foot wide ; but these paths were also filled with 
 straw. The Sterling, Cumberland, Gandy, Downing, and Bu- 
 bach, kept their berries out of the path ; but the wonderfully 
 productive Haverland could not be satisfied with piling the 
 berries up in the row, but it just kept pushing its great long 
 stalks full of fruit clear out into the path ; and it was very dif- 
 ficult indeed to walk in the paths without stepping on these 
 great beautiful handsome berries. Did anybody ever see such 
 a plant as the Haverland ? One reason for wanting to visit 
 friend Terry was, that I wished to see whether his Haverlands 
 were really lying in heaps around the plants, as ours were. 
 They were doing that very thing. Friend T. is not excitable. 
 I never saw him get very much excited about any thing. He 
 is cool and quiet in almost all emergencies. He does not sail 
 his hat nor get as enthusiastic as I do ; but for all that he en- 
 joys nature's gifts fully as much as the rest of us, if I am cor- 
 rect. Now, the catalogs have been severely censured for being 
 extravagant in regard to many of these new things ; but since 
 I have been home I have searched all the catalogs in vain to 
 find any thing that does half justice to the Haverland. It is 
 true, the berries are rather tart, and have not very much flavor 
 compared with some of the others ; neither are they as large 
 as some. But the berries are of good size ; and with a little 
 sugar they are almost as good as any of them. And, oh my ! 
 what an abundance ! I have not any figures just now about 
 the amount per square red ; but you will find them in the book. 
 It seems to me that this plant is destined to bring about a new 
 era in strawberry culture. We have had them for two years. 
 The first year we kept our priginal plants so busy furnishing 
 runners, that we did not get very much fruit. During the last 
 spring I let the old plants go, and they were pretty well cover- 
 ed with grass and weeds ; but when they began to set their 
 fruit I was almost alarmed. I could not believe it possible that 
 
120 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 any plant could ripen the quantity of green berries that lay 
 around them on all sides. But they did do it ; and as fast as 
 they turned red they increased in size to such an extent that 
 it seemed almost like popping corn. 
 
 The lantern was put away, and we went to bed. I obtained 
 permission to get up at daybreak, and I proposed not to disturb 
 anybody else. The barometer's prediction troubled me a little, 
 and so I was not surprised to hear the patter of the raindrops a 
 little before daylight. The rain let up, however, a little after 
 daylight, and, oh what a beautiful sight met my view ! One of 
 friend Terry's hobbies is keeping things painted. The barn and 
 tool-house and covered barnj^ard had just been treated to a coat 
 of bright new paint. By the way, this covered barnyard has 
 just been enlarged to about twice its former capacity. But I 
 tell you, it is handy, especially where one has as many tools 
 as friend Terry and I have. Friend T. has a knack of combin- 
 ing colors, with a small amount of architectural curves about 
 the covered yard, that makes it wonderfully pleasing to the 
 eye. The fence before the house was also neatly painted, and 
 in good repair ; gates all working nicely. The graveled walk, 
 the shrubbery, and vines by t!-.e porch, tell their own story ; 
 and a row of evergreens on the right and on the left called 
 forth exclamations of surprise from me on account of their 
 regular appearance and beautiful shape. The house, it should 
 be remembered, is on the north side of a street running east 
 and west. These rows of evergreens, therefore, run north 
 and south ; and there is another row, seen in the strawberry 
 picture, just across the back end of the dooryard, thus mak- 
 ing an inclosure. 
 
 When I asked him what he did to the evergreens to make 
 them so even and regular, and of such bright luxuriant growth, 
 he replied that he did nothing at all. They are the ordinary 
 arbor-vitse. For a while I was a good deal puzzled to know 
 why they did not look as our evergreens do, and a good many 
 others' one small, indifferent tree, and then another large one, 
 
ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 121 
 
 and so on. The secret of it is, the ground was underdrained, 
 enriched by thorough tilth and clover before the trees were put 
 out. In fact, all the ground around friend Terry's home has 
 been worked up to a degree of fertility and evenness of texture 
 that makes all the plants and trees just alike. If the arbor-vi- 
 tse grows of its own accord of the beautiful shape of those 
 about friend Terry's home, I should never think of bringing 
 them into artificial skape with shears and trimmers. 
 
 Having now viewed the front, the reader will please go 
 with me up the gravel walk. We will turn off to the right, 
 near the corner of the inclosure. Right here is the out-build- 
 ing that friend Terry has several times described in our agricul- 
 tural papers. It is such a beautiful, secluded spot, overshad- 
 owed by the evergreens and other trees, that a picture is given 
 in one of our rural papers as a hint to farmers in the way of 
 comfort and convenience to their wives and grown-up daughters, 
 to say nothing of the younger ones. As we step through the 
 evergreens we come into the half -acre of strawberries. (See 
 picture on p. 81.) This picture was taken from a hill, or gen- 
 tle elevation, north of the house. Many of the strawberries 
 were in blossom at the time it was taken. If you put on your 
 specs you can get a glimpse of the blossoms here and there. 
 
 There are fourteen rows of berries, as you will see by the 
 picture. Perhaps an expert could tell the varieties by the fo- 
 liage. Next to the potato-field, on the left, there are three rows 
 of some variety, the name of which I can not now remember ; 
 then come three rows that I am pretty sure, by their looflfcin 
 the picture, are Sterlings. As the Sterling is imperfect, a row 
 of Downings comes next as a fertilizer. Then we have Cum- 
 berland, Gandy, Bubach, Haverland, Jessie, and perhaps some 
 others. The two rows in the foreground, that come right up to 
 the foot of the reader, as it were, are the wonderful Haverlands 
 we have spoken of. They are alternate, so as to have one row 
 of perfect after every two, or, at the furthest, three, rows of 
 imperfect. The straw mulching is plainly visible in the paths ; 
 
122 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 but the cut straw between the plants can not be seen except by 
 moving the foliage aside ; but in the whole patch there is no 
 ground visible nothing that can soil the berries. During pick- 
 ing time the straw is tramped down in the paths much flatter 
 than it appears in the picture ; and one of the worst troubles, 
 if it was a trouble, was the long stems of the Haverlands thrust- 
 ing themselves right square in the paths in order to get sun- 
 shine to ripen. I believe Mr. Terry proposes to make the paths, 
 especially through the Haverlands, a little more than a foot 
 wide hereafter. Over in the field beyond the fence we saw the 
 wonderful crops of wheat 35 or 40 bushels to the acre, right 
 straight through the field. There are no trees on Terry's prem- 
 ises, except around the house. He does not tolerate a tree in 
 his grain-fields at all. 
 
 A gravel walk led around to the front door, and a gravel 
 driveway on the other side of the lawn led around to the rear 
 of the house. Friend T. has a gravel bed, or bank, on his own 
 farm, and therefore it is not a very expensive matter to have 
 neat gravel walks all about his home. The painters had also 
 been at work about the house; and when I suggested that most 
 of us would think that it did not really need painting, he 
 remarked that it was cheaper to paint before buildings really 
 needed it, in the common acceptation of the term ; and there 
 we have the same story over and over again all over friend 
 Terry's premises. Every thing is done before it begins to 
 suffer from lack of attention. The weeds in the strawberry- 
 beds are killed before they get to the top of the ground. His 
 fourteen-acre potato-field is tilled in the same way, even dur- 
 ing this remarkably wet season. The potatoes stood so regu- 
 lar through the field that one might think they were spaced by 
 machinery, which, in fact, they were, by the machinery of the 
 potato-planter. Instead of there being hills of potatoes, how- 
 ever, there was a single stalk standing up like a little tree, each 
 one just like its neighbor, as in the strawberries. This comes 
 from the " single-eye " idea. If we let a great lot of sprouts 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 123 
 
 grow in one hill, it is like having eight or ten stalks of corn in 
 a hill you have only nubbins instead of fine large ears. This 
 single potato-stalk produces only a few potatoes ; but as these 
 are not crowded at all, they are large, fine-shaped ones ; and 
 his potatoes, like his strawberries, command an extra price. 
 Some time last fall I sent friend Terry an order for 25 bushels 
 of potatoes, to be kept for seed. I was too late. They were 
 sold out, and I was astonished to learn during this visit that 280 
 different people sent money for potatoes, after the potatoes were 
 gone. That is worse than any thing we have done or better, 
 whichever you choose to call it. The receipts for strawberries 
 during the day I was there were something over $23.00. 
 
 When I mention about friend Terry's farming, many peo- 
 ple reply at once, " Oh, yes ! friend Terry has got money, and 
 can afford to hire all the help he needs." 
 
 Now, this is a sad mistake. One great feature of Terry's 
 farming is to manage with the very smallest amount of help. 
 If I am correct, he has only one hired man, aside from himself 
 and boy, and the assistance his wife and daughters give in ber- 
 ry-picking. Many people ask, with wonder expressed in their 
 eyes, "Why, do Mr. Terry's daughters work outdoors in the 
 strawberry-beds?" Yes, my friend, they do. After they had 
 finished their education, they, like most young ladies, wanted 
 something to do. They might teach school, clerk in the store, 
 or perhaps find a situation in an office in some of our large 
 cities. They preferred to stay at home, however, and work 
 with their father, rather than be " bossed " by some one who is 
 not their father. Do you blame them ? Their father suggested 
 that they raise strawberries, instead of teaching school ; and I 
 think they are getting more money than most schoolteachers. 
 I did not see them picking strawberries when I was there, be- 
 cause it rained. As they were living at home, and working for 
 their father, they could work when they chose. I looked sev- 
 eral times longingly at the beautiful large piano that has re- 
 cently been purchased, and which stood right in sight ; but so 
 
124 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 many important matters crowded I hatdly dared ask them to 
 treat us to some music. Now, I suppose women-folks should be 
 free to choose an occupation, just as men are ; but if it were 
 myself, or if it were my daughters under consideration, I should 
 say, " Give me strawberry culture a hundred times over, rather 
 than schoolteaching or any of the other employments open to 
 wom^n-folks." When I mention these rural pursuits, and the 
 wonderful success some have met, the constant objection raised 
 is, that the markets are frequently overstocked. Strawberries 
 a week ago sold in our town at 5 cents a quart. Ours, however, 
 when freshly picked, at the same time brought 8 cents readily. 
 
 When I was there, the Gandy had just begun to bear. 
 Friend T. had taken a sample to Hudson, and they brought a 
 dollar a peck, without any trouble. No wonder, for they look- 
 ed like luscious peaches or plums, more than like strawberries. 
 As we stood by the buggy, ready to bid our friends adieu, I 
 ventured the remark, "Friend T., why don't you have 14 acres 
 of strawberries instead of 14 acres of potatoes? They would 
 not be very much more trouble, and then, think what a lot of 
 money you would have." 
 
 He shook his head, and smiled. I don't remember just 
 what he said, but it conveyed an idea to me something like 
 this: 
 
 "Fourteen acres of strawberries would make my home a 
 thoroughfare. Its quiet and sanctity would be invaded. My 
 wife and daughters, instead of having this quiet pretty home 
 all to themselves, would have seclusion and peace no longer. 
 It is true, I might make more money ; but I am not working 
 for money. It is not the end and object I have in view. I am 
 a farmer, and always expect to be one. I love my work be- 
 cause I am enabled by it to demonstrate what farmers' homes 
 may be, compared with what many of them are at the present 
 moment I want to see farmers' boys and girls find something 
 to do at home on their farms. I want them to love the farmer's 
 home, and to feel proud of it. I want them to find peace, com- 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 125 
 
 fort, contentment, where too many of them have found only 
 drudgery, privation, and long hours of toil. I want them to 
 work at home on the farm, and to learn to lay up treasures in 
 heaven, as well as treasures on earth ; and I want to show them 
 the buried treasures that lie unused only a little way below the 
 surface of the soil just below the surface of so many farms, 
 where at present we see only an unsightly and dreary waste of 
 weeds and disorder." 
 
 Now, my good friend Terry did not say any thing of the 
 sort. He is not as talkative a man as I am, and he did not say 
 very much about it, only that he did not want 14 acres of 
 strawberries, with their attendant care and bustle. In going 
 all over the premises, all over his home, and talking with his 
 wife and children, one was impressed at every step that he is 
 not bent on making money. It seems, however, that the kind 
 Father has provided the money. That little text that has been 
 for so many years a hobby of mine, explains it all : "Seek ye 
 first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these 
 things shall be added unto you." So long as friend Terry is 
 working with all his might and main to emancipate the farmer 
 from the drudgery of ordinaiy farming, God will see to it that 
 he has the wherewith to do his work. Moody once said that 
 he believed that God would furnish his ministering servants 
 with the wherewith to carry on their work. I said, as soon as 
 I heard it, "I, too, believe it is true." 
 
 Before I left I told my good friend, that, although there 
 were to be more chapters to the strawberry-book, he could have 
 his pay for what he had done, just as well now as at any other 
 time ; and I added something like this : 
 
 " Friend TV, I have been having many heavy cares and 
 burdens to bear Curing the past few months ; but I am glad to 
 be able to say that lack of funds has not been one of the bur- 
 dens." 
 
 He replied : 
 
 "Thank you, Mr. Root ; but I do not need it. A lack of 
 
126 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 funds has not cramped me and troubled me in my work either; " 
 and a pleasant look on his face impressed me with the thought 
 that a spirit of thankfulness to the great Giver above was in his 
 heart as well as mine, and gave an added enjoyment to his 
 work. 
 
 We bade adieu to that pleasant home. The surrounding 
 homes for quite a little distance seemed to have caught friend 
 Terry's spirit, for they were well-to-do, progressive farmers ; 
 but the potato-fields right over the fence from friend Terry's 
 were as different from his as any thing you could well imagine. 
 Notwithstanding this, they were rather better than any thing 
 we had seen in our drive of 25 miles across the country. I 
 looked in vain on this side of the road and that, but no such 
 farming greeted us anywhere as we saw there.* 
 
 We took a different route home. You never see me going 
 the same road twice, if I can avoid it. At Cuyahoga Falls we 
 called on the veteran strawberry-man, Mr. Matthew Crawford. 
 Friend C.'s whole business is strawberries not raising them 
 for the market, but testing the different varieties, and raising 
 plants for sale. I saw something there which I had never seen 
 anywhere else, and perhaps I shall never see it again little 
 beds of two or three rows, of all the kinds of strawberries 
 known. In some places great luscious berries were rotting on 
 the ground. When I remonstrated, he said so many were com- 
 ing daily to discuss the different varieties that he left a few so 
 as to be able, during the season, to furnish specimens of dead- 
 ripe fruit. I mentioned ever so many kinds I had heard of, 
 but I was promptly led to the very variety in question, where I 
 saw it doing its best. Friend Crawford is a devoted, faithful 
 Christian. In fact, it shines forth in his face, looks, and ac- 
 
 * Later. Since our visit I have received the following on a postal, fi om 
 friend Terry : 
 
 Well, it dried off Saturday, so we sold 10 bushels of berries, $26 00 ; and 
 Monday 13 bushels, $36 55. Not quite so thick to-day, but we got a bushel 
 of Gaudy's Prize, that sold for $4.00. I had a photo taken. The Gandy 
 will not hold out long. T. B. TBRRY. 
 
 Hudson, O., June 24. 
 
ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 127 
 
 tions. As my paper is getting long, I shall be obliged to pass 
 over this visit briefly. As an illustration of our talk I will 
 give the following : 
 
 "Friend C., will you please show me the largest berry 
 known?" 
 
 ' ' With great pleasure, Mr. Root . But do you really think 
 you want to invest in the largest berry known ? " 
 
 " Why, surely. If it is a good one, why should I not? " 
 
 "Yes, it is a good one that is, fairly good. Come and 
 see." 
 
 He parted the leaves, and there, to my great astonishment, 
 was an immense fruit that I should hardly have called a straw- 
 berry had it not been for the surroundings. Instead of being 
 like other strawberries, it was much the shape of a very badly 
 scalloped tomato ; and I declare, the berries were pretty close 
 in size to some tomatoes. I picked a great big one and took a 
 bite. The quality was very much like that of the Bubach ; but 
 there was not a single specimen that was not knotty and gnar- 
 ly, with protuberances growing out of one side or out of an- 
 other. At first I declared I would make a planting of it ; and 
 then it occurred to me that everybody would object, and pre- 
 fer something a little smaller, of good shape, and firm enough 
 to ship something like the Gandy for instance. If one want- 
 ed, however, a great lot of berries, and something that could 
 be picked very quickly, I rather think this would be the berry. 
 My companion told me that he had found ten of them that 
 would make a quart, and he thought it very likely that he could 
 do it then and there. As Its shape suggested tomatoes I asked : 
 
 " Friend C., why is it not probable that some time we shall 
 have a single strawberry combining so many of the desirable 
 qualities of others that only one variety will be needed like 
 the tomato, for instance?" 
 
 "I have thought of it a good deal, Bro Root ; and, by the 
 way, I am very much rejoiced to know that we have finally one 
 tomato summing up all the good qualities to such an extent that 
 
128 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 no other is needed. I am myself, at present, planting only one 
 kind of tomato, and it seems now that I may never care to 
 plant another kind." 
 
 I almost held my breath as I asked, " Why, friend Craw- 
 ford, you astonish me. Will you please tell me the name of 
 that one tomato that you put in place of all the long string of 
 tomatoes known to seedsmen and catalog-makers ? " 
 
 What do you think he said ? He smiled just a little as he 
 replied, "The Ignotum." 
 
 I did not at the time know whether he was aware that I 
 first gave it to the public, but he said he had heard it so stated. 
 
 "Now, Bro. Root, I have something to tell you that will 
 greatly please and interest you. I do wish you could meet 
 friend lyittle (of Granton, Ont.), who gave us the great big 
 strawberry you hold in your hand, and he has given us almost 
 numberless other valuable strawberries. You will notice that 
 I have nur>:bered them in different places over my ground No. 
 4, No. 8, No. 75, etc. Well, friend L,. is a Canadian. Some 
 years ago he was very low with consumption, and his case was 
 pronounced by nearly all the physicians incurable. There was 
 nothing before him but to get ready to die. As he was a good 
 man, and a most devoted Christian, his friends could not bear 
 the thought of losing him, and his children could hardly give 
 him up. A son of his was interested in strawberries, and he 
 begged his father to stay outdoors and get interested in berry- 
 growing, suggesting that, if he should get as full of enthusi- 
 asm as some of them did, it might make him well." I began 
 at once to think of our good friend Mrs. Axtell.* " The father 
 very quietly assented, and placed himself as pupil under the 
 son. In a little time he became deeply interested in the matter 
 of perfecting new varieties. At present he has done more work 
 of this kind than perhaps any other man in the world ; and 
 this season," so our friend Crawford went on to say, " he has a 
 whole half-acre covered thickly with plants, and each plant is 
 
 *See A B C of Bee Culture. 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 129 
 
 a different seedling from its neighbor. These are to be tested, 
 with the hope that they may furnish the world something bet- 
 ter than we have already." Those who have made experiments 
 in this line can conceive how much of an undertaking is such 
 a project ; and the outcome of it has been that he has regained 
 his health ; and although he is quite an old man now, he will 
 probably live some years yet. So you see it is not only worldly 
 gifts which shall be given to those who seek first the kingdom 
 of God and his righteousness, but the promise seems to include 
 health ; for friend I/, has found a new lease of life in propa- 
 gating new and better varieties of strawberries for his fellow- 
 men. I do not know whether he is rich or not. It may be 
 that, like Terry, he does not care to be rich, but holds fast to 
 the text of our talk to-day. 
 
 lyHy up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor 
 rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. 
 MATT. 6:20. 
 
 PUTTING OUT STRAWBERRIES IN THE SUMMER AND 
 MONTHS. 
 
 Friend Terry has told you all about spring planting ; and 
 he has alluded to setting out plants in the summer, and espe- 
 cially in August. I am very well aware that, as ordinarily 
 managed, there is much disappointment and failure in planting 
 in August. But as I have had several years' experience in the 
 matter, I think I can give you a plan that will be successful 
 with any one, and under almost any conditions, providing you 
 raise your own plants or get them near by, so that they are out 
 of the ground not much more than 24 hours. I do not mean 
 to say by this that you can not order plants long distances in 
 August and still be successful, for very many do this ; but it re- 
 quires the skill and judgment of an expert. Potted plants are 
 pretty sure to work all right, but they cost quite a little more ; 
 and as they are bulky, the express charges are considerable if 
 you purchase any number. I will first explain to you the idea 
 of potted plants, as it paves the way, as it were, to my inven- 
 tion. 
 
 9 
 
130 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 It may seem a little strange, but I shall have to confess that 
 I had eaten strawberries and raised them a good many years, 
 before I was even aware of the way in which the plant is prop- 
 agated. Let us suppose that you have a single strawberry- 
 plant, say in the month of April. You plant it out in good 
 soil, keep the weeds down, keep the ground mellow around 
 them till it begins to put forth leaves and enlarge. Pretty soon 
 you will notice a crown, or a larger bud, starting up from the 
 center. This puts forth a fruit-stalk with blossoms. Not long 
 after this, most varieties will send out an occasional runner. 
 The runner looks exactly like the stem of a leaf, only that it is 
 much longer and ends in a bud, as it were. There are also em- 
 bryo leaflets at certain distances, making joints, so to speak. 
 These runners grow from a few inches to a few feet in length. 
 They start along the ground, as if their plan and purpose were 
 to get as far away from the parent plant as possible. Finally 
 the bud on the end of the runner sends up little leaves like the 
 parent plant ; and from the under side, little white roots go 
 down into the soil. If the ground is hard and the weather dry, 
 these little white roots sometimes have much trouble in getting 
 a foothold. Where plants are wanted, you can assist them 
 greatly by keeping the soil mellow, and still more by laying a 
 lump of dirt across the runner, just back of the plant. A lump 
 of good old stable manure is much better than a lump of dirt ; 
 for when a warm rain comes, the strength of the manure will 
 go right down by the new little roots. When every thing is 
 favorable it is absolutely wonderful to see these little roots push 
 down into the soil and get hold so as to be independent of the 
 mother-plant. Now, if this little plant is made to root inside 
 of a small sized pot, such as is used by florists, we have a " pot- 
 ted " plant. The pot should be filled with rich soil or compost. 
 Set it in the ground right under the plant ; lay a little stone, 
 lump of dirt, or a chunk of manure, as comes handy, on top of 
 the runner ; and in ten days, or even less, the roots will so fill 
 the pot as to be just a solid ball or mass of roots. See cut. 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 131 
 
 Now, there is something wonderfully fascinating to me 
 about this matter of plant growth. If you want to see how 
 fast your plants are rooting, you can lift the pot out of the soil 
 at any time, even while attached to the parent plant by the 
 runner. Put your fingers across the plant, one on each side ; 
 
 A POTTED STRAWBERRY PI, A NT AS IT I,OOKS WHEN TURNED 
 OUT OF THE POT. 
 
132 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 carefully turn the pot over, and knock with your trowel oil the 
 edge, and out will come plant, roots, dirt, and all, just as it 
 looks in the cut. You can look at your plant every day if you 
 wish, and see when the first white roots reach the outside of 
 the pot. Then you can watch them night and morning, and 
 see how fast the little roots grow. This frequent handling will 
 do them no harm, providing you do not let so much air get to 
 the roots as to dry out the soil. In that case you would have 
 to water it frequently. When the pot is filled with roots, as in 
 the cut, or even before, you can clip off the runner, and your 
 plant is independent. If you are in too much haste, the infant 
 plant may not be able to stand the scorching heat of the sun 
 that is, after severing the connection with the mother-plant. 
 On this account, pots are frequently moved to some shady place 
 and watered until they get thoroughly " weaned," as gardeners 
 term it. They can then be put out in the field. How many 
 such plants can you grow from one old one, do you ask ? Well, 
 there is hardly a limit. The variety of plant, and the expert- 
 ness of the operator, would have much to do with it. I fre- 
 quently have had one dozen fine potted plants growing around 
 a single old one all at once. We spread out the runners like 
 the spokes of a wheel. This same runner, after it has made 
 one plant, will start right out to make another, and so on. 
 Sometimes we have half a dozen plants strung along from a 
 single runner ; and when you take up a potted plant you can 
 take the runner with the attached plant beyond it. If the first 
 plant has a good mass of roots, like the one shown in the cut, 
 it will sustain and keep alive three or four beyond it until they 
 can take root and sustain themselves. Besides this main run- 
 ner that goes straight ahead, a strong vigorous runner will send 
 out branches at the different joints. These branches, however, 
 are small, and not as strong as the main runner ; but with very 
 rich soil, such as I am going to describe, you can get splendid 
 strong stocky plants, even from these secondary runners, if it 
 is a choice variety that you are anxious to propagate. 
 
ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 133 
 
 HOW TO GET I^OTS OF STRONG, VIGOROUS YOUNG PLANTS. 
 
 We will suppose you have some rows of strawberries from 
 which you wish to get plants. If they are planted 4 feet apart, 
 and 2 feet from plant to plant, as friend Terry directs, you 
 are fortunate. If they are nearer by, it is not so well ; but you 
 can get along, even then. If the runners have already com- 
 menced to take root, loosen the plants with a trowel, and swing 
 them around so as to give you a chance to run the cultivator 
 between the rows. Now keep your horse going back and forth 
 until the soil is as fine as the dust in the road, or pretty nearly 
 that. Now get some old fine manure or compost the best you 
 can get hold of, and work it into the soil. If you can afford it, 
 put in a wheelbarrow load to every two rods ; then cultivate 
 some more until it is all mixed up. Rake the surface down flat 
 and level, then cover it with ashes an inch deep, if you have 
 the ashes. If not, put in hen manure pounded up fine ; manure 
 from pig pens ; peat from the swamps, or any thing else that is 
 good to make things grow. Now bring your runners back and 
 put them down in this rich soil, fixing each one in its place as 
 I have described. If you want to grow potted plants, put a pot 
 under each runner. Keep out the weeds and spread the run- 
 ners, spacing them judiciously as fast as they shoot out and you 
 will have plants to your heart's content. Fix as many rows in 
 this way as you wish plants. If you have only a small bed you 
 can do it in the garden with a rake, hoe, and spading fork. 
 
 HOW TO CUT THE TIN. TIN TUBE) FOR TRANS- 
 
 PI,ANTING. 
 
134 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 When your plants are well rooted in the ground, instead of in 
 the pots, you are ready for my invention. 
 
 Provide yourself with several sheets of extra heavy IX tin, 
 size 14X20 inches. Get a tinsmith to cut each sheet into six 
 pieces, exactly alike, as indicated in the cut. 
 
 Each of these pieces will be about 10 inches long by 4> 
 wide. Have the tinsmith roll them, locking the joints so as to 
 make a tin tube or cup, without top or bottom, as shown. 
 
 If you wish to try them first, you can make only a dozen, 
 but for practical work you ought to have a hundred or more. 
 Set these transplanting-tubes in a tray, something like the one 
 shown below. 
 
 SHAU,OW BOX FOR HOLDING TRANSPLANTING-TUBES. 
 
 Put about two boxes of tubes on a wheelbarrow, and go to 
 the patch of plants we have been talking about. Remember, 
 you can do your transplanting right in the midst of the most 
 severe drouth. You do not need to wait for rain at all. If the 
 ground should be very hard, however, it will be convenient to 
 have water near by, to moisten it, so the tubes may be pushed 
 down easier. If, however, the ground where the plants are 
 growing has been thoroughly cultivated, this will not be neces- 
 sary. To use them, gather up the leaves of the plant ; and if 
 a runner extends beyond it that has not rooted itself securely 
 in the ground, gather this up also with the leaves. Push the 
 tube over the leaves, and then force it into the ground so as to 
 cut off all attached runners, and down into the soil perhaps 
 half its depth. By tipping and turning it you will easily see 
 when it is deep enough to take up the plants, roots and all. 
 You should push down about half its depth ; and if the plant 
 is a good strong one, you will see the roots protrude through 
 
ABC OF STRAWBERRY CUI/TURE. 135 
 
 the soil below as you pick it up. Our boys use a short stick to 
 lay across the top of the tube, so as not to hurt their fingers. 
 As fast as the tubes are filled with plants, set them back in the 
 tray. When you get a wheelbarrow load, take them to the 
 field, or where you wish your new plantation. Before going 
 further, however, I wish to tell you how I fix the ground for 
 putting out these plants. 
 
 PREPARING THE GROURD FOR SETTING OUT STRAWBERRIES, 
 IN SUMMER OR FAI,!,. 
 
 My favorite ground for this purpose is the piece where we 
 took out our early potatoes. These come off by about the mid- 
 dle of July. A month later we can have the piece of ground 
 where sweet corn has been gathered. But any good ground 
 will answer where some crop has been taken off. We first work 
 up the soil fine and mellow, with a cultivator, or, better still, 
 a cut-away harrow. Then we draw on stable manure at the 
 rate of forty or fifty loads per acre. In fact, we put on just 
 about as much as we can plow under. After plowing we har- 
 row again, and roll until all lumps are mashed, and the ground 
 is fine and mellow. Then if we can we cover the surface with 
 fine old well rotted manure, put on with a manure-spreader, 
 and this is also worked in with a cut-away or Acme harrow. 
 If we can get hold of a dozen loads of ashes we spread them 
 on with a manure-spreader. Last of all, I harrow the ashes in 
 likewise. Now roll it, picking out all stones larger than a 
 hen's egg, in the act of rolling. In fact, we continually pick 
 up stones in this way until no more are to be found larger than 
 a hen's egg, or even smaller than that. The ground is now 
 ready to mark out for strawberries. I would mark it as friend 
 Terry does, with rows four feet apart. We use what is called 
 Darnell's patent furrower and marker, for this purpose. As 
 you may not be familiar with it we submit a cut of the machine 
 here. 
 
 You will observe the machine is kept steady by a pair of 
 iron runners, something like sled-runners. The metal disks 
 
136 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 must not be set so deep as to carry too much of the weight of 
 the machine, or it will make it dodge about. With practice, a 
 light mark, or even a deep furrow, can be made absolutely 
 straight, and exactly the same distance apart. The disks being 
 
 DARNELI/S FURROWER AND MARKER. 
 For prices, etc., address H. W. Doughten, Moorestown, New Jersey. 
 
 adjustable both up and down, and at any angle, you can make 
 the furrow of any depth you wish. The machine can also be 
 used as a coverer for covering potatoes or similar crops. We 
 are now ready for our wheelbarrowful of plants. Pat the tin 
 tubes in the furrow so as to bring the plaut just as deep as it 
 stood originally. If you are going to set toward an acre or 
 more, the same machine shown here can be arranged so as to 
 throw the dirt up around the tubes very nicely. Now comes 
 the problem of getting the tubes off quickly and without dis- 
 turbing the plant. It cost me more thought than any other 
 part of the invention. We now accomplish it as follows : 
 
 A boy follows with a watering-pot, and fills the unoccupied 
 part of the tube with water, say a teacupful at each plant. 
 After he has watered perhaps two dozen, another boy follows 
 him, and, by taking hold of the tin tube, and shaking it a little, 
 plant, dirt, and all, slip right through. If you wait long 
 enough, the contents become soft, almost like mud. Now draw 
 a little mellow soil over the wet ball of earth, and there will be 
 no baking, even if the sun shines directly on it. Your young 
 plant has also had water eroiigh to keep it moist for several 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 137 
 
 days, if covered with the fine rich soil, and if carefully done 
 there need be no losses whatever. I asked my wife to see 
 whether she could find a missing one in a plantation of about 
 3000 plants. She finally thought she had found one that was 
 dead. But I opened the dead leaves, and showed her a green 
 leaf just started out. Where there is a runner attached to the 
 plant, carry it off to one side, but in a line with the row of 
 plants. Lay a lump of dirt on it and it will very soon be a 
 good plant itself. We frequently have two such young plants, 
 one carried to the right and one to the left ; and they are just 
 about as sure to grow as the mother-plant that was in the tube. 
 In fact, plants taken up in this manner will send out runners 
 within three or four weeks, and behave themselves very much 
 like spring-set plants ; and you have had the use of the ground 
 for a crop of corn or potatoes. Another advantage these tubes 
 give is, that enough rich soil or compost is carried from your 
 plant-bed or nursery to give the new plant quite a start. It 
 answers every purpose of potted plants, and yet you do it all at 
 one operation that is, you get your plants and set them out 
 and have it all done in one day. We have never found any 
 shading needful, even during the hottest summer day. Various 
 other plants can be worked in much the same way. In every 
 other respect I most thoroughly indorse friend Terry's instruc- 
 tions and methods. As he is a farmer it is more convenient for 
 him to enrich his ground by turning under clover, and planting 
 in the spring, while we as market gardeners prefer enriching 
 our ground with large quantities of stable manure, and putting 
 our plants out after our first early crops are off the ground. 
 
 INSECT ENEMIES TO THE STRAWBERRY. 
 We have never yet found any thing on our grounds, in the 
 line of insects, injurious to the strawberry ; and for this reason 
 nothing has been said in the book in regard to insect enemies. 
 I am told that the white grub that preys on the roots of gra; s 
 is sometimes very destructive when strawberries are put on 
 ireshly turned sod. We have had no experience v ith it here. 
 
138 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 The only objection that has ever been made to the transplant- 
 ing-tubes is that they would carry insect enemies or disease 
 along with the plant to a new plantation ; whereas if the roots 
 were washed thoroughly from all adhering soil, as friend Terry 
 directs, we should overcome this danger. Where the plants 
 are taken from poor hard ground, I have sometimes found the 
 ball of earth an objection ; but this could be broken up with 
 the fingers, after the plants have got well started. By far the 
 better way, however, is to have your ground very rich where 
 the plants are grown on purpose for taking them to the field. 
 
 DISEASES OF THE STRAWBERRY. 
 
 I do not know of any disease, unless what is termed " rust ' ' 
 may be said to be a disease. This belongs to certain kinds of 
 strawberries, and not to others ; and sometimes a variety will 
 rust in one soil or location where rust is unknown in another. 
 I hardly need tell our readers that rust is the reddish spots that 
 appear on the leaves. They appear like iron rust, and some- 
 times they injure the thriftiness of the plant very materially. 
 The varieties recommended in our book are almost rust-proof ; 
 that is, they are almost if not quite absolutely free from rust in 
 most localities. Sometimes during a severe drouth the leaves 
 curl up, something like the curled leaf on the peach ; but with 
 plenty of rain the new leaves that come out, and the new leaves 
 from young plants, are as bright and straight as any. L,ack of 
 water is generally at the bottom of most difficulties with the 
 strawberry ; and plenty of water, accompanied with plenty of 
 manure, will usually overcome any trouble that may show it- 
 self. 
 
 Perhaps I should add something to what has been already 
 said in regard to irrigation for strawberries. While I agree 
 with friend Terry in regard to what he said about irrigation,! 
 feel quite sure that irrigation will many times pay in getting 
 plants to set out in the field. A windmill and a tank answer 
 excellently for this purpose. A few days ago a neighbor sold 
 me some very nice blackberries. He said he was going home 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE 139 
 
 to draw water in barrels placed on a wagon, to water his half- 
 acre of blackberries. I asked him if he felt satisfied that it 
 would pay. He said he had practiced it a good many years, 
 and it had paid big, and that he would, without doubt, lose $50 
 on blackberries if he did not water them to prevent them from 
 drying up. While visiting friend Terry's I remembered that 
 he had his blackberries and raspberries, as well as his straw- 
 berries, mulched with straw so as to cover all the ground be- 
 tween the rows perhaps a foot thick. It at once occurred to 
 me that straw mulching would be cheaper, probably, for a 
 man who raises wheat, than to draw water in barrels. I wrote 
 him, making inquiry, and here is his reply: 
 
 Friend Root: The straw mulching on raspberries and blackberries 
 worked to our perfect satisfaction. Every raspberry ripened up plump 
 and good, although it was so dry that wild ones amounted to but little 
 soon dried up. We had them in abundance some days over three weeks. 
 The same is holding true of blackberries. We have, been picking nearly 
 three weeks. Most of them are good size. There are many on the vines 
 yet. We have picked nearly a bushel to-day; and I think never a day 
 since we began, less than 20 quarts. I never had such a feast of berries 
 before. There are no weeds or grass growing through the straw. The 
 berries are evidently not feeling the drouth to amount to any thing. 
 From about 35 or 40 rods of land we shall get raspberries and blackberries 
 that could have been sold for $120. We have had to sell a part, as we 
 could not use them all. T. B. TERRY. 
 
 Hudson, O.. Aug. 11, 1890. 
 
 A BOX OF GANDY STRAWBERRIES. 
 
 On pages 57 and 58 I have, in a footnote, alluded to a 
 pint box of Gandy strawberries. After showing this sample 
 box to Mrs. Root, I took them over to the factory, and they 
 were so much admired that I decided to have them photo- 
 graphed. Before I got it done, however, my box was tumbled 
 down, and the berries spilled out, in consequence of assisting 
 a young lady to handle a horse that had become frightened. 
 I picked them up as best I could, but tried in vain to replace 
 them in the box with the freshness and beauty they exhibited 
 when I first laid them there, as picked from the vines. I de- 
 
140 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 cided, however, to have the photograph, as it was toward the 
 close of the season, and there was no chance of getting any 
 better before the book was put out. 
 
 A PIKT ECX OF GANDY STRAWBERRIES. 
 
ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE 141 
 
 A characteristic of the Gandy strawberry is the large 
 bright green sepals around the fruit-stem. This green con- 
 trasts so finely with the shining scarlet of the berry that it 
 looks like a beautifully colored picture. These .sepals also, 
 on account of being unusually large, keep the beiries apart in 
 the basket so as to give them air, and prevent bruising. The 
 berry at the corner of the basket in the cut shows particularly 
 this feature. See also cut of Gandy on page 53. 
 
 THE VALUE OF STRAWBERRY PLANTS TURNED UNDER. 
 
 On the 15th of July we plowed under a bed of Sharpless 
 strawberries that had borne an excellent crop of fruit, and had 
 made a prodigious growth of foliage, runners, etc. Before 
 turr.ing them under, however, the ground was covered with a 
 heavy coat of stable manure. With the manure and vines to- 
 gether, the plowman had considerable trouble in getting them 
 all turned under nicely. In fact, a man had to follow (with a 
 hoe or similar tool) to push the tangled vines from under the 
 plow-beam. When it was all turned under, however, it 
 was harrowed and rolled until fine and compact. Then a 
 heavy coat of ashes frpm our steam-boiler was put on. These 
 ashes we e mostly coal. Considerable basswood and pine, 
 however, goes in with the coal. In order to get out the 
 coarser portions we run it through a sieve, or riddle, such as is 
 used for sifting sand or gravel. These ashes were put over the 
 surface, from one to two inches deep, and harrowed lightly 
 into the mellow surface soil. In this we sowed, the same day, 
 radishes, lettuce, and turnips. Well, on the 15th day of Au- 
 gust, just thirty days from the day the seeds were put in, beau- 
 tiful radishes were ready for the market in fact, the finest I 
 ever saw. A nice shower fell soon after the seeds were sown, 
 and the ashes had sufficient strength to destroy all insect en- 
 emies. Not even a flea beetle punctured the first leaves of the 
 young radial e*. They grew with a rich dark green, and a ra- 
 pidity I never saw them grow with before. Neither have I 
 ever had good-sized radishes fit for market in just thirty days, 
 
142 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 before. The varieties were Early Frame, Chartier, and Chi- 
 nese Rose. The roots were beautiful, glossy, scarlet, straight, 
 and true. In fact, we could easily have made a bunch of 
 Chartiers equal to the colored plates sent out by the originator. 
 The Early Frame may have been a little ahead of the Chartier ; 
 but three days later, the Chartiers were much larger and finer. 
 In three days more (thirty- three in all) we had Early Bloom- 
 dale turnips fit for the table. They, too, were wonderfully 
 handsome, both radishes and turnips being crisp and sweet, far 
 beyond the ordinary. The Grand Rapids lettuce was also fit to 
 put on the market-wagon in thirty days. Of course, it did not 
 make large heads in that time, but the leaves were as large as 
 one's hand, and the plants made very fine basket lettuce. How 
 much of this is due to the strawberry-plants and how much to 
 the manure and how much to the ashes, we can not tell ; but I 
 think just about the combination was needed for the results 
 noted. Mr. E. C. Green, of the Ohio Experiment Station, 
 looked them over yesterday, and he said he had never seen any 
 thing to excel it in the way of a crop, in only thirty days. It 
 should be remembered, that the ground was our best creek-bot- 
 tom ground that had been enriched and worked over for the 
 past four or five years. 
 
 Adjoining the above patch are some of our rows of straw- 
 berries which were also put out with the transplanting-tubes on 
 the loth of July. We did not think best, however, to put 
 strawberries where strawberries had been the season before. 
 These strawberry- plants, in thirty days have sent out runners 
 and made little plants so that some of them are well enough 
 rooted to bear removing from the parent plants ; that is, by the 
 aid of the tubes. Now, these few results give one a glimpse of 
 what is possible in market-gardening, as well as in strawberry- 
 raising. In forty days the radishes can easily be cleaned off, 
 and another crop of something else can be turned off before 
 winter. I am planning to transplant some of the Grand Rapids 
 lettuce where the radishes are taken off, and thus get large 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 143 
 
 heads before winter. With this high-pressure treatment, ma- 
 nuring, and tilth, there are quite a few crops that can be taken 
 off the ground in forty or fifty days. The energetic, go-ahead 
 gardener should have them off promptly the very day the crops 
 have arrived at their best, and more seeds or plants should take 
 their place within one hour. I know from experience that it is 
 a very hard matter to push things like this ; but I tell you, 
 friends, it pays. 
 
 On another piece of ground, when I saw the crop had al- 
 most reached maturity I allowed the weeds and purslain to grow 
 for a while. It did not take the weeds more than a week or 
 ten days to cover the ground with a wonderful growth while 
 the crop was ripening ; and just as soon as. the crop was remov- 
 ed, weeds, tops, and all refuse matter were plowed under. In 
 doing this, you want to be careful that no seeds of purslain or 
 of any thing else have become matured enough to grow ; for if 
 you do you will seed the ground with weeds. Keep your eye 
 carefully on the weeds, and a good many times you can have a 
 heavy growth to turn under, almost as well as not. Be careful, 
 also, that this heavy growth does not take away any thing from 
 the maturing crop. A great many times it is better to wait a 
 little until the crop is mature enough to be gathered, rather 
 than to undertake to clean out the patch from weeds, etc , just 
 before maturity. In fact, the nicest way in the world to make 
 sure with purslain is to turn it under out of sight. Keep the 
 cultivator going, however, so that no chance sprig stuck up 
 through the dirt shall get on top of the ground and grow again. 
 At this season of the year (Aug. 21), if any piece of ground, 
 enriched as we have ours, is left idle for a week or ten days, 
 he weeds will make their appearance. I would rather have 
 the cultivator go over the ground, say once in five or six days, 
 if we can manage to have it. And this reminds me t!-:at we are 
 in the habit of using the Acme cultivator in the same way that 
 friend Terry uses his harrow arrangement shown on page 66. 
 We go through with the Planet Jr., just as he does. Then in 
 
144 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 two or three days, or sometimes right away after, we go over the 
 ground with the Acme. This can be run close up to the leaves 
 of the strawberry-plants without doing them injury. It simply 
 pushes aside every leaf without cutting them off, and it leaves 
 the ground very fine and level. 
 
 SELLING PLANTS; DIRECTIONS FOR SHIPPING THEM EITHER 
 
 BY MAII, OR EXPRESS. 
 
 As I have before hinted, we do quite a business in sending 
 strawberry-plants by mail and express. We often send them 
 out in March, and continue until June, or until the plants are 
 bearing fruit. When the season is favorable we commence 
 again in the middle of July and send them out until the ground 
 is frozen say November and sometimes into December. The 
 plants are taken up with a trowel, and all the dirt shaken off. 
 The roots are then washed and tied up in bundles. To keep 
 them from wilting, we use sphagnum moss. This moss is found 
 in the huckleberry-swamps of Ohio and many other States. It 
 has the peculiar property of never heating, even when quite 
 wet. In fact, its native place is a damp swamp, sometimes cov- 
 ered with water for quite a period. Your moss, however, must 
 not be too wet when put around the roots of the plants. The 
 best rule I can give for getting it just right is to take a double 
 handful of it, dip it in water if not already wet enough, then 
 squeeze out every drop of water you can get out with your 
 hands. Now put it around the roots, and tie them as tight as 
 you have a mind to, leaving the tops exposed. Before tying 
 them up, pull off all dead leaves and runners ; and if the top 
 is very large and the root rather small, pull off the largest out- 
 side leaves. Girls or women will do this very rapidly and nice- 
 ly. Now, in case there should be a severe drouth at the time, 
 and the plants are going to be out some days, the whole should 
 be wrapped in oiled paper or enamel cloth to prevent evapora- 
 tion. Outside put some manilla paper on which the address is 
 written ; but let the leaves be partly exposed. In taking up 
 your plants at a dry time, unless your soil is very loose and 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 145 
 
 highly enriched, as I have directed, the ground should be wa- 
 tered until it is soft enough so that all the roots can be preserv- 
 ed. Do not send anybody plants with mutilated roots, caused 
 by pulling them hastily out of the hard soil. The purchaser is 
 entitled to every root that belongs to the plant. * On page 21 
 is a picture of a good plant. This, however, has been trimmed. 
 In sending them out we do not trim them. We leave our cus- 
 tomer to suit himself in regard to trimming. 
 
 STRAWBERRY CUI/TURE AS AN OUTDOOR INDUSTRY FOR THOSE 
 IN POOR HEAI/TH. 
 
 On page 128 I have told of one who was restored to health 
 when the doctors could give him no help. I do not know of 
 any other plant that grows that ore can work with, propagate, 
 and see grow almost every month, when the ground is not froz- 
 en, like the strawberry. As cold weather conies on, confine 
 your operations to a piece of ground protected by hills or build- 
 ings, or both ; and if you still wish to have them make runners 
 and start plants, cover your bed, or a portion of it, with; sash, 
 when the frost is severe. .Whenever the weather moderates so 
 as to enable you to move the sash safely, do so; and whenever 
 it rains, the sash are better off than on. By takirg pains you 
 can see them thrive almost all the year round, and you will 
 have your reward in getting fruit a month earlier than those 
 not protected. Of course, by the aid of artificial heat you can 
 make them bear fruit in the winter time ; but this is a more 
 difficult operation. 
 
 Mr. Terry has also several times alluded to the benefits to 
 be derived from outdoor work in successfully growing straw- 
 berries. We take the following from Vick's Magazine, in re- 
 gard to gardening for those in poor health : 
 
 * See the following from one of our customers : 
 
 The 200 Jessie and 50 Buhach plants are at hand, and set out. They 
 
 could not come in a better shape. You certainly deserve every order sent 
 
 you, if treated as mine was All are living, and I am satisfied with your 
 
 exertions to do as you would be done by. Thai. ks for the few extra ones. 
 
 Forest City, Mo., Aug. 20. GEO. W. BALDWIN. 
 
 10 
 
146 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 11 One will seldom or never be disappointed who turns to 
 the garden for recreation, or who seeks there the building-up of 
 over- wrought nerves, or who would follow out to discovery 
 some of the innumerable secrets of the vegetable world, that 
 are to be found by the earnest and patient observer. It is the 
 place for at least an hour or two every day for women, as a 
 change from household duties, or professional men, editors, 
 merchants, clerks, and all who may be engaged in indoor, and 
 especially sedentary employments ; more or less garden work 
 should be engaged in every day, and by every member of the 
 family, whenever it is possible.'" 
 
 GETTING A CROP OF STRAWBERRIES IN THE FAIJ, ; EVER- 
 BEARING STRAWBERRIES. 
 
 When we have abundant rains in August and September, 
 especially after a severe drouth in July and the fore part of 
 August, many varieties of strawberries will put forth blossoms, 
 and sometimes ripen a limited quantity of fruit during the last 
 of September and October. The Jessie strawberry seems to be 
 especially given to this, and in almost every plantation of the 
 Jessie you will find more or less berries and green fruit during 
 the month of September. The Jessie is also particularly adapt- 
 ed for greenhouse culture or for getting berries in the winter 
 time, on account of this peculiarity. A new berry just being 
 introduced, called Michel's Early, also known in some locali- 
 ties by the name of Osceola, is also recommended for fruiting 
 in winter. Our Ohio Experiment Station pronounces it the 
 best extra-early berry we have. Now, my impression is that 
 almost any strawberry may be made to give a small crop of 
 fruit in the fall by timely irrigation. On Thanksgiving day, 
 1888, I was entertained by my good friend George B. Wood- 
 berry, of Verdugo, Cal., on strawberries and cream. The va- 
 riety was the Manchester. He had half an acre in full bear- 
 ing, and he managed it by the timely application of water on 
 purpose to have his berries on the market Thanksgiving time. 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 147 
 
 He made a nice thing of his crop, for he got 25 cts. per lb., 
 which is rather better than 25 cts. a quart. Within a few years 
 the Everbearing strawberry has been introduced from Oregon, 
 called the Oregon Everbearing. It is now on our grounds, and 
 has been giving us some berries right along, but not as many 
 as we get from the Jessie. While I write, Sept. 2, 1890, we 
 have a small bed of Jessies full of blossoms, green fruit, and 
 some ripe berries. They are set out in very rich plant-bed 
 ground, and they have been watered whenever they lacked rain, 
 so as to keep the plants in full vigorous growth. Some of the 
 berries are of quite good size ; and if I had a quarter of an 
 acre of them bearing as well, I could put quite a quantity of 
 berries on the market. During this season of scarce fruit I 
 think I could, without doubt, get from 20 to 25 cts. per quart, 
 at the present time ; and at this price it would have been a 
 splendid investment. Where one has the time, and will take 
 the pains, I have no doubt that strawberries can be very profit- 
 ably raised for marketing at county and State fairs. Some 
 years ago in the city of Indianapolis I saw very fine large straw- 
 berries offered for sale at 40 cts. a quart, in the month of Octo- 
 ber. I presume they were made to bear in this way. I have 
 never had any experience with the Monthly Alpine strawberry ; 
 but from what I have heard I believe I should prefer to use the 
 Jessie and Michel's Early for getting a fall crop. 
 
 RAISING STRAWBERRIES UNDER GI,ASS. 
 
 This is carried on mostly in our very large cities, where 
 berries can be sold for about 50 cts. to $1.00 a quart during 
 Christmas time, and all along through the severe winter months. 
 Any of you can do it if you are willing to take the necessary 
 pains ; but it will not pay financially unless you can get some- 
 thing like the prices named above. The plan is, to get, by rich 
 soil and excellent culture, very strong heavy crowns ready to 
 put out fruit-buds. Let them remain outdoors until they are 
 well ripened and ready for fruit. They should, however, be in 
 
148 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE 
 
 pots, so as to admit of being brought readily into the green- 
 house. At the proper time, put them under glass and give 
 them ati artificial spring ; and finally, when the fruit is ready 
 to ripen, increase the heat so as to give them an artificial sum- 
 mer. Large-sized berries will bring, if grown under glass, from 
 10 to 25 cts. each, according to the market. 
 
 GETTING RUNNERS AND PLANTS, OUT OF SEASON. 
 
 With new and rare varieties of strawberries it is oftentimes 
 quite desirable to get runners not only in warm weather, but to 
 keep the plant propagating runners right along through the 
 winter time. As I have never succeeded very well in getting 
 plants to send out runners in the greenhouse, I wrote to the 
 horticulturist of our Ohio Experiment Station in regard to the 
 matter. Here is his reply : 
 
 Mr. Root : In reply to your query as to whether we had been able to 
 get strawberry-plants to throw out runners in the greenhouse, I will say 
 that we have, but not freely. The fact is, however, that, if the plants are 
 started in pots in the greenhouse, and then put out of doors when the 
 season is sufficiently advanced, they will commence very early to send out 
 runners. In the case of new sorts that you wish to propagate freely, you 
 can cut the tips as soon as they form, and strike them in pots or in frames. 
 This is better for the original plants than to allow the runners to take 
 root ; besides, you get more plants. W. J. GREEN. 
 
 Columbus, O., March 22, 1890. 
 
 In conclusion, friend Green speaks of taking the little 
 plants from the ends of the runners before they have struck 
 root. We have several times done this, where it is desirable to 
 get plants as fast as possible, cutting the runners off so as to 
 get an inch, perhaps, on one side of the little plant. Then 
 take off the largest leaves, leaving only two, or three at the 
 most. Put the.-e into very rich ground containing a good deal 
 of sand, which is kept constantly wet, much as you would for 
 cuttings Shade it from the sun with a frame covered with 
 cotton cloth. This will also keep the air moist. If the tem- 
 perature is right, and your soil is ti^ht, the largest part of these 
 cuttings, or embryo plants, will take root in about <? week. If 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 149 
 
 you once get them started there is no trouble. Sometimes we 
 get a bed full of beautiful plants ; but at other times the leaves 
 decay and turn dark around the edges. We are, however Jdaily 
 practicing this method of getting plants. At the present time 
 we are short on the Haverland ; therefore each day, when we 
 take up plants for shipping, we preserve all the sets beyond the 
 plant that have not yet made roots, and these are put out in just 
 this way. In fact, we have been setting out more or less every 
 day for the last month ; and the greater part of them produce 
 very fine plants in three or four weeks. Where there is not 
 even a root started, by sufficient care we get a plant ; but when 
 there are little roots, say ^ or 1 inch in length, the work is 
 very much easier. 
 
 A UST OF SOME STRAWBERRIES, BOTH OI,D AND NEW, THAT 
 ARE PROMINENTLY BEFORE THE WORI<D. 
 
 Just as our book was ready for press we received the 
 " Strawberry " number of the Orange Judd Farmer. In it we 
 find cuts of 30 different strawberries favorably known ; and 
 through the courtesy of the editors we make a selection as 
 seen on the adjoining pages. These cuts do not by any 
 means give the true size of the berries, but only the form and 
 general appearance. The cuts given by Terry in the fore part 
 of this book are taken from nature, and are exactly the size of 
 the berries he grew on his own grounds. 
 
 The Bubach and Sharpless have been described already. 
 
 Warfield has not been fruited on our grounds, but it is very 
 highly spoken of. It is thought to be a seedling of the Cres- 
 cent, and if, as claimed, it is ahead of it, it surely has a great 
 future. 
 
 The Crescent, perhaps, is more widely known and raised 
 than any other berry in the world, unless it is the Wilson. In 
 fact, a new impetus was given to strawberries with the advent 
 of the Crescent and Wilson. The Crescent has been called the 
 "poor man's berry," because it will grow anywhere without 
 
150 
 
 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 care or expense ; and somebody has likened it to the Canada 
 thistle as regards hardihood. It also produces an enormous 
 quantity of fruit ; but unless the plants are thinned out, and 
 the ground is well enriched, the berries are quite likely to be 
 small. I have seen berries of the Crescent grown in single 
 hills, with runners kept off, that came pretty nearly up to some 
 of our large berries in size. 
 
 There seems to be a wide difference of opinion in regard to 
 the Beloiont. In some localities it does wonders, and in others 
 it does not bear much fruit. In .still other places it rusts badly. 
 When we first tried it I was at once struck with the beautiful 
 light-green foliage, and its rank, luxuriant growth, without a 
 trace of rust, on our grounds. When it came to bear it created 
 much merriment by its queer sbape long, and pointed at both 
 
 CUMB TRIUMPH. 
 
 MAY KING. 
 
 CAPT. JACK. 
 
ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 151 
 
 ends something like a " gimlet-handle." When the ground 
 is very rich, many berries are quite irregular. In fact, they 
 look like " chunks of pudding ; " and when you put them into 
 your mouth you find them equal to any pudding ever produced 
 by the culinary art. 
 
 The Jersey Queen was for several years our standard late 
 berry. The shape is beautiful, and the flavor of the berry is 
 equal to almost any ; but with us it has been a rather feeble 
 grower, and not very productive. 
 
 The Cloud Seedling is a very pretty berry, and produces 
 runners and young plants to such an extent that it will soon be 
 
 SHARPNESS. 
 
 MAMMOTH. 
 
 GANDY. 
 
152 
 
 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 a swamp unless looked after. It has, however, been voted a 
 failure, at least through the Northern States. 
 
 The Eureka is a rank, strong-growing vine, free from rust. 
 The berries are large and finely shaped, and in some localities 
 it has been wonderfully productive. 
 
 The Charles Downing has been described already. It is 
 equal to any in quality, and in a good many localities is very 
 productive. It will always have its firm adherents. 
 
 I hardly need mention the .Wilson. Everybody has it ; and 
 a good many large berry-growers, including J. M. Smith, of 
 Green Bay, Wis., declare that it will give the grower more mon- 
 ey than any other berry known. The Wilson is the berry that 
 gave strawberry-growing its great prominence. It is a great 
 bearer, rather tart, and not very large, as a general rule. 
 
 BUBACH NO. 5.* 
 
 DAISY. 
 
 JERSEY QUEEN/ 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CUT/TURK. 
 
 153 
 
 The cut of the Gandy shows its beautiful shape, and the 
 large sepals. 
 
 The Crawford was originated by Mr. Matthew Crawford 
 two or three years ago, and I believe it is, at the present time, 
 recommended by him as being at least equal to any strawberry 
 in the world. 
 
 The Cumberland Triumph, or simply " Cumberland," as it 
 is usually called, is perhaps the handsomest berry, when shown 
 by the drawerful, of any berry known, unless it is the Gandy. 
 Its shape is so perfect that one might think the berries were all 
 turned in a lathe ; and with good care the size is more even and 
 regular, just as they are picked from the vines, than any others 
 I know of. The picture named " Cloud Seedling," it seems to 
 
 UDA.* 
 
 ONTARIO. 
 
 JEWEI,.* 
 
154 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE 
 
 me, represents the Cumberland very much better than the one 
 marked "Cumberland." 
 
 The L,ida is another new berry that has been attracting con- 
 siderable attention. The plant is not very large, and the leaves 
 are down close to the ground. But it is a wonderfully vigorous 
 grower, and the fruit is very handsome. 
 
 We have tested the Ontario, but they are so much like the 
 Sharpless that it seems to me it is hardly worth while to have 
 both of them under different .names. Those of which I have 
 made no mention, I am not sufficiently acquainted with to de- 
 scribe. Those having a star after the name are imperfect, or 
 " pistillate ; " the rest are perfect", or " staminate." 
 
 There, just as I got my strawberry book all ended, a point 
 not touched on occurred to me ; and I should not be surprised if 
 it should prove to be one of the most valuable thoughts to be 
 found in the book. It follows along in the line of the query, 
 
 SHAIj; WE I,ET OUR VINES BEAR MORE THAN ONE YEAR? 
 
 This matter has already been discussed on page 98, and 
 Terry strongly advises plowing them under after they have 
 borne one crop ; but this, mind you, refers to strawberry-plants 
 set out in the spring. 
 
 Now, where plants are set out in July, August, September, 
 and even October, as we frequently do with the transplanting- 
 tubes, it seems a pretty hard matter to turn them under after 
 they have borne only one crop ; and, in fact, I would not ad- 
 vise doing it where the plants are set later than August. Then 
 comes the question, How shall we keep old beds clean, and 
 free from weeds, without costing more than the berries will 
 come to? If we keep off all plants and runners, and grow 
 them in hills, they can be cultivated and hoed as well as other 
 crops ( but removing the runners as fast as they start, is also 
 quite a task). If, however, we wish to have a thin matted row, 
 as friend Terry recommends, I tell you we have got business 
 ahead of us. If mulching has been used this must be removed, 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 155 
 
 and the harrow kept going through the whole season. The 
 beds had better be worked rather narrow ; then the weeds must 
 be kept out by hoeing and hand weeding mostly by hand. 
 The only hope in either case is to keep the weeds from getting 
 a start. If they once get the advantage, and get away above 
 the plants, you might as well plow it all up. I will give you a 
 hint, however, in the line of " prevention is better than cure." 
 
 A PI,AN TO LESSEN THE LABOR OF WEEDING. 
 
 Some years ago during August I visited quite a strawberry- 
 grower. He showed me with pride a beautiful plot of perhaps 
 half an acre growing vigorously, and remarkably clean. Said I, 
 
 " Mr. S , how many times have you weeded that patch 
 during the past summer ? " 
 
 "Only twice." 
 
 "Only twice /" repeated I, in great astonishment. He 
 smiled while he nodded bis head. I saw at once that there was 
 some trick, about it. Finally a thought came into my head. 
 
 " Mr. S., will you please tell me what crop you had on that 
 ground last year? " 
 
 He smiled again as he replied, " No crop at all." 
 
 " Well, what did you do with the ground last season ? " 
 
 " Oh ! I just plowed and harrowed it, and kept doing so all 
 the summer long. After I had made every weed grow that 
 could be induced to start, and killed it with a harrow, I set out 
 my plants on it this spring, and there did not many weeds 
 grow to bother me, as you see." 
 
 Mr. S. was a farmer, and could spare an acre of ground 
 for one season much easier than he could hire hands to pull the 
 weeds from between the plants. I stated the matter to friend 
 Terry, and asked him if he could not grow a crop of some- 
 thing, and still kill the weeds as effectually as Mr. S. did. He 
 said at once that he could, and grow a crop of potatoes. And 
 this once more suggests the reason why friend Terry has little 
 labor in the way of weeding to do, compart d with what the 
 
156 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 average farmer or gardener has when he tries to raise strawber- 
 ries. So the moral of this concluding thought is this : Be sure 
 that you do not choose ground for your strawberry-patch that 
 is already abundantly seeded with weeds. In fact, if you are 
 going to be a successful grower, and if it can be so managed, 
 neither should any weeds be allowed to go to seed in a neigh- 
 bor's land adjoining. 
 
 Now, I think we can not have a better ending to our straw- 
 berry book than to give a couple of letters showing what may 
 be done on a small amount of ground devoted to strawberries, 
 and also showing what enthusiasm and excellent care will do. 
 The first comes from a friend whom I ran across by accident. 
 While visiting bee-keepers in Wisconsin it became convenient 
 to be carried by a livery across from one town to another. I 
 had no destination in Boscobel, so I told the driver to set me 
 down at some place where there were plenty of bee-hives. 
 When I saw a very pretty dooryard comprising about half an 
 acre, with not only bee-hives, honey-house, etc., nearly arrang- 
 ed, but containing, also, a bed of nice thrifty strawberry -plants, 
 I told him he might let me drop right there. The following 
 letter refers to this visit. This letter also shows what irrigation 
 may do during severe dry weather. 
 
 STARTING STRAWBERRY-BEDS FROM NEW PLANTS IN JULY. 
 
 In friend Root's special department in Gleanings he once said, " You 
 can set out strawberries (providing you have the plants ready) in the 
 months of July, August, September, and October. But the earlier you can 
 get them out, the greater will be the crop the coming season." I called 
 my wife's attention to it, and told her that I was going to try a bed of 
 strawberries set out in July; and on the spur of the moment, when it was 
 fresh in my mind, I went to a bed of Jessie strawberries that I had set out 
 last fall and this spring, and had not allowed them to mature their fruit, 
 on account of wanting plants from them early. Well, between the 10th 
 and 15th of July, this season, I took therefrom 270 fine plants, and set them 
 out in a bed that I had prepared for them. The bed consisted of 3 rows, 
 each 4 rods long, and about 30 inches in distance between the rows. I did 
 not have any of friend Root's transplanting-tubes. But I lost only two or 
 three plants out of the 270. I took extra care of them, and kept them wa- 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 157 
 
 tered and shaded when the sun was at the noon-mark. Then when these 
 got nicely to growing I looked over Root's special kinds of strawberries. 
 Besides the Jessies, which he had spoken very highly of, I found that he 
 also had put the Bubachs near the head of the list, so I sent immediately 
 to friend Kellogg, of Janesville, Wis., for 100 Bubach strawberry-plants, 
 and within four days I had them nicely set out among my 270 Jessies ; and 
 when friend Root made his Wisconsin visit some time ago he called on me 
 because he saw a garden and some hives of bees in the yard. He said they 
 were as nice as any he had seen. I wish he could see them now as they 
 cover the ground from one side to the other nicely. I spend many happy 
 moments of time with my fruit, and especially with my three beds of 
 strawberries. There is hardly a day when I am at home but that I look 
 at and do some fixing with them. 
 
 We have been having extremely dry weather here, and some strawber- 
 ry-beds are almost burned up. But mine are rank and green, as if in a 
 wet season. Whenever I have a few moments of time I go to the straw- 
 berry-bed and straighten out the runners and bury the roots of the plants 
 formed on them, and keep doing so as long as it is so dry that they can't 
 take root ; then when the sun gets so low down as to shade the bed I wet 
 them all with water that has been pumped out of the well 12 or 15 hours. 
 I actually take delight in working in my garden, and I devote hours of 
 time therein when I can't work among the bees. BENJ. E. RICE. 
 
 Boscobel, Wis., Sept. 7, 1889. 
 
 To show the result of this care, watering, etc. , we now give 
 a letter received just after the berry-picking season of 1890 : 
 
 EIGHTY QUARTS FROM A PIECE OF GROUND 5X82^ FEET. 
 
 Friend Root .-The strawberry-bed you saw in my yard in Boscobel, 
 the day you arrived there, is 82^ feet long by 5 feet wide. We picked 80 
 quarts of as fine berries as any one ever saw, from said bed. They are 
 the Jessie and Bubach varieties. The little boy measured one that was 5J^ 
 inches around. This bed was only eleven months old when it produced 
 the 80 quarts of berries. You saw this bed a few days after it was set out, 
 it being a very dry time. BENJ. E. RICE. 
 
 Boscobel, Wis., Julj 2, 1890. 
 
 And now, dear friends, we givfe one more letter, \vhich 
 seems to be a fitting one for the end of the book, especially as 
 it emphasizes the little text that has long been one of my es- 
 pecially favorite ones from God's holy word. The text is 
 this: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteous- 
 ness, and all these things shall be added unto you." Lest the 
 
158 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE 
 
 readers of this little book who are not acquainted with me 
 through our journal, Gleanings in Bee Culture^ may think it a 
 little unusual that an entire stranger should write in a way that 
 may seem extravagant, I may say, by way of apology, that 
 such letters have, during the years of my labors with the bee?, 
 strawberries, and other growing crops, been worth more to me, 
 a hundred times more, than the money I have received from 
 my work as a journalist, as a- bee-keeper, and as a market-gar- 
 dener. 
 
 BEES, STRAWBERRIES, AND ETERNAL LIFE. 
 
 Friend Root : You have been a friend indeed to me for ten years 
 (through Gleanings), and great has been the pleasure and considerable 
 the profit from this friendship, which I hope may increase until we may 
 meet together on this earth if possible; if not, in another and brighter 
 one above. I have followed you faithfully through your different chan- 
 nels of " what to do and how to be happy doing it ; " and although I am 
 employed at good pay, ten hours a day in a factory at my trade (die-sinker 
 and mold-maker), I utilize my spare moments in caring for my bees and 
 helping things to grow. 
 
 The Honey Statistics for Aug. 15 doesn't seem to do our State justice. 
 If you will send me your cards I should be pleased to report at any time. 
 I am situated in the exact center of the State, as the town signifies (Mid- 
 dletown). From 13 colonies I have taken about one thousand pounds sur- 
 plus, 400 Ibs. of which is comb an average of 77 Ibs. per colony, and in- 
 creased to 19. Our honey is all from white clover, and all gathered in 
 June. The hive on the scales showed a gain of 10 Ibs. per day for three 
 days, and 9J^ one day. 
 
 I have also been in the strawberry business, and you can't send me the 
 strawberry book by Terry any too soon. I have read all his books, and 
 am anxious for more, with the enthusiasm that goes with them. 
 
 My strawberry-bed is composed of seven square rods, from which I 
 picked nearly eight bushels (250 quarts); market price, $37.50. I not only 
 supplied my neighbors with nice fresh strawberries at paying prices, 
 but have given a great many the strawberry fever, and now am 
 supplying them with plants and advice (I charge only for plants). I have 
 also raised 40 bushels of potatoes, getting $1.00 per bushel for 20 bushels of 
 early ones ; and, dear brother, this is not all I have received from your 
 teachings and example. I have received the pleasure and blessings that 
 come to one who strives to serve the Master, and do his will. I am an Ac- 
 tive member of the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor con* 
 nected with the Congregational church, of which I am a member. I thank 
 
ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 159 
 
 God for the Y. P. S. C. E., and the good it has done and will do in the fu- 
 ture. I also thank him for A. I. Root, and pray for more like him ; for the 
 greatest compliment I receive is, " That is just like Root ; " or, " That is 
 just what he would do ; " for hi being like him, or doing as he does, I am 
 following one who is following the Master and striving to please him and 
 not himself. 
 
 I have not told you of what I have accomplished this summer, dear 
 brother, to brag, but to show you the good you have done me and mine, 
 and encourage you in the good work you are doing. CHAS. H. LEWIS. 
 Middletown, Conn., Sept. 1, 1890. 
 
 May Gjd in his great mercy bless you, my dear friend, and 
 help me to deserve a little better your very kind words. Oh 
 may grace and strength be given to me to deserve even faintly 
 the very high compliment you pay me ! and may I be able to 
 remember the friends who are looking at me, and who perhaps 
 are influenced by my example. 
 
 And now, in conclusion may I ask that God's blessing rest 
 on every reader of our strawberry -book ; and may others find 
 the pure and innocent happiness and enjoyment that I and 
 these other friends have found in working with and enjoying 
 all of these, God's gracious gifts. 
 
 END OF THE FIRST EDITION AS PUBLISHED (OR PRETTY 
 NEARLY AS PUBLISHED) IN 1890. 
 
160 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 THIS PART CONSIDERS STRAWBERRY GROWING THROUGH A 
 PERIOD OF TWELVE YEARS, FROM 1890 TO 1902. 
 
 A large portion of Part II. consists of extracts from Glean- 
 ings in Bee Culture during the past twelve years ; and we com- 
 mence it with a. letter from T. B. Terry, furnished one year 
 after the strawberry book had been before the people. 
 
 TERRY'S STRAWBERRIES IN JUNE, 1891 ; THE MAY FROSTS 
 
 ; IN HIS LOCALITY, ETC. 
 
 Friend Root ; You may remember that, when you were 
 here about a year ago, asking me why I did not put out five or 
 ten acres of strawberries, and get rich, I did not make much 
 reply ; but in your report in Gleanings you told what you 
 thought passed through my mind about spoiling the privacy of 
 my home, etc., all of which was almost word for word what I 
 did think. I was surprised that you could read my thoughts 
 so perfectly. But there was one thought that you did not get 
 hold of at all, that flashed through my head. It was this : 
 This is not a safe locality for growing strawberries largely. 
 One could make a great deal of money from five acres, perfect- 
 ly tended to, of fine large berries, put into Cleveland when just 
 right for eating, and only two or three hours from the vines, if 
 the late spring frosts did not interfere. Last year they did not, 
 and our success was all we could ask for. This year our half- 
 acre went into winter in perfect shape. No pains were spared 
 to give every plant the best chance possible. We mulched 
 them heavily to keep them back ; but alas ! the freeze of May 
 16th killed all the blossoms and many of the buds, and most of 
 the leaves, and many of the plants themselves. The earth 
 froze here from one f o two inches deep. I actually dug up 
 pieces of frozen soil in the morning, two inches thick. The 
 Bubachs and Haverlands are just about ruined ; all suffered se- 
 verely, but, as usual, the Sterling stood the frost best. They 
 are altogether the safest berrv for our farm. I suppose in that 
 one night we lost $200 worth of berries. The frosts early in 
 May hurt us little, as our berries were mulched so heavily they 
 had not started much. This loss does not trouble us, because 
 we expected it sooner or later. We are liable to killing frosts 
 
ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 161 
 
 until June, and even then feel a little unsafe until a week has 
 passed. We were growing that half -acre of strawberries large- 
 ly for the pleasure of doing our best on a little land, and not as 
 a source of income. Now, do you not see that, if we had made 
 a business of it, and had five or ten acres, we should have been 
 hurt badly ? I know these conditions to exist here, and have 
 no right to put out a crop that it would cripple me to lose, and 
 then blame Providence for bad luck. All these points have 
 been studied most carefully. Our crops of potatoes, wheat, 
 and clover, are almost perfectly safe. They have never failed 
 to pay us. I could make more money from strawberries, if 
 they were as safe ; but they are not, here. There are places 
 where they are. Within a mile is a hill of rich, mellow, moist 
 soil on which I would not hesitate to put out strawberries large- 
 ly. As it is, one does not like to work hard for nothing half 
 the time, and we shall set out only plenty of strawberries 
 for our own use in the future. We decided on this before the 
 frost, knowing well the chances, and set out this year only 
 what should bring us, say, 20 bushels in a good year. We will 
 do our best to succeed in what we undertake ; and then, if fail- 
 ure comes, it will be no fault of ours. Special farming is not 
 very popular, but we will grow what nature has best fitted our 
 farm for. We want safety and almost certainty with as little of 
 luck and lottery as possible. 
 
 Now, this is the idea that went through my mind, friend 
 Root, when you asked me why I did not put in many acres of 
 strawberries. I wish I had brought it out more fully in our lit- 
 tle strawberry-book. Being rather set up by success then, I 
 hardly made as plain as I should this point of going against 
 nature. But still that book was intended mostly for farmers, 
 who raise berries only for their own use, and this I would do in 
 any locality, however unfavorable. By setting out the varieties 
 that stand frost best, and by heavy mulching, and, best of all, 
 by setting out a great plenty, berries may be almost a certainty; 
 and if not particularly profitable some years, it will not matter 
 on a small patch. T. B. TERRY. 
 
 Hudson, O., June 4, 1891. 
 
 11 
 
162 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 STRAWBERRY TIME | GETTING RID OF THE CROP WHEN THERE 
 
 IS A GLUT IN THE MARKET. 
 From Gleanings in Bee Culture, July i, 1892. 
 
 The latter part of June is generally the height of the straw- 
 berry season in our locality. Mrs. Root has several times wor- 
 ried about strawberry time, for she said it would make us so 
 much business that I would overwork again. It is not only the 
 pickers that have to be looked after, but the folks who do the 
 selling ; and as we have a larger area of strawberries than ever 
 before, it looked quite likely that there would be difficulty in 
 selling the whole product. Of course, we might ship them off; 
 but my experience has been so unsatisfactory in shipping straw- 
 berries that I have decided to sell what we can at home, and let 
 the rest go. To-day, June 22, 1892, we are right in the midst 
 of the battle. The town is full of berries, and loads are com- 
 ing in from every direction ; and the report comes, that, even 
 though they offer them at 5 cts. by the bushel, they do not sell. 
 I knew by past experience just what was needed more energy 
 and care all around. Of course, we have been having exces- 
 sive rains, and many kinds of berries are soft. The pickers, 
 too, where they pick by the quart, get eager to fill the boxes, 
 and quite a few that are soft on one side, and sometimes rotten, 
 get in. I went down among them myself, and told them that 
 we could not sell our berries unless they were more careful. 
 Sometimes, through false economy, they picked berries too 
 small to be of any account ; and every little while some new 
 hand would be getting them before they were fully ripe. A lit- 
 tle kind exhortation made quite a difference in the looks of the 
 products. Then the market was watched, just as we watched 
 the barometer. By ten or eleven o'clock, if sales were drop- 
 ping, pickers were stopped, each one being directed to make a 
 mark in his row just where he left off, so he could find it when 
 he commenced again. As they began work at five in the morn- 
 ing, and sometimes earlier, they did not much mind resting 
 from ten till two or three. If the folks on the wagon sold out 
 sooner, of course we started to pick earlier ; and when sales 
 were so close on the heels of the pickers that they had to wait 
 for berries, there is quite an advantage in being able to tell pur- 
 chasers, "There, these berries have not been off the vines an 
 hour." If any stock began to get poor or old, the directions 
 were to let it slide for any decent offer. They were also direct- 
 ed to keep the berries out of the sun. For several days I have 
 
A B C OF STR VWBERRY CULTURE 163 
 
 been stationed in front of our factory, where the berries are 
 stored on the north side of our fruit-house, right out upon the 
 walk. To save myself steps, half a'dozen small boys are across 
 the street in the plant-gardens, weeding, picking peas, clean- 
 ing the walks, or doing something to keep themselves busy un- 
 til I need them. If a message comes from t 1 -:e wagon, half a 
 dozen of them can pick peas, go to the berry-patch and help 
 the berry-pickers, or bring in berries on the Daisy wheelbar- 
 rows. Monday we picked 10>^ bushels; yesterday (Tuesday) 
 we picked 9>^ . A heavy rain broke in upon us in the afternoon. 
 This morning the wagon started out with an unusually heavy 
 load ; but by nine o'clock they had sold out. In the meantime 
 I had done a lively business on the sidewalk, selling by the 
 bushel where I had a chance. The price had been running from 
 5 to 7 cts., till one of the boys brought in a basket of Parker 
 Barles. These went off so quickly at 8 cts., that, when anoth- 
 er boy came in with some very choice Edgar Queens, I put the 
 price at 10 cts., and they sold without a bit of trouble. Both 
 of the two above varieties are wonderful acquisitions. The 
 Beder Wood, spoken of in our last issue, have ripened up better 
 than I supposed they could ripen ; but the vines were so over- 
 loaded that the largest part of them are necessarily small. 
 While speaking of varieties, I wish to say a good word for War- 
 field No. 2. It is not a large berry, but it is of the deepest red 
 of any berry that comes in market ; and with this bright at- 
 tractive color comes the most fascinating and dainty tart flavor, 
 and that makes them my favorite berry. It is also quite firm ; 
 and when the weather is so wet that the others are in danger cf 
 mashing down in a heap, the Warfield is firm and solid. Tr- 
 Haverlands, on very rich soil, and with a superabundance < f 
 rain, are rather too soft to be handled. In fact, the Havtrland 
 and Bubach both, many of them, taste watery, and they some- 
 times begin to spoil before they are fully ripe. The matter may 
 be remedied somewhat by planting them in single hills instead 
 of matted rows ; and this gives still larger berries ; but it is 
 quite expensive to mulch where plants are, say, a foot apart. 
 In the matted row, very little mulching keeps all the berrit s 
 out of the dirt. We have lost bushels and bushels of beautiful 
 berries this season because the excessive wetness and lack of 
 mulching made them too muddy to bring even half price. I 
 should not forget to add, that, when all other resources failed 
 to get rid of a great quantity of berries, the cook in our lunch- 
 room has disposed of many bushels by making them into straw- 
 berry jam. 
 
164 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 THE BUBACH PLANTED IN THE FAI,!,, UNDER FAVORABLE 
 CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 The following extract is taken from Gleanings in Bee Cul- 
 ture for June 15, 1893. It touches three important points in 
 strawberry culture : First, strawberries put out in the fall may, 
 with proper management, give a profitable crop the next sea- 
 son. Second, it emphasizes the value of the Bubach strawber- 
 ry when properly handled. Third, it shows what persistent 
 heavy manuring will do in the way of getting your money 
 back. 
 
 Michel's Early did not yield enough to supply the demand, 
 and there was a " corner " in strawberries. It was Monday aft- 
 ernoon. They were all sold out in the lunch-room, and one of 
 the clerks asked if I could not get a few more, even if they 
 were not real ripe. The pickers had been all over the grounds 
 in the forenoon, and had picked every thing they thought 
 would do to sell. I said I would go and get some that were 
 ripe on one side, and perhaps our customers would rather have 
 these than none at all. As I rode along the path on my wheel 
 I got glimpses of some bright-red berries through the dark- 
 green foliage of some young plants that stood almost knee- 
 high. Friend Terry once spoke about having strawberry -leaves 
 large enough so a single one would cover the top of a teacup. 
 Well, we could show some leaves this spring a good deal larger 
 than that. I sprang from the wheel and found a berry on the 
 very first plant in the row, that looked more like a peach than 
 it did a strawberry. The plants were put out last fall, two feet 
 apart, and they made but few runners ; but each plant had in 
 consequence got to be something immense. At the next plant 
 I found another like a small peach. Pretty soon my hands 
 were full. I called to a boy to bring me some boxes ; and 
 while I filled them I began to speculate as to what those plants 
 were. Said I to myself, " Why, this must be the Edgar Queen; 
 and if this is the way it behaves I will just go and plant acres 
 of it." Then I felt pretty certain that we did not put any of 
 the Edgar Queen on that part of the grounds. What could 
 that wonderful plant be ? It was not Parker Earle, because the 
 latter is a late berry, and this particular one was not more than 
 three or four days later than Michel's Early ; it must be a won- 
 derful acquisition. Twenty rods ahead was a stake with a label, 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 165 
 
 but I could not read it so far off. I decided I would pick ber- 
 ries until I reached the stake ; and as I filled box after box 
 with the great beauties, my enthusiasm ran up to fever heat. 
 Said I again, "Why, I never heard of any early strawberi y 
 that gives such wonderful great fruit as this, before. The Hav- 
 erland, Jessie, and other early varieties have hardly commenced 
 to ripen. What can it be? " When I reached the stake I said, 
 " Why, you old stupid, you might have known that the rich 
 dark-green color of those great broad leaves belongs to no oth- 
 er plant in the world than to the Bubach. Three cheers for tte 
 Bubach in its perfection !" How does it come that we have 
 had Bubach all these years, and have not found out before what 
 it can do? Well, I will tell you. Almost ever since we have 
 had the Bubach the weather has been overwet. They rotted 
 before they got ripe, or were too soft and watery in taste. Just 
 now we are having a little bit of drouth, and the Bubach has 
 for the first time come to the front. Another thing, these plants 
 were growing on a strip of creek-bottom ground that has been 
 dosed and dosed with manure until everybody said I could nev- 
 er get my money back. L,et me tell you something. Strawber- 
 ries were selling up town for 12 cts. a quart. Our own brought 
 15, because they were picked only as fast as customers wanted 
 them. I put these great big Bubachs in pint boxes, and mark- 
 ed them 10 cts. a box, and they were all gone in no time. Folks 
 bought them as curiosities to show to their friends ; and after 
 they had taken a bite or two out of one of those great big ber- 
 ries they found the quality so delicious under the influence of 
 this clear hot sun from 4 in the morning till 7 in the afternoon 
 (am I putting in too much sunshine?) that they just came back 
 and wanted more of that new kind of strawberry " as big as 
 peaches ; ' ' and while I am writing this, we are picking and 
 selling more like them at 10 cts. a pint. We are now going in 
 with more enthusiasm than ever before to raise some Bubach 
 plants that will astonish some of our friends who get them, as 
 the berries astonished the Medina folks. 
 
 Moral. Old friends are sometimes equal to or better than 
 new ones, if you wait long enough and give them a fair chance. 
 
 The above, as you will notice, was written eight years ago 
 last June. I have tried several times to do the same thing since 
 then, but I have not succeeded in getting the Bubach as early 
 as it was that season, nor have I had as fine berries. So many dif- 
 ferent elements come in to make a success like the above that it 
 
166 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 is really a difficult matter to secure such results every time. I 
 have had something nearly as good by putting the plants two 
 feet apart from center to center each way, and keeping all the 
 runners off ; but I think I may say the finest berries I ever grew 
 were from plants set in the fall. Of course, we do not get as 
 many berries to the acre as with a matted row; but where they 
 bring almost double, as in the case above, it may pay just as 
 well after all. 
 
 A WHEELRIDE TO T. B. TERRY'S AND SOME OF HIS NEIGH- 
 BORS IN JULY, 1894; ALSO SOMETHING ABOUT MARKET- 
 ING THE CROP JUST THE VERY MINUTE IT IS AT ITS 
 BEST, AND WILL BRING THE MOST MONEY. 
 
 The following account of my wheelride has something to 
 siy about potatoes and other things as well as strawberries 
 that I think our readers will be interested in notwithstanding. 
 It is taken from Gleanings in Bee Culture for July 15, 1894. 
 
 All through the month of May I was impatient to get over 
 inlo Summit Co ; but business, muddy roads, and one thing 
 after another, prevented until Friday, June 8, when I got things 
 fixed around so I thought I could go ; but so many things need- 
 ed attention that it was after dinner before I could get off ; then 
 something more had to be seen to until I was startled to find 
 that it lacked only 20 minutes of j, and I must either give it up 
 or make 30 miles before dark ; and a goodly part of the 30 
 miles was up and down the tremendous hills bordering on the 
 Cuyahoga River. I laughingly told my youngest sister that I 
 would stand in T. B. Terry's yard before the sun went down, 
 and off I started. The new light wheel made point after point, 
 much quicker than the heavier one. 
 
 Down we went those great long twisty hilly roads, flying 
 under the covered bridge, over the canal and along the edge of 
 the river, until I found the proper road, winding along another 
 mountain stream, up toward Terry's home. I was so animated 
 with the idea of getting there before sunset that I did not v en- 
 ure to even look around. I found friend Terry in that same 
 fautiful dooryard handsomer, yes, ever so much handsomer^ 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 167 
 
 that it ever looked before, and I asked him a little anxiously 
 which way I should look to catch a glimpse of the sun before 
 it vanished. Yes, there it was through the trees, a glowing 
 golden orb ; and I had made my 30 miles in just about an even 
 four hours, notwithstanding the hills and the amount of visiting 
 I did while getting my supper. I felt quite anxious to know 
 whether Terry's wheat would really show that it was a paying 
 operation to work the soil over so many times before it was 
 sown, last fall. And I was glad to notice the finest piece of 
 wheat, perhaps, I ever looked upon. His locality, however, is 
 a very frosty one, and they had been having frosts night after 
 night, even though it was in the month of June, and he feared 
 his wheat had suffered somewhat in consequence. It had also 
 fallen down so as to in jure it somewhat. Notice the difference 
 in just 30 miles. We had been picking strawberries for a week 
 or ten days, and yet none of his were ripe. Heavy mulching, 
 and a location north of an evergreen hedge, had likely some- 
 thing to do with it. 
 
 Friend Terry and his son Robert are enlarging their farm- 
 ing operations somewhat this year. Robert is getting to be 
 somewhere near 21 years old, and his father is naturally quite 
 anxious he should choose for his associates those who neither 
 drink, smoke, nor swear. Well, somebody told me, or else I 
 dreamed it, that the boy has concluded he would be on the safe 
 side by choosing a nice looking girl for an associate at least, 
 when he goes out riding in that nice new buggy. You see, a 
 girl would be quite sure to be free from any of these bad hab- 
 its, and I am not a bit surprised if the boy finds her quite as 
 agreeable, as a companion, as any of the young men. And 
 now please do not understand me as casting reflections on the 
 young men in the vicinity of Hudson, Ohio. 
 
 Well, the boy has a farm adjoining his father's or at least 
 they two, father and son, are working at it together. The old 
 fences have been removed, and new ones that is, where any 
 fence was needed have taken their place. Old trees, big 
 stones and stumps, and all useless rubbish, have been cleared 
 away, and the potatoes are already coming up on this neglected 
 waste. Now, wouldn't it be funny if those potatoes this very 
 first year should conclude to behave themselves exactly as they 
 do over on the father's farm, and bear great crops from the 
 word go ? I went through the fruit-garden where the raspber- 
 ries, blackberries, and currants have not seen a hoe nor culti- 
 vator for the past six years. Mulching with straw does it all. 
 
168 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 Friend Terry thinks it would not require over two tons of straw 
 per acre where this amount is put on every year. And this is 
 all there is to it. The berry-patch always looks neat and tidy, 
 always bears a prodigious crop, no matter how dry it is, and all 
 the owner has to do is to pick the berries, each in its season. 
 
 Next I whirled into the beautiful town of Kent, Portage 
 Co., O. A niece of mine has recently got married. Somebody 
 said she was a little bit inclined to be homesick since living in 
 Kent, and I must call on her. I found her husband in one of 
 the drygoods stores. He marched me into the best room of 
 one of the pretty little cottages in Kent, and in a minute more 
 I heard something like this : 
 
 4 Millie, there is a man in the other room who wants to see 
 you. ' 
 
 ' Why, who is he, and what does he want ? " 
 
 ' I don't know. You will have to go in and talk with him." 
 
 'Oh bother!" 
 
 You see, the new wife was deep in the mysteries of bread- 
 making that is, her fingers were ; but when she caught sight 
 of the said "man," who insisted on seeing the ladv of the 
 house, she just threw up her hands and ejaculated, "O Uncle 
 Amos ! have you really got over here? " 
 
 I do not know whether any of the flour from her fingers 
 got on my coat-collar or not ; but there was danger of it. Per- 
 haps I did look rather fresh and bright for an uncle toward 60 
 years old ; for, about half a mile out of Kent, I found a pretty 
 watering-trough, with a sort of annex at one end where the wa- 
 ter poured over into a stone basin, where the dogs could drink 
 with comfort. I first had a good drink of the soft water, then 
 I washed my hands in the dog trough, and some way or other 
 my head got down under that cooling stream. If you have 
 never ridden a wheel you can not imagine the delicious sensa- 
 tion. So you see my niece found me with my face washed and 
 hair combed. After a little we took our wheels (this young 
 couple are both provided with wheels) and ran around the town. 
 You see they did not have to hitch up nor even pay a cab-driver. 
 I do not know how it happened, but my wheel turned up al- 
 most of itself in front of an ice-cream stand. Some beautiful 
 strawberries out on the walk, right in front, must have had 
 something to do with it. Millie ordered some strawberries 
 while I was asking for ice-cream ; and did you ever try great 
 luscious Bubach strawberries mashed up in ice-cream, when 
 you were hot and thirsty? I began wondering who put such 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 169 
 
 beautiful strawberries on the market so early in the season ; and 
 within an hour I was having an enthusiastic talk with the very 
 man, my friend I/. B. Pierce, of Tallmadge, O. No one who 
 reads the agricultural papers of the United States needs an in- 
 troduction to friend Pierce. About a year ago (see page 534, 
 July 1, 1893) I told you about his strawberry-plantation out in 
 the sandy woods, or on ground that had been woods but a short 
 time before. New ground just reclaimed from the forest must 
 have some special fitness for strawberries. It was Saturday, 
 and friend Pierce was about as much astonished as any of us to 
 find that there were just bushels and bushels of berries ready 
 to pick He had picked the afternoon before, and decided they 
 would do nicely until Monday ; but the beautiful warm weath- 
 er, after such a protracted cold rainy spell, had done the busi- 
 ness. We sampled all the new varieties, and tasted and tested, 
 until we could not tell a good berry if we saw it. I insisted 
 that friend Pierce should hunt up his pickers, and get those 
 berries into market before night. But he got his work laid out 
 otherwise, and could not break up his plans. Perhaps he got 
 as much money for his berries the Monday following, but I felt 
 pretty sure he would not. Besides, some of them would be 
 overripe. I said so much about it, that friend Pierce would 
 have been almost excusable in saying he knew how to manage 
 his own business. He did not know, however, and neither did 
 I, that my own berry-patch at home was pretty much in the 
 same predicament. Wait a little. 
 
 Then I visited my cousin, Wilbur Fenn. He has just got 
 a new potato planter, and I found him out in the fields, his 
 group of bright pretty children all around him as usual. We 
 had ever so much to talk about. The planter that he had just 
 purchased does not miss hills. It leaves the soil fine and mel- 
 low underneath, and all around the potato, and it was just as 
 accurate as planting by hand, or even more so. In fact, it is 
 hand-planting. We went out into the field where the potatoes 
 were coming up, and looked into the matter. A bright little 
 girl ten years old was so much interested and animated in re- 
 gard to the whole matter that I very soon discovered she did 
 some of the dropping. She sat behind her papa, on the ma- 
 chine, and placed the pieces of potato in a series of little cups 
 arranged in a circle. There were, perhaps, two dozen of them; 
 and the dropper has only to keep a piece of potato in each of 
 these two dozen cups as they revolve in a circle. It seems to 
 me that the machine is a magnificent success. But something 
 else impressed me during that visit, and it was this : There is 
 
170 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 no success with machinery, or any thing else in the line of 
 progress and civilization, to be compared with the success that 
 attends the man who has his own children so much interested 
 in all his work on the farm that they find more delight in his 
 companionship than anywhere else. You see, it was vacation 
 time, so the children could be with their father from morning 
 till night. The good mother told me, while we were eating 
 dinner, that the little girl kept wishing and hoping that some- 
 thing would hinder the hired man from coming the day they 
 were going to plant, so she could just ride on that machine all 
 day and put the pieces of potato one by one into those magic 
 cups. I began making some inquiry in regard to the family, 
 as I looked from one bright little face to another. Cousin Fenn 
 replied, "There are just five, and the oldest (the little girl who 
 dropped the potatoes) sits there feeding the youngest some 
 bread and milk." You see, she knew how to help her mamma 
 by feeding the baby, just as well as she knew how to help make 
 that complicated machine a success in planting potatoes. I 
 told them I should miss my train unless I were in Akron by 3 
 o'clock ; but I had to see the potatoes down cellar again. And, 
 by the way, that big crop of Monroe Seedlings was planted the 
 last week in June, instead of the first, as I have had it in some 
 of my writings. When I did get started I just made the Victor 
 Flyer "fly," for sure; but I reached the station ten minutes 
 too late. I did not care much, however, for I can pretty nearly 
 keep up with a good many of our branch-railway trains. There 
 was another train two hours later ; and I decided it would be 
 much more to my liking to spend the time at Fairlawn, Summit 
 Co. I found my friend, C. W. Frank, enjoying himself among 
 his crops, at high-pressure gardening. We got around to the 
 strawberry-patch in a little while, and then I ate ever so many 
 more. Just as I was getting ready to go over to the depot, his 
 sister announced that supper was ready, and that I must have 
 some "strawberries and cream." I told them that I should 
 "get left " again, and it was Saturday night, and our boys 
 doubtless needed me sadly to help them wind up their straw- 
 berry-picking of the day ; but friend Frank said he had just 
 been over to the station, and the agent said the train could not 
 possibly come, along sooner than 45 minutes ; but just as we 
 were half through our merriment with strawberries and cream, 
 the whistle blew. I sprang for my wheel ; but the boys had 
 been riding, and the handle-bar was twisted. I was left again, 
 an d I want to tell you why I got left this time. The station 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 171 
 
 ugent has a clock worth about 50 cts., and, as a matter of course, 
 he had to keep sun time. Every time a passenger wants to 
 know when the train leaves, he ciphers the difference out be- 
 tween sun time and standard time, and he generally makes a 
 mistake, just as he did in my case. Never mind. I went back 
 and finished my strawberries and visit. Then I rode 16 miles 
 up and down some pretty hard sand-hills a part of the way, in 
 just 96 minutes. I found the boys had "picked the berries ex- 
 cept those up by the windmill (see picture in Appendix to our 
 book "What to Do and How to be Happy while Doing It,") 
 which needed picking more than all the rest. They picked 
 11 y 2 bushels, and sold them, so they did pretty well ; and as 
 they did not see any thing of the boss at the time he agreed to 
 come, they went home tired, and concluded that those great 
 big berries on the clover sod, a la Terry, would have to stand it 
 till Monday. So much for having a clock run by sun time. 
 
 Later. June 23, while trying to ride uphill in the sand, I 
 passed a buggy, and thought the faces looked familiar. It 
 was friend Pierce and his wife. After a little talk I said : 
 
 " How much did you get for those strawberries that yu 
 left on the vines until the next Monday ? " 
 
 " Oh ! I got 10 cts. for those I got into the market Monday 
 forenoon ; but some of them that the boys took in Monday 
 night brought only 6. I suppose they were pretty soft in con- 
 sequence of being overripe." 
 
 There you see it, friends. Had the strawberries been pick- 
 ed Saturday afternoon, and rushed into the market Saturday 
 evening, they would have brought almost twice as much money 
 as they did Monday afternoon, when they were overripe and 
 everybody else was pushing them into the market. A little 
 later, on the same morning, I saw a large crop of peas, just 
 right to pick, between the rows of celery, at friend Atwood's 
 celery farm, near Copley. He said he could not get around to 
 it to market them that day, because it was Saturday, and he 
 guessed they would have to wait till Monday, even if some of 
 them were a little past their prime. 
 
 Moral. When you strive with all your might, and leave 
 no stone unturned to get a fine crop of any thing in advance of 
 the market, do not let your enthusiasm ooze out at the last mo- 
 ment, when the most critical time of all comes to turn your 
 product into cash. 
 
172 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 SPACING STRAWBERRIES IN ORDER TO GET THE BEST POSSI- 
 BLE RESULTS WITH THE LEAST AMOUNT OF LABOR. 
 From Gleanings in Bee Culture, Jnly 75, 1895. 
 
 I have once or twice mentioned the difficulty of getting 
 strawberries for field culture evenly spaced over the ground 
 without having it cost more for labor than we could afford to 
 pay. Let us go over the matter briefly. 
 
 Our strawberry-book directs that the rows be 4 feet apart, 
 and the plants 2 feet apart in the row. This is the plan Terry 
 has decided on, and he gets his fine even stands by letting the 
 runners go out and set pretty much their own way ; then in the 
 fall he goes over the plot and takes out the superfluous small 
 plants so none are left nearer than about 6 inches apart. I be- 
 lieve he assists in getting a complete matted row by spacing 
 the runners while they are beginning to root that is, he assists 
 nature by placing the runners so as to cover the ground evenly. 
 When it conies time to put on the mulch, the matted row is 
 from 18 inches to 2 feet wide ; and none of the plants, as I have 
 before mentioned, are nearer than 6 inches apart. Well, a great 
 part of our planting is done, as you know, in the early fall, aft- 
 er some crop is taken from the ground ; and while our fall-set 
 plants put out runners to a considerable extent, they do not, of 
 course, produce so full a stand as where they are planted in the 
 spring ; therefore it becomes exceedingly desirable to have the 
 new plants evenly spaced. In fact, we get finer and larger ber- 
 ries, because our plants have more room But it is exceedingly 
 desirable, as I have said, to have what plants there are, pretty 
 thoroughly distributed over the ground that is, over this strip 
 of ground, say 18 inches wide and the length of the field. 
 Now, I have for years been trying to find a man or boy who 
 would do this spacing, and do it well. I hope none of our 
 friends will feel hurt when I say that I have been again and 
 again disappointed. I have said to myself ," Now, I am sure 
 this man or boy will understand, with sufficient explanation, 
 just what is wanted, and that he will fall in love with the job, 
 just as I love it." In fact, I do not know of any prettier work 
 in the world than to take a nice piece of ground, with strong 
 thrifty plants putting out runners rapidly, and train them so as 
 to have a nice even beautiful strawberry-bed. You think the 
 matter is very simple, do you? Well, let me explain some of 
 the points that the workman must keep constantly in mind : 
 
 First, he must swing the runners around to the right or left, 
 so that the new plants shall not all be on one side of the old 
 
ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 173 
 
 plant, at the same time keeping in mind that each new plant 
 shall be at least 6 inches from its neighbor. 
 
 Secondly, as we keep the cultivator constantly running be- 
 tween the rows, the first thing to do is to make a narrow row 
 that is, avoid stretching a runner out at right angles so it will 
 run out where the cultivator will be sure to dig it up. Of course, 
 the man who runs the cultivator can swing around a plant thus 
 stuck straight out, or he can jump his cultivator over it ; but I 
 emphatically object to putting him to this trouble. His busi- 
 ness is to stir over every inch of ground possible, with the cul- 
 tivator ; and the man who sets the plants must bear this in 
 mind and keep his row narrow that is, he must gradually 
 widen the bed out to 18 inches or 2 feet. Of course, some very 
 thrifty plants will make the row a little wider at some points 
 than it is at others ; but it can be gradually widened as the 
 growth of any part of the bed demands. 
 
 Thirdly, the one who spaces the runners should keep con- 
 stantly in mind that he is to fill up vacancies. If one of the 
 original plants should die, by stretching runners straight out 
 toward the spot it occupied, from each side, the vacancy can 
 very soon be filled up ; and during a favorable time, say just 
 after a rain, some of the oldest and best-rooted plants can be 
 taken up with a trowel, and moved to a part of the row where 
 more plants are greatly needed. Now, this is not a difficult 
 matter, neither does it require a great amount of labor, to have 
 a nice stand of plants at no place being greatly crowded, and 
 at no place having very many vacancies. I said I had tried a 
 great many men and boys. I have not tried a smart woman 
 yet ; but if I don't have better success, I believe I shall try one. 
 The trouble is this : Almost everybody I set at it gets along too 
 fast. He says the strawberries are all done. I go out and look 
 at a row ; but before I have gone a rod I will find plants taking 
 root not two inches from each other. I will find altogether too 
 many plants at one side of the old plant, and too few, or none 
 at all, on the other side. Then there will be runners sending 
 out their white roots that have not been put in the ground at 
 all ; a good many plants right out in the path of the cultivator, 
 when there was plenty of room to place them either at the right 
 or the left at least, very much more out of the way than where 
 I find them. I suspect the trouble is this : The one who does 
 the work is not particularly interested in the strawberry busi- 
 ness, and his mind is on something else. Dear friends, it is 
 next to impossible to do any sort of work well and thoroughly 
 
174 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 unless the work in question occupies all your thoughts, all jour 
 time, and all your attention. After the above prelude I have 
 something to tell you. 
 
 Last week I had a splendid wheelride right in the month 
 of January (1895). I was attending a farmers' institute at Ada, 
 Hardin Co., Ohio. While there I got acquainted with Henry 
 Young, the originator of the Enhance strawberry. It is now 
 one of the prominent strawberries before the people. It is a 
 perfect berry, very prolific, beautiful in color, a strong grower, 
 free from rust, and, in short, would be a model berry were it 
 not for its awkward shape, and that some object to its tartness. 
 This latter quality, however, makes it especially desirable for 
 canning. The shape, however, has with many rather thrown 
 it into the background, although the berries are about as large 
 as any of the newer sorts. Well, I was greatly pleased to see 
 friend Young's plantation, even in the month of January. This 
 Enhance strawberry is his pet his child. He loves it ; and, as 
 a consequence, it does wonderful things under the training of 
 his loving hands. He too has met the same problem I have 
 figured above, and he has solved it at least, he has invented a 
 way by which even a stupid man, or one with his mind a part 
 
 FIG. 1. MARKING OUT THE GROUND. 
 
 of the time on something else, might set out a bed so as to give 
 a perfect stand. He does it this way : He sets out his plants in 
 double rows, and this is done by setting the plants 18 inches 
 apart each way. Now, this double row is 3 feet from the m xt 
 double row. Fig. 1 will show how he marks out his ground. 
 
 After the ground is marked as above, with any sort of 
 marker, you are ready to put out your plants. The path for 
 picking the berries or for running the cultivator is just a yard 
 wide. The plants, after the plantation is put out, are 18 inctes 
 apart each way. Let me show you some stars standing just as 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 175 
 
 the plants stand when they are growing nicely, before putting 
 out any runners : 
 
 X- # *# -X--X- # & # * 
 
 FIG. 2. PLANTS AFTER THEY ARE SET OUT. 
 
 Now a word about cultivating. The broad spaces, or the 
 paths a yard wide, of course can be cultivated without any 
 trouble ; and if you set your plants with a spade, on the plan 
 given by Dan White, you can run the cultivator within an inch 
 of the plants on each side, without injuring them. As the rows 
 between the plants are only 18 inches wide, you will probably 
 do them easiest with a wheel-hoe. Friend Young uses a wheel 
 scuffle-hoe. With a horse trained to the business, and a culti- 
 vator that will shut up narrow, I have sometimes done quite a 
 good job of cultivating where plants were 18 inches apart. 
 Please notice, before the plants have put out any runners, you 
 can, with the horse - cultivator and the hand-cultivator, go 
 through them both ways, so as to cultivate close up to each 
 plant on four sides. By this means an acre of plants can be 
 kept almost perfectly clean with modern cultivators and noth 
 ing else. Not only this, we can break the crust after every 
 rain so quickly and so easily that we can afford to keep the 
 ground loose and mellow, banishimg all weeds at the same 
 time that we do the stirring ; and there has never been any 
 thing invented, and in my opinion there nevtr will be, to get 
 great crops of any sort of fruit like this mellow, soft loose soil. 
 So far so good ; but when the runners put out and begin to take 
 root, what then ? Here is what I learned of friend Young's in- 
 vention : No plants are allowed to take root in the broad path 
 3 feet wide that is, not the first season, any way ; but when 
 the runners are just right, and begin to take root, your man or 
 boy is taken into the patch with a trowel, and told to _ . a g< od 
 plant about half way between all the old plants and one in the 
 center of the square. After he has done this he is to cut off all 
 the others. Let us have another diagram to make this plain. 
 We have placed the stars a little further apart, s > you can see 
 better what you are doing. 
 
176 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 The large stais represent the original plants, and the small 
 ones the new plants at the end of the runners. This, you will 
 notice, makes a matted row, with the bearing plants just 9 
 inches apart each way. This is a little further apart than what 
 Terry directs ; but with the strong thrifty Enhance, the space 
 
 FIG. 3. HOW TO PLACE THE RUNNERS. 
 
 is not any too great. Each square contains nine bearing plants; 
 and each bearing plant should give a great cluster of immense 
 berries. If your plantation is made either in the spring or fall, 
 your first crop will be like cut Fig. 2 ; and it will be an easy 
 matter, with the horse-cultivator in the three-foot path, to keep 
 this matted row clean, for the plants stand like hills of corn, 
 except that the hills are only 9 inches apart, and you can work 
 them with a narrow hand cultivator, or you can use a hoe. 
 Then comes the question, How many crops shall we get from 
 this beautiful plantation before plowing it up? Mr. Young 
 thinks it pays to get two crops ; and he sometimes gets three. 
 If you work for a third crop, after the first crop is picked, 
 clean out your bed thoroughly, then let the runners set where 
 they choose. Just let the whole plantation grow up to a thick 
 mat of vines, leaving a 2 or a 2^ foot path for the pickers. 
 Through this path, of course, you keep the cultivator going. 
 After you have secured the crop from this solid matted row, 
 then turn strawberries, weeds, and every thing, all under, the 
 very day you do the last picking. That is, you ought to do it 
 the very day, if you are going to work up to the highest notch 
 of high-pressure gardening.* Now, friend Young goes to work 
 and plants strawberries again, because his whole ground is used 
 
 * Please notice, in fall planting the routine would be something like 
 this : Use potted plants ; in fact, this is the way friend Young always does, 
 
 summer you will get a full crop all large fine berries. Gather your fruit; 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 177 
 
 constantly for strawberries exclusively, or almost so. Mean- 
 time, however, he is pretty well convinced that some other crop 
 should be put on before planting again for strawberries ; ana, 
 by the way, you can get a good crop of cabbage, wax beans, 
 early sweet corn, and ever so many other things, after turning 
 under your strawberries. You may remember that, last season, 
 I got a splendid crop of Freeman potatoes after the strawber- 
 ries were all picked. 
 
 DAN WHITE'S MODEI, PATCH OF GANDY STRAWBERRIES. 
 From Gleanings in Bee Culture, Oct. 75, 1895. 
 
 I reached New London after 9 o'clock at night ; but as tke 
 rain had spoiled the wheeling I got up at five o'clock next 
 morning and found the way over to our friend Dan White's just 
 as the hired man was getting out of the back door. As soon as 
 Mr. White was informed that A. I. Root was on the premises 
 he hustled on his clothing quickly, making some apologies for 
 getting up so late on a rainy morning. After we had shaken 
 hands and talked over matters a little he commenced : 
 
 "O Mr. Root! You are just in time to see the neatest 
 thing in the way of a strawberry -patch there is out. Just come 
 this way." 
 
 Mr. White marks out his ground in the spring of the year 
 so as to put the rows 4 feet apart ; then the plants are carefully 
 set 18 inches apart in the row. As soon as they send out run- 
 ners, one new plant is made to grow half way between the orig- 
 inal plants. That leaves them 9 inches from center to center. 
 
 DAN WHITE'S SYSTEM OF GROWING STRAWBERRIES. 
 
 get out the weeds, then let the whole p 1 antation have pretty much its own 
 way. Run the cultivator, of course, and do as much hand-weeding as you 
 can afford to do, more or less ; then the third summer you will have an 
 immense crop of berries as before ; but a great many of them will proba- 
 bly be small, because the beds are too much crowded. Pick as long as it 
 pays to bother with them, then get them under the sod, and have your 
 field clean and lovely once more. 
 
 12 
 
178 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 Now the next step is to put a plant 9 inches off on each side of 
 every plant in the row. The diagram shown will make it plain. 
 The large stars are the original plants, and the small ones 
 where the runners are put down. 
 
 You will notice that the above arrangement makes the 
 plants 9 inches apart from center to center ; each old plant is 
 to furnish five young ones. The row of plants is 18 inches 
 wide, the path 2^ feet wide. Well, after you yet these three 
 rows, plants 9 inches apart, then you are to pull off every run- 
 ner. Go over the ground so often that not a weed gets a start, 
 and not another plant gets a start except the three rows as giv- 
 en above. The effect is to make each plant, by the time frost 
 comes, a strong bunchy cluster. It is several years since we 
 first practiced taking off all the runners so as to get strong 
 bushy plants ; but I am firmly convinced that in no other way 
 can we get such large fine berries. 
 
 The next question is, What variety shall we use? Dan 
 White's model strawberry- patch is Gandys nothing else. You 
 know there has been a complaint that the Gandy does not bear 
 very much. Some large strong plants, for instance, will not 
 bear a single berry at least, not the first season. Well, friend 
 W. says it is because the plant has not grown to a sufficient 
 size. He says if you take the first Gandy runners that set in 
 June or July, give them good cultivation, and stop off all the 
 other runners, you will get a plant by fall big enough to give a 
 good crop of fruit next year, and I believe he is right. Our 
 Gandys always did better the second season from planting. 
 
 This patch of strawberries on friend White's premises is, I 
 believe, the handsomest, and the most of a model patch, of any 
 thing I ever saw anywhere, unless it is those of Henry Young, 
 Ada, O., that I looked at last winter. There are absolutely no 
 weeds in it. There was a plant wherever there should be one, 
 and no extra ones. And I tell you, friends, it is a grand thing 
 to have a full stand in raising any crop. This reminds me that 
 I forgot to say that T. B. Terry's potato-fields were absolutely a 
 full stand. There were no missing hills at least, I did not see 
 any. But his planting was all done by hand. Since digging 
 his Freemans he tells me that, on his best ground, they ran as 
 high as 195 bushels per acre. Now, for the season we have had. 
 especially the severe drouth in his locality, and for a potato of 
 such fine quality as the Freeman, this is certainly doing pretty 
 well, especially where a whole farm, as it were, is planted to 
 potatoes. But, to come back to friend White's. 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 179 
 
 It is a big lot of work to set each runner in place by hand, 
 and to pinch off all superfluous runners. But, there is no ex- 
 cellence without great labor. Friend W. had a large crop of 
 strawberries during the past season, and sold them all at extra 
 prices. Three or four cents more per quart for your berries will 
 easily pay for the extra labor ; and when you get right down to 
 it, a good many times it is about as cheap to do any thing fight 
 as to let it go, or to get out the weeds by fits and starts after 
 they have doce a big lot of damage. He placed his berries 
 right in the market, side by side with other berries that were 
 selling at 5 and 6 cents. When the dealers protested about his 
 asking 10 and 12 for his he replied : 
 
 "You need not buy them at all, my friend, unless you have 
 a mind to. Set them right out here on the walk, put a tag on 
 them, stating the price, and I will allow you a commission for 
 selling." 
 
 It the above conversation took place on the sidewalk, where 
 it usually does, about this time somebody going by wanted 
 some of the berries. Then somebody else wanted some more ; 
 and pretty soon the dealer says, " Here, Mr. White, I will take 
 them at your price." Now, this is the same thing Terry de- 
 scribes in his strawberry-book. It can be done every time when 
 you have something away ahead of the general run in the mar- 
 ket. Terry accomplished the matter of getting his plants so as 
 to give each one plenty of room, by cutting out the surplus 
 plants in the fall. Friend White's plan is more work, but I 
 think it is a little ahead, because the surplus plants are out be- 
 fore they get started. And then, what a pleasure to show to 
 your friends I do not mean the berries I mean the plants and 
 the strawberry -garden ! I should judge friend W. has some- 
 thing like a quarter of an acre close by his dwelling, managed 
 on this high-pressure principle. 
 
 The summer after the above was written we received the 
 following from friend White, on a postal card : 
 
 The Gaudies are giving 72 quarts each morning, with prospects of keep- 
 ing it up the week out. DAN WHITE. 
 New Condon, O., June 16 1896. 
 
180 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 "THE BEST STRAWBERRY IN THE WORI,D." 
 From Gleanings in Bee Culture, July i, 1896. 
 
 In our issue for June 15 we were inclined to give the Jessie 
 the palm for being the best strawberry if we could have only 
 one of all that are before the world now. Later on we were in- 
 clined to change our decision and give our preference to the 
 Parker Earle. Well, just after our last issue had gone to press, 
 I think it was June 12, I happened to remark to the wife of a 
 neighbor that our nice strawberries were all gone. I was just 
 on my way over to the house to take my before dinner nap. 
 After waking up and rubbing my eyes, the first thing that met 
 my gaze was a heaping quart box of strawberries the largest 
 berries that is, a whole quart of them that I perhaps ever 
 saw before in my life. Mrs. Root informed me that they were 
 sent over by Mr. Horn. She said the boy called them " Great 
 something," she could not exactly remember what it was. 
 
 "Great American?" said I, as I picked up one of the 
 great awkward chunks of delicious fruit and sampled it. 
 11 Oh, yes ! that is it Great American." 
 
 It was not long before I was over to my neighbor's, on my 
 wheel. Now, his strawberry -patch is not over a hundred rods 
 from my own down on the creek bottom ; and yet he has beat- 
 en me all to pieces at least on late strawberries. Why, if 
 somebody had exhibited that box of berries, and had offered 
 me a hundred plants of the same for a five dollar bill, I should 
 have handed over the bill " quicker'n a wink." Best of all, 
 these berries were grown on soil precisely like my own ; and 
 this yield of enormous berries was after even the Parker Earle 
 was almost done fruiting. The bed had been neglected, and 
 the foliage was so thick you could not see a berry until the 
 leaves were parted. The great leaf-stems were toward a foot 
 high or more, and the fruit was tangled in the foliage. There 
 was such a tremendous growth of plants covering the whole 
 surface of the ground that the heaviest storm could rot soil the 
 berries a particle. Very likely this great mass of foliage was 
 one reason for the season being Leld back, as the sun could not 
 get at them. 
 
 Now, I have heard of the Great American before. In fact, 
 some years ago I gave it a partial test ; but my plants may not 
 have been true to name. Neighbor Horn sells his berries at the 
 groceries. He said the first pickings brought 6 ]^ cts. ; then 8 
 
ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 181 
 
 and then 9. But the last which he sold for 9, he said the grocer 
 retailed out at 12 cts. for every quart of them before the boy 
 left the store. The fruit is shaped very much like the Sharp- 
 less. You rembember when I first commenced raising the 
 Sharpless I said the berries looked like " chunks of pudding." 
 Well, that describes the Great American exactly. In point of 
 flavor they are exactly like the Sharpless, as nearly as I can re- 
 member. 
 
 I had been thinking I could not eat strawberries, especially 
 for supper. When Mrs Root placed the heaping saucer of 
 Great Americans close to my plate at suppertime I felt almost 
 sure, both from looks and taste, that they would not hurt me, 
 and they didn't. I suppose they are a very large per cent wa- 
 ter ; but when fully ripened they have a delicious pineapple 
 flavor that is most fascinating. Our Mr. Turner, you know, 
 has been for years at the Ohio Experiment Station, Columbus, 
 where they test every thing in this line. Said I : 
 
 " Mr. Turner, you people, of course, tested the Great Amer- 
 ican with other strawberries ? Now, will you please tell me 
 why it has not made more of a stir in the world ? " 
 
 He replied in just two words : 
 
 "Too soft;" and that tells the story exactly. If fully 
 ripened they certainly would not stand shipping ; but for home 
 use, or for selling in the way we do, picking the berries between 
 4 and 6 o'clock, and selling to consumers before noon, I believe 
 I should call them the " best berry in the world " at least, the 
 best late berry. Very likely the berry does not ordinarily pro- 
 duce as many quarts per acre as the Haverland, Parker Earle, 
 Bubach, and some others ; but managed in the way I found 
 these, the yield was certainly very satisfactory ; and it does not 
 take any time at all to pick the fruit. 
 
 By the way, why can't this berry be profitably grown and 
 let it cover the ground entirely, having no paths, no weeds, no 
 management at all ? Make the ground exceedingly rich ; keep 
 out every weed until the plants get complete possession, as in 
 the new celery culture, and then just let the whole thing take 
 care of itself. Grown in this way they do not need any mulch- 
 ing, and I do not believe the plant would ever be thrown out 
 by frost ; neither would a late frost injure the blossoms, for two 
 reasons the bloom is very late,* and the immense foliage 
 wo^ld protect it. But I tell you, you would need to have some 
 
 * The blossoms are perfect, so no other variety is needed near them. 
 
182 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 careful pickers. The average boy would be sure to set his foot 
 right square on one of these immense bunches of huge berries. 
 
 Now, mind you, the Great American will never be popu- 
 lar as an all-purpose berry, because it is " too soft ; " and dur- 
 ing very wet seasons they might, like the Bubach, rot before 
 ripening. But for home use, or for selling right around among 
 your neighbors, I believe I should call it one of the best. 
 
 Before the sun went down that night I had some of our 
 best creek-bottom ground prepared ; and before another day 
 had past, some Great Americans were taken up with a lot of 
 soil adhering to the roots, and transferred to our rich ground. 
 Of course, we had to take old plants, because they have not 
 commenced to send out runners yet ; but we are going to make 
 plants this fall, and get out a plantation that will bear fruit 
 next year you see if we don't. 
 
 The above berry, described as the Great American, we de- 
 cided later on was the Sharple c s. The old plants I took up 
 while they were in full bearing, had the fruit all picked off, and 
 in a little time they sent out runners. These runners were ta- 
 ken care of, and gave a crop of immense berries the very next 
 season, not quite as large, however, as those in the bed of my 
 neighbor ; and although I have tried almost every year since 
 to get such a crop as they had, with the best of care and with- 
 out any care at all, I have not succeeded. Perhaps the season 
 has not been just right for that method of treatment, and may 
 be his ground is peculiarly fitted for it. The bed was not a very 
 large one, but the paths were all grown up full of plants, so 
 there were no paths at all. The leaves were immense in size, 
 and the berries were borne on long stems. I presume the plants 
 stood from six to ten inches apart in this bed. There had been 
 a big crop of fruit on it the year before, and then it was allow- 
 ed to stand, thinking it might give part of a crop another year. 
 I think we paid him 10 cts. a quart for the remainder of the 
 crop after I found the bed. We sold them without trouble for 
 14 to 15 cts. on account of the size of the fruit ; and that was 
 when common berries were selling from 5 to 10 cts. When 
 every thing is favorable I still consider the Sharpless one of the 
 
ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 183 
 
 best if not the best strawberry in the world, especially for my 
 own eating. 
 
 FIRMING THE; GROUND WHERE YOU WANT TO GROW CHOICE 
 VARIETIES OF STRAWBERRIES, AND WHERE YOU WANT 
 
 TO GET BERRIES OF IMMENSE SIZE. 
 Front Gleanings in Bee Culture, Sept. 75, 1896. 
 
 Somehow or other it seems almost impossible for me to 
 take a wheelride twenty miles from home without getting lost. 
 Daring this last trip I took a back road because it happened to 
 be better ; but it took me through a new part of the country. 
 There were no guide boards, and pretty soon I was at a loss to 
 know which way to turn to strike T. B. Terry's. I took the 
 wrong road, as it transpired, and by and by I was astonished to 
 find myself close to the home of Matthew Crawford. Just as 
 soon as he saw me and my wheel he expressed his pleasure by 
 saying he had something special he wanted me to see. Friend 
 C. has little beds for starting strawberries, and for his potted 
 plants, much like my own, except that they are only 4 feet 
 wide. He started this way, and has therefore got all his beds 
 made this width. Instead of having them in a compact group 
 he has them here and there in different points all around his 
 house. For potted plants waiting for orders he plunges them 
 into beds up to the brim, and then shades them with frames 
 covered with cotton cloth until they get " weaned " after being 
 detached from the mother-plant. Then choice varieties are 
 planted out in these same beds, making two rows lengthwise of 
 the bed. These rows are about 2 feet apart, and the plants 
 stand 6 inches apart in the row. By keeping the runners pinch- 
 ed off he 'gets enormous berries in these rich specially prepared 
 beds. 
 
 We soon came to a bed containing about thirty plants. 
 These plants had a little more room, perhaps a foot apart. As 
 soon as I saw them I raised my hands in surprise, for they were 
 the finest-looking, rankest-growing strawberry-plants I ever 
 saw in my life. The runners that were just taking root here 
 and there were almost the size of leadpencils ; and the colors 
 of these great runners were almost as brilliant as the colors of 
 a ripening peach. 
 
 " Well, I do declare ! Friend C., is this a new variety that 
 gives this enormous growth, or is it some special treatment? " 
 
184 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 *'Mr. Root, the wonderful growth you see is due both to 
 the variety and treatment. The plants are the 'Nick Ohmer,' 
 and you have four of them already. The special treatment is 
 this : There is quite a quantity of rich old compost spaded un- 
 der the surface of the soil ; but it is not the compost alone. 
 After preparing the bed I stamped it down as hard as I could 
 tramp the mellow ground ; then I afterward pounded it as I 
 would pound the ground around a post, and this is the result." 
 
 " Now, old friend, you have missed quite a little specula- 
 tion. Had you showed me these plants, and told me they were 
 a new variety just out, and were worth $1 00 a piece, I would 
 have taken half a dozen, without a moment's hesitation. As it 
 is, I want to say to you that the sight of this bed has been 
 worth my whole hard ride of 25 miles over the hills this morn- 
 ing." 
 
 You see, this is nothing particularly new after all. T. B. 
 Terry and others fine up their wheat ground on the surface un- 
 til every lump is pulverized until the ground is like the dust 
 in the road, in fact. After having done this the soil is packed 
 down hard with a heavy land-roller. This is the viay they get 
 such enormous crops of wheat. Now, mind you, this can be 
 done only when the soil is very dry; and it is especially needed 
 on light sandy soils like friend Crawford's, or any soil where a 
 great amount of stable manure has been applied. As soon as 
 it was explained to me I understood exactly why strawberries 
 do not do well at this time of year in my plant-beds where the 
 soil is almost half stable manure. 
 
 After the above I went home and tested this firming mat- 
 ter most thoroughly on a great variety of plants, especially our 
 choice ones. It has always given wonderful results, both in 
 variety and fruit ; but we use it in our plant beds only where 
 there was an excess of old manure. I do not know how it 
 would work in field culture. If it answers as well as it does in 
 our rich beds, the ground can probably be firmed with a very 
 heavy roller loaded down, drawn by horses. A strawberry- 
 grower of much experience once told me that my old plants, 
 close by a path where the ground had been tramped down hard 
 and solid by many feet, would stand over winter, without the 
 plants heaving out, better than in soft ground, and that has 
 proved to be the case. 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 185 
 
 THE STRAWBERRY INDUSTRY AT BARNESVII^E, OHIO. 
 
 From Gleanings in Bee Culture, June 75, 1897. 
 
 For several years I have been thinking I should like to vis- 
 it Barnesville, and see how they manage where they grow straw- 
 berries by the carload and trainload, and also see what varieties, 
 where they plant whole farms to strawberries. Well, last Sat- 
 urday evening I received the card below : 
 
 Dear Friend Root : The strawberries are ripening now, rather late. I 
 think the first of next week would be a good time to visit the patches. I 
 shall be pleased to show thee around. WM. I,. ASHTON. 
 
 ^Barnesville, O., June 4. 
 
 I looked up the state of things on the new wheel-book sent 
 out by the L,. A. W., and found that our Medina rail way strikes 
 a station in Belmont Co. called Bannock, where a limestone 
 pike goes down to the old national pike ; and by making a 
 wheelride of toward 20 miles over these stone pikes I found I 
 could reach Barnesville without any waiting. I will not stop 
 to tell you about my wheelride, but only say that I met with 
 about the usual number of adventures In fact, I am bearing 
 the scars of some of them while I wrre. 
 
 I was warmly welcomed by our Quaker friend and his boys, 
 for he proved to be the superintendent of the Quaker school, a 
 mile out from Barnesville. Near by was one of the strawber- 
 ry-fields ; and my first introduction to the strawberry-grower 
 brought back a host of memories belonging to forty years ago 
 or more. Shall I tell you why ? Well, it was because the in- 
 troduction was something like this : 
 
 " Brother Smith, this is Amos Root. Brother Root, I make 
 thee acquainted with Solomon Smith." 
 
 " Amos Root ! " Away back in my boyhood, when I was 
 so bashful that I wanted to slip around out of sight rather than 
 meet strangers, they used to call me " Amos Root ; " and some- 
 how or other it did my heart good to be called by that old fa- 
 miliar name. It seemed to say to me, " You are at home, and 
 among friends yes, friends indeed ;" and it seemed to strip 
 off business and business cares. Just the very words made me 
 feel that I was a boy again a quiet, backward, awkward boy ; 
 and it made me feel, for just a little time, loose from all busi- 
 ness entanglements and complications. I do not know but I 
 drew a long breath of relief. "A. I. Root" does not sound 
 boyish ; neither does "The A. I. Root Co." And, oh I do so 
 love to be a boy once more when I get away off with my wheel ! 
 
186 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 My first glimpse was of a patch of berries on a southern 
 slope ; and, by the way, there are slopes and nothing but 
 "slopes" around Barnesville every thing slopes garden- 
 patches, whole farms ; but, notwithstanding, I believe Belmont 
 Co. is the most thrifty and the finest-looking agricultural coun- 
 ty I ever saw anywhere in all my travels. Every bit of ground 
 is covered with something green at this time of the year. No 
 matter how steep the hillsides, nor how high their summits, 
 something is growing. The forests have been mostly cleared 
 away, and cultivated fields that is, fields over the hilltops and 
 down in the valleys take their places. 
 
 The strawberries are grown in matted rows, just about ac- 
 cording to Terry's directions. The ground was well mulched 
 with straw in the fall, and there has been no cultivation since, 
 except to pull the weeds ; and just now they do not even do 
 that very much, because the weed brings up a lot of dirt, and 
 that is pretty sure to make the berries gritty. 
 
 The first row I struck was our old friend Warfield, that I 
 have just been talking about ; but the Warfield berries were 
 larger than we have ever grown them here in Medina Co. This 
 is owing to having the plants not too thick in the rows, to the 
 rich gravelly loam on the hills, and to the great amount of sta- 
 ble manure or other fertilizer used. Almost every grower I 
 visited, however, threatens to stop putting stable manure on 
 strawberries, on account of the weed seeds. Some are using 
 phosphates ; but the greater number, I think, are using bone 
 dust and ashes, or some other preparation of potash, in place 
 of stable manure. 
 
 I felt anxious to know how many of the varieties we have 
 been advising and recommending were flourishing there ; and 
 my good friend Ash ton smiled when Bro. Smith told us that 
 one of their best berries was the Warfield. Now, they have 
 around Barnesville the very berries we have settled down on, 
 and but only a few other kinds. The Jessie has been partially 
 dropped, although a few growers still stick to it ; and the same 
 with the Parker Earle. Michel's Early they grow for extra 
 early, but for no other reason. Bubach takes the lead for a 
 large strawberry. Where Bubachs are grown with the plants 
 far enough apart, so as to have plenty of room, they select 
 choice specimens for fancy city trade. Such berries bring from 
 25 to 40 cts. a quart. Where you can get, say, ten berries that 
 will fill a quart basket, it is not much trouble to find a purchas- 
 er for them, among traveling people on the railways, at from 30 
 to 40 cts. 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 187 
 
 Brandywine is just beginning to attract considerable atten- 
 tion. It does not bear as many berries as the Bubach, perhaps, 
 but they are so firm they can be handled and shipped almost 
 like potatoes, even when they are well colored all over. This 
 is certainly a wonderful thing in its favor. The Marshall has 
 been grown to some extent, but I believe it does not produce 
 berries enough for field culture, as a general thing. 
 
 One of the largest berry-farms in the neighborhood of 
 Barnesville is managed by the Cowan brothers, one of them 
 having over 100 acres devoted to small fruits, and, if I am cor- 
 rect, something like 40 acres entirely in strawberries. We were 
 a little surprised to find the proprietor a colored man ; and it 
 was a surprise indeed to see how he was making berries grow 
 on every foot of the land, hilltop and valley. Even in the ra- 
 vine back of his house, where it was about as steep as the roof 
 of a house, great rank luxuriant strawberries were growing and 
 bearing there. Mr. Cowan says the side of the hill is much 
 better for strawberries than the extreme top. He thinks this is 
 much owing to the cold winds that strike the summit, while 
 the berries part way down, especially where the hill slopes to 
 the southeast, are protected from the cold northwest winds. It 
 was indeed amusing to see the great clusters hanging over and 
 spread out on the straw mulching on the down-hill side of each 
 row. The Haverland, you know, is remarkable for its long 
 stems, and these were literally piled up in heaps. The day be- 
 fore our visit, they had picked and shipped 50 bushels. 
 
 Mr. Cowan objects, like the rest, to stable manure for a 
 mulch, especially that which comes from the livery-stables in 
 town. I do not know just why manure from livery-stables 
 should contain so many weed seeds, but perhaps it is because 
 they have to purchase large quantities of hay from all sorts of 
 farmers. A man who has a horse and cow of his own, or who 
 grows the feed for his stock, would not be so likely to risk tak- 
 ing weeds on to his premises. Several men told me they had 
 got their ground filled with kinds of weeds they had never 
 seen on their premises until they brought them in by purchas- 
 ing stable manure for their berries. Now, this is indeed a se- 
 rious matter. Another source of weed seeds is the straw mulch- 
 ing put under the berries to keep them clean. The small quan- 
 tity of grain left in the straw makes trouble, but the trouble is 
 not as bad as with pernicious weeds. The prickly lettuce is one 
 of the worst, because it will mature seed, and send it flying 
 about even while the berries are fruiting. 
 
 Permit me to mention here that Mr. Cowan was using very 
 
188 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 successfully over a part of one of his fields the refuse from a 
 cane mill near by. It answen the purpose perfectly, contains 
 no weed seeds whatever, and he said the only objection in his 
 case was the distance they were obliged to go for it. In their 
 work they use two tons of straw per acre, or its equivalent in 
 something else. This, of course, is for mulching, to protect 
 the plants from heaving out in the winter, and to keep the ber- 
 ries out of the dirt in fruiting-time. 
 
 The berries grown on this piece of 40 acres are mostly those 
 I have mentioned. Warfield, Haverland, and Bubach are sure 
 to be found ; then Parker Earle, Jessie, and Michel's Early are 
 grown more or less. 
 
 I asked Mr. Cowan how often he shipped berries that sold 
 so low as to pay for only the packages, express charges, and 
 cost of picking. He said he had never come out quite as badly 
 as that, even on a single bushel, although he had heard of oth- 
 ers who had to advance money, besides the value of the ber- 
 ries, to pay the expense of shipping and marketing. I was 
 somewhat surprised at this ; but when I became better acquaint- 
 ed with the man I found that he was unusually bright and 
 wideawake. He is a hard worker himself, and he keeps right 
 along with his help, which, if I am correct, is mostly colored 
 people. 
 
 There is a factory at Barnesville for making crates and 
 boxes for berry-growers ; and they have certainly got the prices 
 down very low. The cheap gift crates to hold one bushel, or 
 32 one-quart boxes, are furnished at Barnesville, nailed up, for 
 only!2^cts.; and as the nailed up quart boxes are sold for 
 $3 50 psr 1000, the whole expense of a package for a bushel of 
 berries is only about 23 cts. 
 
 As we prepared to take our leave he informed me that, 
 when he started in the berry business some years ago, he had 
 only about $200 or $300 to make a payment on the farm. The 
 place was already pretty heavily mortgaged. It was only a 
 short time ago that the last dollar of the mortgage was paid ; 
 and now he can breathe a little easier while he plans to make 
 every yard of ground produce fruit of some kind. Besides the 
 strawberries he has considerable ground devoted to currants 
 and gooseberries, and these have always paid him well. In- 
 stead of paving large sums of money to nurserymen for plants, 
 he grows his own, makes cuttings from the currants and goose- 
 berries, and has a very pretty little nursery where they are cul- 
 tivated and cared for until they are ready to go out into the 
 field. 
 
ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 189 
 
 When I got out on the national pike I called on two more 
 strawberry-growers. One of them told me how he had been 
 growing berries a great many years, but had just made a dis- 
 covery in fact, had just got his eyes open so as to know how 
 to grow berries profitably. He took me down a side hill to 
 show me his new invention another patch of Bubachs fertiliz- 
 ed with our old friend Sharpless ; and, oh such berries ! not 
 only in size, but in luscious sweetness ; and I actually believe I 
 would rather have the Sharpless berry for my own eating than 
 any other berry grown. But, let us get to the new invention. 
 
 The plants were all put out last fall ; and neither the Sharp- 
 less nor the Bubach had produced a very thick matted row. In 
 fact, in some places there were not enough plants ; but they 
 had had good care, and each plant had an abundance of room 
 so that it was growing great whoppers, even if there were not 
 so many of them. This man sells the greater part of his crop 
 by sorting out the largest ones and selling them at fancy prices. 
 It is almost like growing berries in hills. The runners are kept 
 off, or mostly off, as soon as a sufficient stand is secured for 
 large berries. He does not get as many bushels per acre, but 
 he gets better prices for what he does grow. A neighbor near 
 him was managing a plantation a good deal the same way, but 
 he was using the Brandy wine. Here again we had great berries 
 that could be tumbled about like potatoes, while the Bubachs 
 in the same patch would be, many of them, too soft to handle 
 before they were fully ripe. 
 
 A NEW TRANSPI/ANTI NO-MACHINE. 
 
 Something like two years ago a transplanting-machine was 
 sent to Matthew Crawford, but tor some reason or other he for- 
 warded it on to me, asking me to test and report. On account 
 of many cares, and other things to be looked after and tested, 
 the little machine was laid under my desk until well along into 
 the season before I took the trouble to take it out and try it. 
 Another thing, I have tested so many machines that did not 
 seem to be as convenient as some we already had in use, I was 
 a little skeptical about it ; but when I did get hold of it I was 
 agreeably surprised to find that I could in a twinkling move 
 any small plant to another location so quickly and so safely 
 that it seemed almost as if it must be some sleight-of-hand per- 
 formance. 
 
190 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE 
 
 The drawing will make the machine plain, almost without 
 any particular explanation. You hold it in both hands, and 
 with an auger-like motion back and forth you set the steel tube, 
 No. 1, over the plant. It is pressed down till it will bring up 
 the plant, roots and all, in a lump of dirt like No. 2. It is not 
 advisable to push it any further down than is necessary to get 
 all the roots. In fact, if the tap-root is broken off, with most 
 plants they will do just as well. 
 
 MACHINE FOR TRANSPLANTING SMAI,!, PLANTS. 
 
 After the plant is out of the ground in its ball of earth, you 
 place your two thumbs on the lever at the top of the machine, 
 and push down, releasing the ball of earth. With strawberries 
 you can load these balls into a wheelbarrow, or with appropri- 
 ate trays you can load them into a wagon. Fit your ground 
 nicely, as described in our book on strawberry culture ; mark 
 it out according to your notion, then with the transplan ting- 
 machine make holes to drop your "potted plants" into, for 
 they are potted plants, to all intents and purposes. 
 
 Some time in the fore part of April we put out with this 
 machine several thousand strawberry-plants, including all the 
 different varieties ; and .if there is one failure in the whole lot, 
 I have not seen it. Almost any boy, with a little instruction, 
 will operate it nicely ; and with any soil that I have yet used it 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY GUI/TURK. 191 
 
 on, the dirt, if wet enough, will hold around the plant so it can 
 be handled. The nicest way, in my opinion, is to grow your 
 plants in a plant-bed made up of exceedingly rich compost ; 
 then you carry enough of this compost out to the field to give 
 your plants a big start, even if the ground is comparatively 
 poor. We have not yet tried shipping plants by express, taken 
 up in this way ; but by breaking off a part of the ball of earth, 
 so as to decrease the weight as much as possible, and yet have 
 enough left to keep the roots perfectly, then packing these balls 
 of earth with sphagnum moss, I think valuable plants could be 
 sent this way with profit. The weight of the adhering soil 
 would, of course, be a serious objection to sending any plants 
 in this way unless it were a small number of something exceed- 
 ingly valuable. Sometimes it seems desirable to swap places 
 with certain valuable plants. With the above machine this can 
 be done in a twinkling ; and even the plants that have been 
 transplanted do not seem to know they have been swapped. 
 The machine has a cylinder 3 inches in diameter and 5 inches 
 in length. The whole thing amounts to the same thing as our 
 transplanting tubes ; but you have no tin tubes at all to pick 
 up and put away. The machine itself does the whole business. 
 
 Perhaps I should explain that cylinder No. 1 is made of 
 the very best crucible steel ; and while in use it is as bright as 
 a polished saw-blade. 
 
 It has now been tested by many competent men, and there 
 is but one verdict in regard to it it is away ahead of any other 
 transplanting-arrangement of the kind that has ever been 
 brought before the public. 
 
 The little plant you see in the picture is a basswocd- seed- 
 ling. One day when one of our small boys was put of a job I 
 told him to mark out one of our plant-beds with one of our 
 markers, then pick up the basswocd- seedlings all over the gar- 
 den, wherever he could find them, and put them in the bed. 
 No. 2 shows one of the basswood-seedlings just as we picked 
 them up. In a little while he had a bed of 300 nice ones. Acd 
 this reminds me that we have pretty much failed in getting 
 basswoods to grow where we planted seeds ; but wherever we 
 are making up beds near the basswood-trees, these little seed- 
 lings come up plentifully. Under one small basswocd-tree we 
 picked out over forty plants. 
 
 I may add that, since 1897, we have manufactured and sold 
 a large number of these machines, and they have now come to 
 
192 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 be a standard tool with many strawberry-growers ; in fact, they 
 may be used with melons, squashes, etc., and very many other 
 kinds of vegetable-plants where there happen to be hills miss- 
 ing. Take a plant or two from a hill that has it to spare, and 
 fill out the vacancies. With strawberries it is very useful for 
 removing plants where there are too many, and taking them to- 
 a part of the row where there are vacant spaces. 
 
 GROWING STRAWBERRY-PLANTS. 
 From Gleanings in Bee^Culture, Aug. /, iSqj. 
 
 I have before explained many times why it is that a well- 
 rooted young plant in July is worth ever so much more than 
 one later. It is a good deal like the old adage 
 
 A swarm of bees in May 
 Is worth a load of hay ; 
 A swarm of bees in June 
 Is worth a silver spoon ; 
 A swarm in July 
 Is not worth a fly. 
 
 But the way honey has been coming this summer, and that, 
 too, during the last part of July, makes me inclined to think 
 that a swarm of bees in July might this season be worth con- 
 siderable after all. Well, a strawberry- plant put out in July 
 may make two good plants in August ; four in September ; eight 
 by October, and sixteen by November. If you have the plants 
 in beds, and put on sashes, you may make thirty-two by Christ- 
 mas. Again, if you keep off all runners, and just make the 
 plant grow big and stocky, you may get a whole quart of ber- 
 ries from a plant that has not been located even one year. For 
 the reasons just given, viz push plant-rearing during this month. 
 In fact, we have been shipping plants at a lively rate every day 
 for several days back. Now, how shall we manage to get good 
 stocky plants with the least expense and trouble ? There is no 
 better way to start them than the way laid down in the straw- 
 berry-book. Set out your plants in the spring in good rich 
 ground well fined up, in rows four feet apart, the plants being 
 two feet apart in a row. By July, if you have done your part 
 with the cultivator and weeder and hoes, the plants will be set- 
 ting considerably. Some say, keep the runners off till the 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 193 
 
 plant gets strong; but this would deprive you of jour early 
 plants. 
 
 If, then, we are going to make the most of these early 
 plants, how shall we manage to keep on cultivating, stirring 
 the soil, and keeping out weeds ? A problem besets us right 
 here that I have discussed many times in these pages. The 
 trouble is to find a man or boy who will put the runners in place 
 so as to have them crowd each other as little as possible, and at 
 the same time not get out into the row in the way of the culti- 
 vator. 
 
 Well, now, I have hit upon a little device that has enabled 
 me to give my plants space in very good shape, and at compar- 
 atively small expense. When they began to put down runners 
 on the Brandywine and Wm. Belt rows, I called tw of my 
 good boys, Carl and George. We first stretched a string just 
 as near the row of plants as we could have it and still give room 
 inside the string to set all the runners. Then the boys were 
 given two trowels to break up the crust between the plants 
 where the cultivator could not go, and make it all mellow. 
 Then they put the runners down, placing a little dirt with the 
 trowel over and around the bud, making each plant go inside 
 the string. They thought I might give them a little more room 
 by putting the string further away ; but I told them we would 
 put it further off next time. They got them all in nicely, leav- 
 ing a space of five or six inches between every two plants. 
 Then they took a hand -hoe and cultivated the ground up soft 
 and fine clear up to the string. The string was then moved to 
 the other side of the row, or, rather, two strings were used, one 
 on each row of berries, leaving a path from 15 to 18 inches 
 wide between the two strings. Here the boys stood (or sat 
 down) while putting the plants in place. 
 
 After the row was finished, of course so much walking on 
 the path would make it hard from the stamping. The boys 
 therefore always went through with their wheel-hoe, and fined 
 it up again. After the boys had finished their work, a nice 
 shower of rain came up, and every plant they had put down 
 was soon rooted, right where they put it. It was indeed a 
 pleasant sight to behold, especially as the edge of the bed where 
 the string was stretched was as straight as a line. A man could 
 go in with a horse (and, in fact, did go in with a horse), and 
 keep the space between the rows beautifully fined up and keep 
 down all weeds. 
 
 You may say it is lots of trouble to put every runner down 
 by hand where you want a plant to grow ; but I believe it is 
 
 13 
 
194 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 less trouble than to have your rows in certain places so wide 
 that scarcely a path is left. A man who has any taste and skill 
 at all will go into a nice strawberry-patch made as I have di- 
 rected, and run his fine-toothed cultivator clear up to the point 
 where the string was stretched, and will do you a handsome 
 job. If you are selling plants, you get ever so much better 
 roots to have the ground evenly occupied. Now try it, and see 
 if my invention in strawberry-growing is not worth something, 
 even if said invention is not ( when you come right down to it) 
 any thing more than a ball of string that costs only a nickel. 
 
 HIGH PRESSURE STRAWBERRY GROWING AND SUB IRRIGA- 
 TION. 
 From Gleanings in Bee Culture, Sept. /, 1897. 
 
 If you haven't ground enough for a garden, and have only 
 a few rods where you can get sunshine, you can grow wonder- 
 ful strawberries even there ; and if there be such who read 
 Gleanings in Bee Culture* who have not even a few rods, if 
 they have even a tew yards of ground where the sun may shine 
 a part of the day, and where the plants may get the benefit of 
 the summer showers, they may have much enjoyment and much 
 delicious fruit, even with a few yards. Almost the only condi- 
 tion is plenty of daylight. During mid - summer, very fine 
 strawberries may be grown entirely in the shade ; but during 
 the rest of the year it is much better to have the sunlight. 
 
 Few people are aware of what wonderful things can be 
 done with strawberries where they are provided unstintedly 
 with water and plenty of fertility. You need not urge that it 
 will not pay ; for if you get interested in the matter, I think 
 the enjoyment will almost pay you, to say nothing of the lus- 
 cious fruit ; and then the pleasure of being able to astonish 
 your friends by showing them strawberries as large as small- 
 sized hen's-eggs, and almost as perfect in shape, which you 
 may do with some of our finest new varieties ! 
 
 To commence with, we must have sub irrigation ; and when 
 you succeed in managing sub irrigation for strawberry-plants 
 you have the matter fully in hand so you are ready to apply it 
 to almost any other crop. You may commence on a very small 
 scale at first in fact, I rather prefer you should do so. When 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 195 
 
 you make a success of this small scale you can easily enlarge it 
 as much as you choose. Perhaps the present month of Sep- 
 tember is as good a time to start as any, for we can now lay the 
 foundation for great bushy plants to furnish us quantities of 
 immense berries next spring. For sub-irrigation you must have 
 some sort of bed or box that will hold water ; and you can 
 start the business very well with a large-sized common wash- 
 tub, if you do not like to go to the expense of making a water- 
 tight box. A tub would be rather deeper than is necessary, but 
 it will illustrate the plan. Provide some good finely sifted gar- 
 den soil enough to fill the tub a third full. Then get some old 
 well-rotted manure, old enough so you can work', it through a 
 coarse sieve. Such a one as is used for screening coal ashes, 
 will answer very well. Have equal parts of garden soil and 
 sifted manure. A little clean sand and some swamp muck will 
 help make a nice compost if you have materials handy. Set a 
 common drain-tile on end at one side of the tub, and fill it with 
 the compost. Now you want a strawberry-plant. The plant 
 should be a young one ; but if you can not find a young one, 
 almost any strawberry-plant will do. But I would start with a 
 potted plant (see cut, p. 131) of one of the very best of the new 
 varieties, because it is just as easy to propagate high-priced 
 plants as low-priced ones. Set the plant in the middle of the 
 tub. Let your tub stand where it can get both rain and sun ; 
 but should there be a very heavy rain so as to endanger filling 
 the tub with water so it rises above the soil, the tub must be 
 covered that is, when the soil is wet enough. If it does not 
 rain, paur water into the tile until it rises and stands say two 
 or three inches below the surface of the soil. This water un- 
 derneath will always keep your soil damp enough. But do not 
 water your bed every day. Air through the soil at intervals is 
 as important as water at intervals. 
 
 If the weather should happen to be dry and warm, evapo- 
 ration will take away the water until it sinks in the tile almost 
 to the bottom of the tub. When it gets down say within an 
 inch of the bottom, then fill it up to within an inch or two of 
 the top ; then let it gradually sink down again. If you have 
 rain every two or three days you will not need to water your 
 little bed at all. But keep watch of it, and do not let the 
 plants get drowned by too much water, nor dried out by lack 
 of water. When the plant gets to growing vigorously it will 
 put out runners. Spread these out like the spokes of a wheel, 
 and let them take root. But a better way is to plunge a li tie 
 pot, say two inches in diameter, down to the surface of the soil, 
 
196 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 and make the plant take root in the center of the pot. This en- 
 ables yon to move your young plants without having them stop 
 growing. On page 131 is a cut of a potted plant when the roots 
 have filled the pot so that it needs to be taktn out and given 
 more room. 
 
 ! - What is meant by " pot-bound " is letting the plant remain 
 until the roots have so filled the pot that they become cramped 
 and stunted. If you start plants in pots you must be sure to 
 take them out before they become pot-bound. The plant, with 
 all the soil adhering to the roots, is easily removed from the 
 pot by turning it over and striking the edge of the pot a smart 
 blow on some solid body the edge of the tub, for instance. 
 When your plants are ready to come out they should be put out 
 in a similar tub, and placed at least three or four inches apart. 
 If you want them to bear fruit they should not stand nearer 
 than six inches. If you are going to keep the runners off, and 
 grow them in hills, they ought to be planted as much as two 
 feet apart. The largest and finest berries are grown by the hill 
 system. This has been fully described. 
 
 Now, in the above you have the whole thing in a nut-shell. 
 Sub-irrigation is certainly the way to grow strawberries. The 
 objection to it is the expense of having water-tight beds. You 
 can probably make a wooden box much cheaper than a tub ; 
 and if you are going to make a box it ought to be large enough 
 to take for a cover a common-sized hot-bed sash, the regular 
 run of these being 6 feet long by 3j ftet wide. This box can 
 easily be made sufficiently water-tight of lumber well nailed 
 together ; but it is generally considered cheaper to take less 
 pains with the lumber and the carpenter work, and make the 
 joints tight with water-lime cement. 
 
 There are many opinions in regard to the depth of soil 
 needed to grow plants ; but I believe four or five inches is deep 
 enough. Perhaps you had better have six inches of soil and 
 manure. With the glass sashes I have spoken of you can pro- 
 tect the plants from frost, and have strawberries one or two 
 months earlier than you can get them in the open air. The 
 sash can also be used to keep off surplus rain when observation 
 shows you there is enough in the bed. For a bed 3 by 6 feet 
 you will want at least two tiles one in opposite corners ; and 
 if you expect to neglect your bed, and let it get full of water 
 during some heavy rain, you will need a hole bored down close 
 to the bottom, with a cork to stop it up. But I do not like this 
 arrangement. Whenever you let water off because you have so 
 much as to drown the plants, you are leaching away the fertili- 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 197 
 
 ty of your soil. That is the way we do in all outdoor farming 
 and gardening, but it is a bad way nevertheless. A small quan- 
 tity of manure will do a tremendous lot of fertilizing in grow- 
 ing plants if we never permit the fertility to be leached away 
 and washed away by excessive rains. 
 
 Well, after you get your sub-irrigating strawberry -bed, "3 
 by 6 feet, to working nicely, you are .ready to try a larger one. 
 Your bed may be 6 by 6 feet, so as to take 2 sashes, or it may 
 be 6 by 12 so as to take four sashes ; or you may have it 6 by 
 50 feet so as to take 14 sashes. That is the size of bed we use 
 in our high-pressure gardening. I would not have it more than 
 50 feet long, because vou have to carry the sash so far when 
 you pile them up at each end of the bed. You will find cuts 
 of these beds in our tomato-book. 
 
 "But can we not," somebody is always inquiring, "prac- 
 tice sub-irrigation outdoors?" We can ; but a heavy rain is 
 sure to fill up our beds and necessitate drawing off the water. 
 It works all right in a greenhouse where you have control of 
 the water supply ; but I do not know how sub-irrigation can be 
 made a success in the open air unless you arrange valves to be 
 opened to let the water off when there is too much of it ; and 
 the water that comes out of these valves will show by its color 
 that it is carrying away the fertility of your manure. And is 
 not this an objection to all kinds of underdraining ? Yes, my 
 friend, it is an objection ; but it is much better than to have 
 the plants drownel by a surplus of moisture. These water- 
 tight beds are expensive, I know ; but for high-pressure garden- 
 work they are almost a necessity. When you have them nicely 
 arranged you can push strawberry growing or any thing else 
 right through the most severe drouth ; and with the sashes put 
 over your plants, you have nothing to fear in the way of frosts. 
 I supp3se, however, such arrangements will be particularly 
 used for supplying yourself with extra-strong vigorous plants 
 to put in the field, say during August and September; and if 
 the plants are of some new variety that commands a high price, 
 you can push your propagation without regard to what the 
 weather may be. 
 
 Taese plant beds should stand exactly level. If they do 
 not, the water you introduce through the tiles will settle to the 
 lowest point, and you want it disseminated equally all through 
 the bed. With beds say 50 feet long or less, two lines of tiles 
 should run the whole length of the bed. These are laid in ce- 
 ment, and the joints closed half way up the diameter of the 
 
198 ABC OF STRAWBERRYJCULTURE. 
 
 tile. With this arrangement the water may be introduced, say, 
 at each end ; and you will in time moisten the soil equally the 
 whole length of the bed. Now, while the bottom of the bed 
 is on a dead level to facilitate even watering, the sashes should 
 have an incline when placed on top of the bed, so as to carry 
 off the rain water ; therefore the north side of the bed should 
 be an inch or two higher than the south side. 
 
 HOW TO GROW EXTRA-FINE STRAWBERRIES. 
 From Gleanings in Bee Culture, Sept. 75, 7,597. 
 
 The beds I have described will probably be used for grow- 
 ing plants to set out in the fields rather than for producing 
 fruit, although by far the finest fruit can be secured by this same 
 plan of sub-irrigation When your beds are all full of plants, 
 as they will all very quickly be providing you follow up the 
 work without any neglect, you will probably need to set them 
 out in the open ground. This plot of ground, be it large or 
 small, should be thoroughly underdrained. The objection to 
 sub -irrigation in the open air, I have already given. When you 
 have potted plants to spare, put them out in ground well work- 
 ed up and fertilized, in rows 4 feet apart. I would put the 
 plants about a foot apart in the row. Run through them with 
 your hand cultivators or horse cultivators, keeping the ground 
 constantly soft and mellow, and free from weeds. 
 
 In order to facilitate cultivating, every time you go to work 
 potting plants, stretch a string on each side of the row. Now, 
 have this string as near the mother-plants that are putting out 
 runners as you can, and have just the young plants potted in- 
 side of the string, and yet arrange to have no two nearer than 
 five inches from its neighbor. We do this in order that we may 
 keep running the cultivator clear up to the line made by the 
 string. The space between the plants must be kept mellow, 
 and free from weeds, by some of the various hand weeders. 
 Below is a cut of an excellent one for this purpose. 
 
 A HAND WEEDER FOR WORKING AMONG STRAWBERRIES. 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 199 
 
 Now, the above arrangement is all right for growing fruit 
 on the plan called the matted-row system, only we avoid let- 
 ting the plants stand near together, on the plan that Terry 
 recommends. 
 
 If you want to grow extra large nice fruit, there is a still 
 better way ; but there are several objections to this "better 
 way." First, it is lots of work to do all the cultivating by 
 hand. Second, it is lots of work to keep the runners off. 
 Third, while you are growing fruit you can not grow plants for 
 sale ; and where the plants are rare and valuable, this is quite 
 an objection. But, dear friends, you must remember that in 
 strawberry -growing you can not grow the finest fruit and grow 
 plants for sale at the same time. In bee culture you can not 
 get great crops of honey and a great amount of increase of col- 
 onies in the same season. You will have to decide whether it 
 shall be more valuable plants, or simply grow big berries and 
 more of them. By the way, perhaps I should say that, while 
 you are growing plants, all fruit stems should be clipped off. 
 You can not get the finest plants if you let the mother-plants 
 that are sending out the runners bear fruit. 
 
 We will suppose, then, that you have in your sub-irrigating 
 beds, and even in your very rich beds in the garden, kept off 
 all blossom-buds. You have got to the point where you have 
 hundreds or thousands of nice strong plants with great bundles 
 of roots. They ought to be potted transplanted plants. What 
 shall we do with them ? Well, in the first place we want a piece 
 of ground the nearer square the better, although this is not 
 particularly important. It should be at least an eighth of an 
 acre ; but if you have not that much we will try to get along 
 with less. Have it well underdrained, then work it up fine and 
 soft down 12 or 15 inches, or even 18 inches deep, if you can 
 afford the expense. If the patch is small, get some expert gar- 
 dener to spade it two " spits " deep, working in all the manure 
 meanwhile you can get hold of. If you do it with horses, 
 spread as much manure on the ground as can possibly be plow- 
 ed under. Have a man follow the plow to pull the manure into 
 the furrow ; and then after the ground is plowed and harrowed, 
 get some fine manure that will not clog the cultivators, and 
 work in a lot more in the surface. Harrow it or cultivate it un- 
 til it is fine and loose; then roll it until it is level ; and I would 
 take considerable pains to level it with a rake and shovel before 
 rolling it. 
 
 In order to have surface drainage as well as underdrainage 
 I would have a good deep ditch all around the piece, and have 
 
200 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 the ground slope gently from the center toward these outside 
 ditches. Never let the water ttand in puddles anywhere on 
 your strawberry- patch. 
 
 ::^^^^^%: 
 
 A ~ B 
 
 HOW TO PI,ANT STRAWBERRIES FOR HII<I, CULTURE. 
 
 Now with the marker described on page 136, mark the plot, 
 say from east to west, with marks as near 2i inches apart as 
 you can make it. Any sort of mark that you can see plainly 
 will answer. We now want to set the plants 2 feet apart in 
 these marks ; but you do not want them to come in squares. 
 Each row of plants should "break joints " with the preceding 
 row ; then any three plants in the plot will stand in the form 
 of a triangle ; and this triangle will be 2 feet on each of its 
 three sides. The diagram above will help us to get the idea. 
 
 You will see by the diagram that each rjlant is the center 
 of a circle of six plants. The plants are equally distant from 
 the center one and from each other, like the cells of a honey- 
 comb, if you choose. 
 
 There are two reasons for planting in this way. When the 
 plants are large and bushy, they entirely cover the ground 
 much better than if they were planted in squares, and each 
 plant has all the room it possibly can have. Second, you can 
 cultivate them from right to left and diagonally two other ways 
 see marks made by the cultivator on the left hand side of the 
 cut above. With this arrangement every runner is to be clip- 
 ped off just as soon as it can be seen. The plants are to be 
 pushed into fruit-bearing. They are to make fruit and noth- 
 ng else ; and if you have never tried the experiment you will 
 be astonished to see the size and beauty of the fruit grown in 
 
A B C OF [STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 201 
 
 this way. All the great strawberry-growers all over the world 
 are practicing this or a similar plan, where they want extra-fine 
 fruit. If you mark the ground and put it out as above, your 
 plants will be just about two feet apart from center to center. 
 
 Perhaps you may ask how to get these plants exactly on 
 this equilateral-triangle arrangement. In the cut you will see 
 three letters, A, B, C. These letters form an equilateral trian- 
 gle. Make it as large as your plot of ground will admit. Take 
 three strings of equal length ; stretch one of them on the first 
 row from right to left ; then stretch the other two so they will 
 meet at the point C. Now cut two sticks just 21 inches long, 
 or the distance between the marks made by your marker. Use 
 a stick at each end of the row to measure from the first string, 
 and stretch the string every time you put in a row of plants. 
 These rows are to be parallel, either with the line B C or A C. 
 Set a potted plant wherever the string crosses a furrow mark. 
 The cultivating is all to be done with the hand cultivator or 
 garden -plow pictured below. 
 
 COLE'S GARDEN-PLOW. 
 
 Price $4.50, with all the above attachments ; made by G. W. Cole, 
 Canton, 111. 
 
 This plow has three teeth, as you will observe, and makes 
 three furrows. The dotted lines between the plants in the cut 
 are to represent these furrows. Run this cultivator through 
 the plants in three different directions, as I have indicated, say 
 as often as once a week; and be sure you run it once after every 
 shower when the ground in the beds is in the best state to pul. 
 
202 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 verize. Any boy will do it after you show him how, and he 
 will think it is fun that is, if the field is not too large and the 
 boy is not too small. If you have a spell of dry weather, such 
 as we are having now, keep your garden-plow going, and it 
 will almost take the place of watering. In fact, that is what 
 our garden-plow is doing just across the way while I write these 
 lines. Some kinds of plants are better suited for this hill-cul- 
 ture system than others ; but almost any variety will do ever 
 so much better when it has room and good cultivation, and 
 does not have to make runners. 
 
 While on the subject of hand cultivators for strawberries, 
 I might say we have used the cultivator figured below, pur- 
 chased of Montgomery Ward & Co., of Chicago. 
 
 HAND CULTIVATOR, SCUFFI,E-HOE, PLOW, AND WEEDER. 
 PRICE $3.75. 
 
 The above is a most substantial tool because it is all metal 
 except the handles ; and by turning it over there is a sharp 
 plow that will throw the dirt either to or from the plants, and 
 that, too, without any time wasted in changing the tools just 
 work it upside down. The only ejection that I have found to 
 this machine is that it is rather heavier than the Cole garden- 
 plow; and this might be no objection at all to a good stout man. 
 It will stand more wear and tear than the lighter implement ; 
 but the Cole plow might be found easier for a boy or an old 
 man (say of 62, like myself) who has not the strength to work 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 203 
 
 the heavier tool continuously. Both of these plows are splendid 
 tools for working a strawberry-patch by hand.* 
 
 PREPARING GROUND FOR STRAWBERRIES. 
 
 From Gleanings in Bee Culture, May 75, 1898. 
 
 Right near our quarter-acre of plant-beds is a piece of poor 
 clay ground that persistently refused to give decent crops of 
 any thing. It was not only poor soil, but it was in a low spot 
 where water had stood. I underdrained it, but it was soggy 
 and sour, even then. Then I made surface-drains all around 
 it. I plowed it up, worked down the lumps, and put on ma- 
 nure. I suppose a good many old farmers would have said I 
 had better let it alone and make garden somewhere else. But 
 the ground was near the railroad, and had cost at about the 
 rate of $2000 an acre. We bought it more to prevent somebody 
 else from locating there than for almost any thing else. Well, 
 I kept on working the ground, plowing manure under, and 
 working old well-rotted manure into the surface, but still it did 
 not seem to amount to much. Then I put on some cotton seed 
 that came to us with sweet potatoes packed in them ; put on 
 poultry manure ; then I gave it a good dressing with lime, and 
 finally it began to respond and " smile." We put out Marshall 
 strawberries and other kinds that were in demand, and began 
 to sell plants. The results of my patient working and manur- 
 ing began to be apparent. We had great beautiful berries, won- 
 derfully large and beautiful green leaves, and then great run- 
 ners almost as large as slate-pencils in size. And then what 
 beautiful plants we secured to send out to customers ! 
 
 We kept working the ground with wheel-hoes between the 
 rows ; and every little while, when the plants got to getting 
 out into the paths, so it was difficult to cultivate, we would 
 stretch a string and take up all the plants outside of the string. 
 Then just after a rain we would run the hoes again until the 
 ground was fine, soft, and mellow. At one time I felt a little 
 fear that I was throwing money away by putting manure and 
 work on that piece of ground. But it has given us beautiful 
 plants that have paid several times over for the manure and 
 abor, and the ground is in such tilth now that it goes right 
 
204 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 ahead without any manuring. In fact, it is the finest piece of 
 ground, I do believe, on our premises. Anv thing will grow 
 there. You may say we get our money back because we are 
 selling plants at good prices. But I think you \\ill get your 
 money back for fixing up a piece of ground like this, even if 
 you do not sell a plant. In the first place, you get fruit that 
 "astonishes the natives," both in quantity and quality. If you 
 do not sell plants, you probably buy them more or less. Now, 
 have a piece of ground like this ; and when new plants come 
 out that cost a lot of money at first, purchase just one plant. 
 If it does not become popular, you are not much out of pock- 
 et ; but if it does, you can raise your own plants at a cost of 
 less than a cent apiece, when they may be worth a dollar a doz- 
 en, or even two dollars, on the market. 
 
 There are three or four new strawberries that command 
 very high prices in almost any market. The man who pur- 
 chased only one plant last year, and raised a lot of young ones 
 from it, is lucky. The Nick Ohmer, Margaret, and Darling 
 are all plants of this kind. Another thing, it is fun to have a 
 garden where you have a piece of ground that just makes every 
 thing boom. On our clay soil, when we once get a piece like 
 this into high-pressure condition the effect of the heavy ma- 
 nuring lasts through a long period of years. In the shade of 
 our machine-shop there are some beds that were fixed up sev- 
 eral years ago They have had no manure for several seasons. 
 As they are so much shaded we use them only for celery-plants. 
 The ground is fine, soft, dark, and rich ; and it is a beautiful 
 place to heel in stuff for a few days, where we want it in the 
 shade. The quality of the soil seems to invite any plant to put 
 out roots. In fact, we have been selling the dirt to the people 
 around town for their house plants, at 25 cts. a bushel. Now, 
 every one of you, I am sure, can afford to have a little piece of 
 exceedingly rich ground near your homes. First have it per- 
 fectly underdrained ; then either spade or plow it up very deep. 
 Let it freeze in winter and di y out in summer ; then plow, pul- 
 verizing it at just the right time after every shower. Get out 
 all the sticks and stores. If it is heavy clay, put in ?ome st nd. 
 Give it a coating of lime occasionally ; and, above all, work in 
 lots of gocd stable manure ; and be sure that you do not let it 
 spend its energies in growing great weeds after you get it up to 
 the high-pressure notch. Such a piece of ground will grow 
 weeds higher than the eaves of your bouse in an incredibly 
 short space of time, if they once get a going. 
 
ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 205 
 
 OUR H\.I,F-ACRE STRAWBSRRY-PVTCH WITH PLANTS TWO 
 FEST APART EACH WAY. 
 
 Last fall I told you about this. We are just now (May 15) 
 having fun running the wheel-hoe through it after every sum- 
 mer shower, cultivating it in all three directions, as shown in 
 the diagram. The ground is getting so soft and fine that the 
 boys do not dislike the job of cultivating it at all ; and, in fact, 
 it is but little work to keep it clean, and the ground soft and 
 fine. The plants are growing amazingly. Tne original idea 
 was, you m*y remember, to take off every runner as fast as it 
 showed itself. Bat a difficulty presents itself right here. As 
 this was to be a trial patch of the different varieties for hill cul- 
 ture, it contains some very high-priced plants ; and to pull off 
 the runners and throw them away would be rather extravagant; 
 therefore we have decided to let runners grow on at least a part 
 of these valuable plants, and get them to take root in little pots 
 of jadoo. After the roots have started you can clip off the run- 
 ner and move the plants into a shaded bed. I do not believe 
 this will rob the parent plant of very much vitality. It will be 
 keeping off the runners, with this difference : we allow them 
 to commence taking root before we "wean " them, or before 
 we take them away from the mother-plant entirely. But I tell 
 you it is fun to have a strawberry-patch so you can run the cul- 
 tivator all around every plant, and do it fast. 
 
 MULCHING AND MANURING STRAWBERRIES AT ONE AND THE 
 
 SAME TIME 
 From Gleanings in Bee Culture, July /, 1895. 
 
 We have about an acre of strawberries that are growing 
 their third crop. We ordinarily let them bear only two years ; 
 but we kept working and manuring this patch in order to get 
 plants, and this season we proposed to plow it under just as 
 soon as the last berries were picked. Only part of it was mulch- 
 ed during the winter. We do but little mulching, because we 
 want to work the ground in the spring so as to get nice plants 
 for shipping. But just before picking-time we found we should 
 have to mulch with something. Muddy and gritty strawberries 
 are behind the times. Every strawberry-grower ought to be 
 ashamed of offering dirty berries. On the fairground, near our 
 
206 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 place, there are some horse-stables where they make a great 
 quantity of loose strawy manure. It is so much straw and so 
 little manure that I pay only from 50 to 75 cts. a load, and this 
 for a load that we bring on our hay-rack. Well, I thought I 
 would use this for mulching to keep the berries off the ground. 
 You know '-ow the frost cut them off, and just about spoiled 
 the Jessies with some others, and then the hot drouth diminish- 
 ed and dried up what few berries were left. Well, we had pret- 
 ty much given up getting any strawberries worth mentioning ; 
 but a pretty good rain came on the evening of the 19th, and 
 lasted during the forenoon of the next day ; and almost as soon 
 as the rain was over I was happily surprised to see not only the 
 bright new foliage, but stems of berries sticking up here and 
 there that had just about doubled in size during the rain ; that 
 is, they were twice the size they would have been had it not 
 been for the rain and manure Well, now. that acre of straw- 
 berries is bearing considerable nice fruit, and making plants at 
 a tremendous rate, under the influence of the straw mulching 
 and the manure. One objection to stable-manure has been', you 
 know, weed seeds ; but if we are going to plow the patch under 
 so soon, who cares for the weeds? The more they come, the 
 better. I propose now to let the whole thing be until both 
 weeds and plants get at their best, then we will take out the 
 best of the plants, with a lump of dirt adhering, and make a 
 new plantation right beside the old one. By this time the 
 weeds will be up so as to be worth something to plow under ; 
 and thus we shall have a splendid piece of ground for buck- 
 wheat and crimson clover, as mentioned in the last issue, or 
 for any other late crop. 
 
 A VISIT AMONG THE STRAWBERRY GROWERS. 
 
 Saturday afternoon, June 15, I started out to see what my 
 neighbors were doing in the height of the berry season. About 
 ten miles northeast of Medina I found the Lawnsdale fruit- 
 farm, on ground high enough so they were affected by the frost 
 but little compared with our own locality. Friend Williams, 
 the proprietor, raises strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, 
 gooseberries, and currants, with potatoes for filling in and to 
 make a sort of rotation of crops. He has about 30 acres of 
 land, and it was really a refreshing sight to behold such a ber- 
 ry-farm right in the midst of a locality where every thing else 
 is devoted to regular farming and stock-raising on a heavy clay 
 soil. 
 
 On a northern slope near the road I found about an acre of 
 
ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 207 
 
 strawberries that was worthy of a picture ; but I did not have 
 the Kodak along that time. The berry-plants are in rows, ap- 
 parently about four feet apart, like our own. They were so 
 well mulched with straw in the fall that not a berry could find 
 a grain of dirt or soil to rest on. Friend W. hit it exactly in 
 being slow to remove the mulching. He kept the plants back 
 all he could without injury, and then gradually made openings 
 in the straw to let the plants come up through when they were 
 ready to start. By the way, I have never found anybody yet 
 who would remove the mulching with sufficient care to suit me. 
 They would go and claw the straw all away and throw it in the 
 paths. Now, the straw should not be moved a particle. L/et 
 the berries go up through it, leaving the straw where it is ; then 
 you will have a perfect mat to keep down weeds and to keep 
 the fruit out of the dirt It also serves to keep the berries back 
 so as to avoid a late frost. Only two kinds were on this patch 
 Crescent and Downing^three rows of one and then three 
 rows of the other, and so on. Varieties that succeed splendid- 
 ly here in Medina do not prove to be the best there, just ten 
 miles away, and therefore I feel sure it behooves every straw- 
 berry-grower to test, say, one row of each of the best kinds 
 prominently before the public ; then make a selection of what 
 suits your locality, and stick to your selection. I do not be- 
 lieve any grower wants very many kinds for fruit alone in his 
 locality. It may pay him to have a few Michel's Early, and, 
 say, a few late ones like the Gandy ; or if other extra late ones 
 or extra early ones do better, take them instead. Friend W. 
 does almost all the work on his 30 acres with the help of bis 
 wife and two children. It keeps them pretty busy, especially 
 during the berry time ; but, if I am right, the happy families 
 are the busy families. I shall long remember the hour I spent 
 in and around that pleasant little home. And, oh ! by the way, 
 I picked up 
 
 A HORSE STORY 
 
 at that home that I am sure will interest you. Friend W. is 
 about two miles from the town of Brunswick. His girl attends 
 school there, and comes home nights. Now, this will do very 
 well in good weather ; but how about bad weather ? I will tell 
 you. They have a sagacious, gentle horse that takes the young 
 lady to school every morning, and comes home himself. About 
 the time for school to be out he goes back for his young mis- 
 tress. As there is not any driver he sometimes takes things 
 easy in going the two miles, and does not reach his destination 
 
208 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 till after school is out. At such times the young lady comes to 
 meet him on foot along the sidewalks that go a piece out of 
 town. He has learned that, when he meets her, he must turn 
 around and go back again ; so he watches all the little girls of 
 about her size as they cor/.e out of the school and come down 
 his way, turning his head and pricking up his ears while he 
 scrutinizes each miss to see whether she is the one he " belongs 
 to." Sometimes he seems somewhat undecided, and stops in 
 the road to take a better look. When he is satisfied the one in 
 question is not his " best girl " then he goes on for the next, 
 and so on. This brings in an interesting point just here : How 
 far can a horse see, and see plainly enough to distinguish one 
 person from another? I suggested that meddlesome people 
 might tie the horse up, thinking he was astray ; and they very 
 soon found that a card would have to be hung on to the har- 
 ness, to the effect, "You let me alone. I know where I am 
 going, and I am all O. K." After this, especially as the people 
 round about have " caught on," he made his daily trips with- 
 out hindrance. 
 
 THE BARBER BERRY-FARM. 
 
 This is about two miles directly north of Brunswick. It is 
 near what they call Stone Hill. As I pushed my wheel up the 
 neat graveled path under the trees, a pleasant-faced woman 
 met me with smiles, telling me her husband was just starting 
 off, but that I could stop him if it were attended to at once. 
 Friend Barber has been in the fruit-business from childhood up, 
 and he has perhaps 50 acres on a gravelly stony hill, devoted 
 entirely to fruits. This hill is a very high one. The slope to- 
 ward the west must be down a hundred feet or more ; and the 
 consequence is, he has his trees and berries loaded with fruit 
 grapes, plums, cherries, peaches, etc. It was a real pleasure to 
 me to find I was able to name not only his strawberries, but 
 nearly all his raspberries, currants, and some of the blackber- 
 ries. After experimenting some he has decided to plant the 
 Victoria currant almost entirely, and nothing else. For rasp- 
 berries he has the Cuthbert for red, and Gregg for black ; some 
 Shaffer's Colossal, and some Marlboro for early. He not only 
 uses the hill, but, like myself, he has a creek -bottom strawber- 
 ry-patch which is nice to start plants ; and when the frost holds 
 off it gives quite a lot of fruit. Various springs in the hillside 
 would probably fill a reservoir sufficient to irrigate his lower 
 grounds, and he is just now planning to have this done. 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 209 
 
 REDUCING THE EXPENSE OF PICKING. 
 
 Friend Williams gave a valuable suggestion right here. 
 Both he and Mr. Barber had their berries picked at the rate of 
 5 cts. for a four-quart basket. Now, it costs more than this to 
 get our berries picked ; but we pick them every other day. 
 Friend W., by using Crescents and Cumberlands, can wait three 
 or even four days, as the berries are firm enough to stand han- 
 dling, even if some of them are a little overripe. You see, the 
 pickers can work cheaper where the berries are very plentiful. 
 Heavy mulching, with his peculiar soil, perhaps helps to raise 
 berries that will stand this length of time between the pickings. 
 
 Before I was half through looking at and sampling the 
 Haverlands, Cumberlands, Jessies, etc., the sun was setting, 
 and I was ten miles from home Saturday night. Oh what a 
 nice thing is a wheel ! We were back in the fields about half a 
 mile from the road, and the half-mile was up a long steep hill. 
 I suggested that I could cross the fields and strike the road in 
 the valley, as that route would be much less hilly for me for 
 my trip home. Now comes in the advantage of a light wheel. 
 I could hang it over my shoulder, climb fences, or get through 
 bushes, without much hindrance. It made me puff some until 
 I struck the highway, and then what a delight it was to spin 
 along a road almost level ! To really enjoy wheeling to its full- 
 est extent you should walk occasionally until you are tired of 
 walking ; then the wheel comes in and gives you that delicious 
 rest. A boy in his teens came down from a pretty house by the 
 way, and mounted his wheel. He did not see me ; but I thought 
 I would, just for the fun of it, run past him and show him 
 what an 18 Ib. Rambler could do. But I did not show him the 
 Rambler at all. Do you know why ? Why, he kept ahead of 
 me in spite of any thing I could do, and in a little time he was 
 away off in the distance, clear out of sight, even if his wheel 
 did weigh more than twice as much as mine did. Never mind. 
 I always feel glad when somebody gets ahead of me, even if I 
 had planned otherwise at least, I hope I do ; and I am cer- 
 tainly happy in seeing the boys and giris put distance to naught, 
 even outdistancing myself in it. There seems to be something 
 especially fascinating about wheeling during twilight ; and aft- 
 er visiting California and Florida, and experiencing almost sud- 
 den darkness as the sun goes down, I enjoy our Ohio twilights 
 more than I ever did before. 
 
 14 
 
210 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE, 
 
 REPORT ON THE NEW VARIETIES OF STRAWBERRIES IN THE 
 
 MIDDLE OF JUNE. 
 From Gleanings in Bee Culture, July /, 1897. 
 
 The Marshall has done grandly, both under glass and in the 
 open air. Brandywine is just begining to ripen, and grow ber- 
 ries that can hang on the vines for two or three days, and still 
 be so firm and solid that they may be tumbled about like pota- 
 toes. The Wm. Belt is well loaded with fruit, but only just be- 
 gining to ripen. Margaret has given us some of the largest 
 and finest berries I ever saw; but the Nick Ohmer caps them all, 
 not only in great size, but in producing berries as round and 
 symmetrical as a peach, and pretty nearly the size 4 I kept one 
 on the vines for three days to show to visitors, and it was very 
 solid and firm when picked. It weighed almost an ounce and a 
 half. This was from a plant set late last fall. The runners 
 were not picked off, and it was allowed to mature a full crop of 
 fruit. 
 
 WHO WOULDN'T BE A GARDENER? 
 
 Sometimes I think it strange that there is anybody in this 
 world who does not have a garden; and then at other times, 
 when prices are low and we can not get the cost of our stuff, 
 and every thing goes wrong, I do not wonder that so many 
 people say they would rather buy their stuff, what they want, 
 than to be bothered with any sort of garden. Well, yesterday 
 and to-day have been bright days for the gardening business. 
 After a severe drouth we had a succession of refreshing showers. 
 Our beds were so full of plants that I began to fear we should 
 never have customers for all of them; but after the shower the 
 people came in crowds for plants. I stationed myself near the 
 garden, and called in help for the boys, and it kept me as busy 
 as I could be in answering questions and giving directions. 
 
 While the " boom was on " for plants people began to go 
 for the strawberries lively. They had just got down to 8 and 9 
 cents, and somebody in the store was complaining that there 
 was not a quart of strawberries to be had, and customers wait- 
 ing. But there were some big rows of Bubachs, Marshalls, and 
 Brandy wines waiting to be picked; and in a twinkling we had 
 a lively time around the strawberry -beds. We might have 
 put up a notice, " Beautiful strawberries picked while you 
 wait." In fact, that is what we did do. With myself on hand 
 
ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 211 
 
 to show off the plants, and give the names of the difltrtnt vi ri- 
 eties, it was not at all surprising that customers would say, 
 " Well, I think I will have a quart;" or, "Why, I will take 
 two quarts of those great big ones, if you give heaping measure 
 like that," etc.; and just when I began to fear there were more 
 strawberries than we could easily get rid of, they were all clean- 
 ed up in fact so much so that the boys, in their efforts to get a 
 few more quarts for a customer, picked some that were rathtr 
 green. Oh how the new varieties have brightened up and en- 
 larged since the rain ! 
 
 This year we are testing new varieties, as I have explain- 
 ed, by putting them in our plant-beds 18 inches apart. This is 
 just about right; and if you do not step on the beds at all it 
 gives plenty of room for putting down runners. It is wonder- 
 fully interesting to me to note the peculiarities and desirable 
 traits in the different candidates for public favor. For instance, 
 Clyde, that has been considerably talked about, is really bearing; 
 a wonderful crop wonderful considering that the plants were 
 put out only this spring. 
 
 Our friend Dan White, of New London, O., told me he is 
 putting out an acre and a half this year on the plan I gave on 
 page 117. He says there was not a ripe berry to be found among 
 his Gandys up to June 22, and he places the Gandy as the latest 
 berry to ripen he has ever found. 
 
 By the way, the berry that I was so pleased with last year, 
 and that came as the Great American (see p. 180), I am obliged to 
 think is only our old friend Sharpless under another name. 
 The berries are now (June 22) in their prime; and the reason 
 they were so much later than every thing else last year was on 
 account of their being grown in such a thick solid bed. The 
 rank foliage and the close planting kept the *un out so as to 
 make the berries late. Well, even if it is the Sharpless the in- 
 cident has opened to me a new possibility in strawberry culture. 
 Make your ground exceedingly rich (it had better be heavy clay 
 soil underdrained), then let the plants grow all over. Let thefti 
 stand just as thick as they have a mind to. Perhaps some cur- 
 rant bushes or something of the sort to help shade the ground 
 will assist in making them backward. Now, notwithstanding 
 its cramped circumstances, the Sharpless, after all other berries 
 are gone, will produce great monstrous fruit. Of course, the 
 berries will not be colored up very much; or at least not to 
 amount to very much; but the Sharpless is very nice to eat when 
 it is partly ripe. But you will find a purchaser at good prices 
 while other berries are too small to bother with. Besides, such 
 
212 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 a plantation would be little or no trouble. When once started 
 it would choke out every weed that attempts to grow. 
 
 SUB-IRRIGATION FOR STRAWBERRIES; AI,SO SOMETHING ABOUT 
 POTATO VINES FOR MULCHING STRAWBERRIES. 
 
 At this date, June 26, right here, we are having a pretty se- 
 vere drouth, and it comes almost right in the midst of our straw- 
 berry crop. It affects us worse because the ground was packed 
 down so hard by our excessive rainfalls that it cracks open and 
 (Joes much damage except where the surface has been fined up 
 by cultivation. Our choice strawberries that were planted out 
 late last fall, and which are in narrow rows, we have cultivated 
 and fined up the space between the rows, so as to obviate the 
 drying and cracking, at least as much as we could without in- 
 terfering with the mulch. The mulch of straw and potato-tops 
 is not sufficient to prevent damage entirely. Our berries are 
 drying up, the greater part of them, and look as if they had 
 been cooked. Had the soil been worked up down deep after 
 the heavy packing rains, the damage would be but slight. In 
 fact, corn and potatoes planted in well pulverized ground after 
 the rains are not suffering perceptibly. We have just had an 
 opportunity of testing the benefit of water in one of our sub-irri- 
 gating beds. It is planted to strawberries, but no water was 
 turned on during the spring. I purposely left the bed until the 
 berries began to be small and dried up somewhat. Then we 
 turned on water until it came up from below, so as to dampen 
 perceptibly the surface. 
 
 In 48 hours the whole aspect of the bed was changed. Ev- 
 ery green berry began to fill up and expand wonderfully. 
 Those that had begun to shrivel, plumped out, looked very 
 glossy and juicy, and they were juicy too, I tell you. 
 
 There has been considerable said about selling strawberries 
 at the low price of 4 and 5 cts. a quart. Well, that is pretty low; 
 but if we had our beds so arranged that we could water them 
 from below, letting the water gradually rise up until it comes 
 just near enough the surface, I do not know but we could do a 
 pretty good thing by selling water at 4 or 5 cents a quart. 
 Choice varieties like the Brandywine, Wm. Belt, Marshall, and 
 others, bring 6 and 7 cents a quart sometimes 8. 
 
 By the way, the latest berry to ripen on our ground this 
 season is the Champion of England. I think the location of the 
 bed, however, helped to make it late. It was on the north side 
 of a grapevine-trellis, and protected from the sun pretty well all 
 through the day; then it was mulched with potato-vines last 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 213 
 
 fall, so that the plants had to creep up through the vines to get 
 out into the open air. This helped to make them late. This 
 morning we made our first picking. A good many of the finest 
 berries were scattered through the potato-vine mulching. The 
 drouth had hurt them but very little, and the great clean lus- 
 cious berries hidden away in the dried-up potato-vines were in 
 beautiful shape. To get berries extra early they should be in 
 thin rows, or, better still, in hills, and we should work the 
 ground without any mulching until just before the fruit rip- 
 ens; but for a very late berry, heavy mulching is needed all 
 through the spring to keep them back, and then the shade of 
 a grapevine or of trees will also help. This, with heavy mat- 
 ted rows, will enable us to have fine large berries after the oth- 
 ers are gone; and my impression is, that sub-irrigation, with 
 the water let on at just the right time, will also help to prolong 
 the crop. 
 
 SOME OF THE NEW STRAWBERRIES ONE OF MY HAPPY SUR- 
 PRISES. 
 From Gleanings in Bee Culture, June /, 1893. 
 
 We have been picking strawberries that were started under 
 glass, for a month or more ; and Earliest and Darling, that 
 were not under glass at all, for the past three or four days. 
 The Earliest was only about three days ahead of the Darling. 
 The Darling gives rather larger berries. On account of the hot 
 weather and lack of sunshine, both are rather tart this season. 
 Well, my happy surprise was not in regard to the Earliest nor 
 Darling either, but it was in finding this morning some great 
 big Nick Ohmers, not red on one side, but red all over, and 
 only three or four days behind the Earliest in earliness per- 
 haps right with the Darling in that respect. Bat the Nick Oh- 
 mer is ever so much larger than either of them. We had such 
 a call for plants last fall, at 25 cts. each, that we did not save 
 very many Nick Ohmers. In fact, there is only one bed, con- 
 taining about 50 plants, and these were put out very late in the 
 fall. Of course, they have had good cultivation and plenty of 
 manure. But this would not quite account for their being 
 away ahead of almost every thing else in any way that I can 
 see, unless it is in being extra early. Why, an acre of these 
 great big berries, large, handsome, and earlier than any other 
 
214 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 large berry in the field, would be worth a lot of money. I 
 would give something to be able to present to the readers of 
 Gleanings a picture showing the Nick Ohmers as they stand in 
 that bed this morning. 
 
 Michel's Early, that we used to call ahead of all the others, 
 is not anywhere near ripening at the present time, May 30 ; 
 but, to tell the truth, Michel's Early has not been "fussed 
 with " quite as much as these newer kinds at least, not this 
 saason. You see, I want to be honest about it. 
 
 Now, none of these varieties mentioned is likely to bear 
 the great quantity of berries that some of the later ones do 
 say Haverland, Warfield, Parker Earle, and last, but not least, 
 the Clyde. I dp not believe there is another berry on our 
 grounds containing such great heaps of green ones at the pres- 
 ent time as the Clyde ; and I notice the reports are now greatly 
 in favor of the Clyde as a tremendous bearer. 
 
 ANOTHER SURPRISE. 
 
 Yes, and this is a happy one too, even if it does run against 
 the one above somewhat. On page 175 I gave you a glimpse of 
 my plan of hill culture for strawberries. Well, in order to test 
 all the different varieties worked in this way we have to put in 
 one or more rows of all the kinds we could get hold of ; and I 
 am watching with very much interest the behavior of the differ- 
 ent plants, with runners kept off, and constant cultivation in 
 spring as well as fall. Yesterday, after speaking of the Nick 
 Ohmer's earliness, I went up through that hill culture patch to 
 see how the others were behaving. All at once I was startled 
 by sesing a great big strawberry, ripened all over, then another 
 and another, until I noticed there were six rows of berries with 
 quite a good many ripe ones right out in the open field. Now, 
 there were a few other kinds that had begun to turn just a lit- 
 tle, but nothing like the six rows. What were they ? Why, as 
 sure as you live it was our old friend Rio. Michel's Early was 
 near by in another patch in a matted row, but there was not one 
 berry colored in the lot. The Earliest and Darling had just be- 
 gun to color, but they were planted rather later than the Rio in 
 the same patch. I really do not know why the Rio should be 
 ahead of every thing else in hill culture, unless such constant 
 stirring of the ground suited the Rio better than it did any of 
 the other kinds. That is not quite it either, for the other kinds 
 are making most tremendous growths of foliage and runners. 
 Yes, the greater part of them are putting out runners, even be- 
 fore the fruit has colored. But this constant cultivation seems 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 215 
 
 to have hurried the Rio forward, and did not the others not 
 even the Earliest and Darling. The Rios are great strong thrifty 
 plants, with stout runners already out, besides a very fair 
 crop of fruit it is going to bear. Now, this thing illustrates a 
 point : Under a special system of cultivation the Rio is the ear- 
 liest good-sized berry we know of. And by the way, friends, 
 there is going to be an enormous crop of berries on that little 
 plantation put out last fall. They were all potted plants, how- 
 ever ; or if not potted they were set out with our new strawber- 
 ry-transplanter that I have described and illustrated ; and this 
 experiment demonstrates one thing to my satisfaction : With 
 the right kind of culture you can grow an enormous crop of 
 berries from potted plants in only nine or ten months after they 
 occupy the ground. 
 
 RECOMMENDING NEW VARIETIES OF STRAWBERRIES, ETC. 
 
 From Gleanings in Bee Culture, April i, 1899. 
 
 You may remember that, some little time ago, in visiting 
 Matthew Crawford, he showed me a strawberry of such wonder- 
 ful luxuriance of foliage that, had he told me it was a new va- 
 riety, and very scarce and high priced, I do not know but I 
 would have given him $5 00 for a single plant. But friend 
 Crawford is not that sort of man ; and then he explained to me 
 that the wonderful growth and luxuriance were not altogether 
 on account of the plant, but in the way he prepared the soil in 
 that one bed. It was light sandy soil, made very rich with old 
 stable manure, and then the ground was pounded as hard as he 
 could make it, with a stamper, something like what we use in 
 setting fence posts. I went home and began to experiment on 
 some of our plant-beds that had been manured so heavily so 
 many years that they contained almost too much humus. We 
 have a pounder worked by two men, that we use in making ce- 
 ment floors and similar work. I had two of the boys stamp 
 the dirt in one of our plant-beds as hard as they could pound 
 it. This was along in the fall, when the ground was dry, and 
 would bear such pounding without injury. 
 
 About this time friend Thompson sent me half a dozen 
 Darling strawberry-plants, and I think as many of the Earliest ; 
 also some Carrie. As he called these varieties all valuable I 
 
216 A B CROP STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 put them into that stamped bed. They all did wonderfully 
 well, especially the Darling. In watching the new plants I fear 
 I forgot somewhat the stamped bed, and gave the credit to the 
 new varieties At the same time I began experimenting with 
 plants potted in jadoo fiber, and a great number of them were 
 sent as premiums to our subscribers. The next spring these 
 six Darling plants gave a nice lot of beautiful berries, away 
 ahead of any thing else unless it was the Earliest ; and without 
 thinking much about it I helped to boom the Darling, which 
 the originator held at a very high price. Now, I have been 
 greatly disappointed because we have not had more favorable 
 reports of the Darling. In fact, on that account I have drop- 
 ped it from our list of strawberries. Margaret and Nick Oh- 
 mer were also set in a pounded bed, and they both made an im- 
 mense growth, and produced wonderful berries. I have been 
 putting all of my new varieties in pounded beds, because, when 
 one is anxious to get as many plants as he can, as soon as pos- 
 sible, he must furnish the best of conditions ; and not all plants 
 will pay him so much better in highly fertilized and compact 
 beds than they do in the open field. After I put the Darling 
 and Earliest in the open field and gave them the same chance 
 as the other varieties they have been very disappointing in our 
 locality. I learn from others, though, further south, that in 
 some places they do well. 
 
 From this I have been learning a lesson : We should be 
 careful, each and all of us, about recommending a new plant 
 before we have given it field culture right along with the 
 others. 
 
 SEIZING STRAWBERRY-PLANTS. 
 From Gleanings in Bee Culture, May /, 1899. 
 
 Now, a happy surprise conies along in the line of selling 
 strawberry-plants. You know I talked to you last year about 
 my handsome plantation of strawberries with the plants only 
 two feet apart from center to center. These were cultivated 
 three different ways with the wheel-hoe; and the original idea 
 was to keep the runners cut off. There was about half an acre 
 of the patch. It was well manured before the plants were put 
 out in the fall of 1897. Then old well- composted manure, brok- 
 en up fine, was scattered all through the patch with wheelbar- 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 217 
 
 rows once or twice last season. In consequence of the strong 
 manure and abundant rains last fall, the plants put out runners 
 and covered the whole ground. It was not a matted row, ex- 
 actly, but it was a matted half acre. Well, these plants all 
 wintered without any mulch whatever, and not a plant was lift- 
 ed out by the frost. Why, the whole plantation looked more 
 like a thrifty field of clover than a strawberry -patch. The prob- 
 lem this spring was to provide paths for the pickers; for the ber- 
 ries will probably lie almost touching each other all over the 
 half acre. More than half the plants are Brandywine and Wm. 
 Belt. 
 
 I advertised in the county papers that, if people would 
 come with baskets, and take the plants that were taken out in 
 order to make paths for the pickers, they might have them at 
 half the regular prices; and the thing is going on just as I write, 
 in a way that makes it another happy surprise. 
 
 Where a path was wanted we stretched two stout cords. 
 These cords are 18 inches apart. Then a man takes a sharp 
 spade and cuts down along each cord. After this he takes a 
 spading-fork and spades up a block of dirt, plants and all; then 
 with a stout box to sit on (open on one side, about 16 inches square 
 and 6 inches high), he, sitting astride the path, separates the 
 plants from the dirt and puts them in the customer's basket. 
 These plants are about the strongest and thriftiest I ever grew. 
 Where they are too near together, of course there will be some 
 small ones; but these small ones are thrown in without charge, 
 and our customer can use them or not as he chooses. 
 
 Now, if all the plants are sold at half the advertised prices, 
 our half-acre of strawberries will produce quite a round sum of 
 money. But there has been a good deal of labor bestowed on it 
 in the way of weeding, cultivation, etc. After the berries are 
 picked, the whole patch will probably be plowed up and plant- 
 ed to potatoes; and with the amount of manuring it has had, I 
 expect a wonderful crop of potatoes. 
 
 There has been a good deal of fault found in regard to fall 
 planting; but this plantation was all made in the fall. The 
 plants were, however, put in with a transplanter. They were 
 manured and cultivated and weeded during one whole season 
 that is, last year. A small crop of extra-nice berries was taken 
 from them last June. With this method of working strawber- 
 ries they occupy the ground not quite two years. We would 
 commence planting them, if the ground were vacant, in August, 
 and in our locality the ground would be ready to put in a crop 
 of potatoes about the first of July; so it would lack about one 
 
218 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 month of having the strawberries on the ground two years. Of 
 course, I do not know what the crop before us is going to be. * 
 
 THE EARUEST STRAWBERRY. 
 From Gleanings in Bee Culture, June /, 1899. 
 
 To-day, May 30, we are making about our first picking in 
 the open field; and the Earliest, as before, stands a good way 
 ahead of any thing else. On our grounds we find it even ahead 
 of Darling; but the originator thinks Darling is a little the earli- 
 er of the two. I am surprised this season to find the Earliest 
 bearing good -sized berries, and they are growing in a thick mat- 
 ted row at that. It does not give as many berries as the later 
 ones, and they are pretty strongly acid in flavor, and perhaps 
 rather soft to handle. But they give us quite a lot of berries 
 two or three days before any thing else. L/ast year the Rio crowd- 
 ed close on the Earliest ; but this year they are more behind. 
 Now, another thing must be taken into consideration: Rich soil 
 and close planting makes berries later. Right alongside our 
 row of Earliest are some Warfields. On good ground none of 
 the Warfields are ripe; but on a little piece of yellow ground 
 where the top soil had been removed, the ground is so poor that 
 the plants are scattering, and small at that. Here the sun had 
 got in, and we found quite a lot of dark garnet-like Warfields 
 glistening through the dew-drops in the morning sunshine. 
 You can make any berry earlier by putting it on poor ground 
 and having the plants far apart so the sun can get in easily. I 
 thought once we would not plant any more Earliest, as they bear 
 so few berries; but I have just given the boys orders to put down 
 the runners around the edge of the patch, and before we get 
 ready to plow them up we shall have plants enough to make a 
 row or two for next year; and the plants must be thinned out and 
 given room if you want Earliest to be extra early. 
 
 * At this date, Jan. 23, 1902, I am happy to state that the crop referred 
 to in the above was one of the largest yields per acre I ever had in my life. 
 Some of the berries, and especially the Brandywine, were as nice and fine 
 as any thing we ever picked. The Brandywine pushed its great clusters of 
 beautiful berries clear above the foliage; and it was for all the world like a 
 field of red clover, except that the red heads were berries instead of clover. 
 
ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 219 
 
 THE STRAWBERRY INDUSTRY NEAR NORFOLK, VA. 
 
 From Gleanings in Bee Culture \ June 75, 1899. 
 
 These truckers have a sort of rotation in garden stuff. For 
 instance, potatoes are grown mostly between strawberries, < r, 
 rather, strawberries are grown mostly between potatoes. Tte 
 rows of potatoes are five feet apart in this case, and a row of 
 strawberries is put between every two rows of potatoes ; and, 
 j udging from appearance, they are set in about as soon as the 
 potatoes come up. The small-footed mules pull their light cul- 
 tivators between the rows, only 30 inches apart, without any 
 trouble. I believe they are rather better than horses, because 
 they rarely or never step on the plants. After the potatoes are 
 marketed, then the strawberries have the whole of the ground. 
 To give you some idea of the strawberry business at Norfolk, I 
 make the following extract from a letter irom friend Stebbins : 
 
 Saturday afternoon, at the back of one of our steamboat wharves I count- 
 ed 17 sail-boats unloading strawberries at once, while others were in sight 
 coming in to unload, and still others going out unloaded. At the front was 
 a string of teams a quarter of a mile long, waiting their turn to unload. 
 Three teams could unload at once, and I don't think it took more than 
 five or six minutes to the three teams. In going a mile I counted 15 more 
 teams coming in, all loaded with berries ; that was at half-past three, and 
 that sort of thing would keep up until six or half-past. Now, that is only 
 one of half a dozen lines in town at the same business. You could smell 
 strawberries for half a mile. JOHN W. STEBBINS. 
 
 Broad Creek, Va., May 15. 
 
 At the time I arrived, the strawberry -gathering had come 
 to a sudden stop, not because the berries were #, mind you, 
 but because the price had dropped to a point where it did not 
 pay to pick them. In Norfolk they pay two cents a quart to 
 the pickers. Then they have to furnish crates and boxes ; and 
 at the price offered, only three cents, it did not pay for harvest- 
 ing. So the owners of the fields, even while the rows were red 
 with berries, gave out to the country all around that whoever 
 chose, colored or white, could come and pick, without money 
 and without price, all they wished. We found colored people 
 scattered all over the fields, picking ; others walking into town 
 with crates of berries on their heads. They went through the 
 town offering them at the houses for only three cents a quart. 
 As the berries cost them nothing, they did perhaps very well at 
 the work ; but it seemed to me to be rather discouraging busi- 
 ness for the grower. 
 
 In some places we found the pickers scrambling out of th e 
 
220 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 way of the horses and plows. They were turning the berries 
 under in order to get in another crop without letting the expen- 
 sive land lie idle. Friend Stebbins says he has seen berries 
 turned under when there were enough to make the red juice 
 follow the plow as it crushed them in the furrow. Three of 
 his family went out the evening before, and in three hours they 
 gathered 70 quarts in one of these deserted fields. 
 
 One gardener whom we called on (Mr. Henry Norfleet) had 
 about half an acre of -Lady Thompsons. There had been scarce- 
 ly any berries picked from the field when the price went down. 
 I do not know that I ever saw more ripe berries on a given area 
 at one time. Some of them were really overripe large and 
 luscious. Nobody wanted them as a free gift. We had been 
 eating berries all day at least I had but we felt so sorry to 
 see these wasting that we ate a good many more. The Lady 
 Thompson is certainly a very fine berry in the South. It is 
 hard for the growers, it is true ; but yet it certainly is a great 
 blessing to a community to have berries so cheap that all can 
 have all they want, morning, noon, and night. I asked some 
 of the growers if they proposed to keep right on raising straw- 
 berries They said there was no other way to do, and that they 
 frequently had to make the best of a glut in the market in al- 
 most all kinds of produce ; but the man who keeps right on 
 growing good crops is pretty sure, sooner or later, to have some- 
 thing to sell when the price is good and everybody wants it. 
 
 I had just one chance to see strawberry-picking going on 
 in the regular business way. Mr. Trotman had received intel- 
 ligence from Boston that berries were up to 12 cents, and, in 
 fact, I believe he had kept picking right along. You see when 
 the fields are once abandoned they can not very well start again, 
 because rotten or overripe berries would get among the good 
 ones in spite of the pickers; therefore the proprietor of a straw- 
 berry-field must keep the pickers going till he decides to stop, 
 and then he must stop for good. When I saw the pickers in 
 the field I said to -friend Stebbins, " There must be very nearly 
 a hundred people who are gathering berries." I have been so 
 much in the habit of estimating the number of hives in an api- 
 ary by simply a casual glance that I thought I could guess pret- 
 ty nearly at the number of people scattered through the patch. 
 Friend Stebbins counted them, and reported 104. There were 
 all sorts of people big and little, old and young, black and 
 white ; but for all that, every thing seemed to go on very har- 
 moniously and quietly. Little colored boys, who seemed hard- 
 ly big enough to carry a quart of berries, would march in with 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 221 
 
 a tray on their heads, and offer their filled quart boxes and get 
 their tickets. Some of them did not have very elaborate cloth' 
 ing, but they always arranged to have a pocket that would car" 
 ry their tickets safely. A smart colored man received the box- 
 es on a sort of counter, letting the picker take his tray back to 
 the field. The proprietor's son was stationed near by with 
 tickets of different values stowed in handy pockets ; and he al- 
 ways had the proper ticket or tickets to hand out just as soon 
 as the picker was ready to go back. 
 
 We happened to be there just as the dinner-bell sounded, 
 and it was a treat to me to see that motley crowd come in. God 
 knows I am interested in human beings as well as in strawber- 
 ries ; and I was greatly pleased to see the pleasant feeling that 
 seemed to exist between employer and employee. Friend Trot- 
 man pays two cents a quart right through for picking the ber- 
 ries. He said it was a little more than some others paid, but 
 he liked to have his workmen satisfied. I asked him where he 
 found his most expert pickers among the men, women, or 
 children. He said a colored widow woman and her two little 
 bits of children (it might have been three) were about the best 
 pickers he had in his employ. He said he had recently paid 
 her $23 in cash for one week's work for herself and children. 
 Some of those little colored boys and girls were remarkably 
 quick and handy at the business. You see it is not so much 
 work for them to double up and stoop over as it is for older peo- 
 ple. In the rush at noon time it was almost impossible to pre- 
 vent some confusion and disorder. I was pleased to see Mr 
 Trotman gently reprove a colored man for tramping on a good 
 new berry-box. Somebody tipped them over, and in the hurry 
 to get ready for dinner they were not picked up. The man put 
 his foot on a nice clean box. Now, the value of these boxes is 
 not much over a quarter of a cent each ; but letting the people 
 trample the boxes under foot, even if they represent only a 
 small value, establishes a bad precedent. 
 
 A STRAWBERRY FESTIVAL NEAR XENIA, GREENE CO., OHIO. 
 
 From Gleanings in Bee Culture July 75, 1899. 
 
 The gathering of bee-keepers and strawberry -growers was 
 in a grove surrounding a schoolhouse. The friends of the year 
 
222 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 before were present, and we were also honored by the presence 
 of Mr. Nick Ohmer himself, and his good wife ; and last, but 
 not least, his brother, J. P. Ohmer, was on hand. The latter 
 brought a Nick Ohmer strawberry-plant growing in a tub. I 
 thought I had seen some gigantic specimens of Nick Ohmer 
 strawberries and fruit on our own place ; but that plant in the 
 tub "broke the record," in foliage, size ,of leaf, and size of 
 fruit. Three or four great stems of fruit, almost as large as 
 peaches, reclined on the edges of the tub, and made a very ap- 
 propriate object-lesson in letting people know the possibilities 
 of strawberry - growing. A quart of berries stood beside the 
 plant, showing twelve berries making a heaping boxful. Some 
 of you will no doubt recall to mind the fact that J. P. Ohmer 
 is the man who grows strawberries successfully through the 
 sides of a barrel. He told us that, although the barrel cul- 
 ture was a success, the average person would probably be un- 
 willing to take the necessary pains to make it a success. 
 
 GROWING STRAWBERRIES IN A BARREL. 
 
 From Gleanings in Bee Culture, Aug. i, 1899. 
 
 As there has been considerable inquiry in regard to this 
 matter, Mr. J. P. Ohmer, of Dayton, Ohio, the originator of 
 the plan, has sent out a little circular describing the process. 
 Here it is : 
 
 Take any iron-bound barrel except those which have been used for 
 pickels, sauerkraut, or vinegar ; take all hoops off but four ; bore four holes 
 in the bottom. Then space holes around the barrel so that twelve plants 
 will go around it. Five rows high will make sixty plants to the barrel 
 (the fifth row can be placed five inches from top of barrel). Bore two 
 holes, one above the other, and cut out the wood between the two holes. 
 By using a bit 1^ inches, you will have a hole 1} by 3 inches. When you 
 plant, put the plants as near the top of the holes as possible, to allow 
 some for settling. Use clay ground, well mixed with rotten manure. Put 
 two inches of gravel in the bottom of the barrel to keep the drain-holes 
 from getting stopped up. Put in the dirt till about three inches above the 
 first row of holes. Be careful to have dirt not too wet. 
 
 The first row of holes must be 8 inches from the bottom of the barrel. 
 Get in and tramp the dirt solid, then loosen the dirt with a trowel where 
 the plants go ; then plant that row. Spread the roots out well, then put 
 dirt about half way up to the next row of holes; then take a .common 
 drain-tile, 12 inches long by 3 or 4 inches in diameter ; put it in the center 
 of the barrel, and fill the tile with coarse sand ; then fill up the bartel with 
 dirt a little above the next row of holes ; tramp again. Be careful not to 
 move the tile. Cover up the tile, so as not to get any dirt in it. After 
 
ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 223 
 
 planting the second row, lift the tile. See that the sand settles, then fill 
 the tile with sand again, then put in dirt above the next row of holes ; 
 tramp again, and plant that row, and repeat the operation until the five 
 rows are planted. But don't fail to tramp. 
 
 . After you are done planting, the tile remains in the barrel; have it 
 empty, so as to take the water. In watering, you water in the tile for the 
 lower rows ; on top of the barrel for the two top rows. It would be im- 
 possible to water the lower plants without the tile and the core of sand. 
 You can water the plants too much. Fill the tile once per day, and put 
 about two quarts of water on the outside of tile. After cold weather sets 
 in, we quit watering. They want no winter protection. Set the barrel on 
 bricks, to keep it off the ground. If any should die in the summer, you 
 can replant them by taking a runner and putting the young plant in the 
 hole, and stick it fast with two little sticks. 
 
 Use the largest fruiting vaiiety that does well in your locality, and per- 
 fect-blooming sort, if possible. Planted early in the spring, you may ex- 
 pect a fair crop the same season. Paint barrel any light color, for con- 
 trast. 
 
 After hearing Mr. Ohmer describe the barrel at the horti- 
 cultural meeting, he added that no one had better undertake it 
 unless he could attend carefully to all the details, for a little 
 neglect in watering will ruin the whole thing very quickly. 
 Such a barrel is too heavy to carry indoors. It must be winter- 
 ed right in the open air. S'/mebody asked him if it needed 
 turning around so the sun could get at all sides. Mr. O. told 
 us if we would get up early enough in the morning we might 
 see that the sun goes clear atound the barrel, from morning till 
 night, and actually laps over quite a piece. No turning around 
 is necessary. You can get the finest strawberries in the world 
 by the barrel plan, and more bushels to the acre, that is, if you 
 had an acre covered with the strawberry-barrels, than you could 
 possibly get by any other plan. 
 
 OUR NEWER STRAWBERRIES. 
 
 Although I have again and again declared I did not want 
 our list of strawberries made any larger unless for some ex- 
 ceedingly good reason, I find at least some of the new ones I 
 have seen in bearing for the first time that promise very favora- 
 bly. The first is the Ridgeway ; and if it will grow on my own 
 grounds as I saw it on Wilbur Fenn's, at Tallmadge, O., I shall 
 certainly give it a place. The plant is a remarkably strong, 
 robust grower. The berries ripen a little late, but are remark- 
 able for their size, beauty of shape, and for the fact that they 
 stand away up above the foliage and out of the dirt. Every 
 berry seems to be as perfect, almost, as if it were turned in a 
 lathe. In this respect it resembles the old Cumberland Tri- 
 umph. Now, this is the way it behaves on cousin Fenn's 
 
224 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 grounds. Most of us are beginning to learn that the berry that 
 does well in one locality may not in another, even near by. 
 
 The second one I wish to call attention to is the Empress, 
 just brought out by Matthew Crawford. I visited his plate 
 when most of the strawberries were gone, and the dry weather 
 was fast using up the late ones. The Empress, however, had a 
 magnificent growth of foliage, and green berries and ripe ones 
 were both in great abundance. When I suggested it was a late 
 berry, friend Crawford said it commenced ripening quite early, 
 on the contrary. I know the plant is a tremendously strong 
 and robust grower, because we have it on our own grounds. 
 Now, if it bears everywhere else as it does at Matthew Craw- 
 ford's place, it is certainly remarkable, because it holds out 
 " head and shoulders " above any thing else. 
 
 The above ends our extracts from Gleanings in Bee Cul- 
 ture; but I have something to say before closing my book about 
 several matters concerning the work of the past twelve years. 
 First, in regard to 
 
 MULCHING AND MANURING STRAWBERRIES AT ONE AND THE 
 SAME TIME SEE PAGE 205. 
 
 Since that chapter was written I have reason to put in a 
 caution here. If all the seeds in stable manure would ger- 
 minate right off, so they could be plowed under and killed that 
 season, it would be all right ; but, unfortunately, the seeds of 
 many of our worst weeds will lie in the ground for years, and 
 keep coming, part one year, part the next, and so on. The 
 worst manure to fill the ground with noxious weeds I have ever 
 found is that from livery stables. If the manure you use were 
 made on your own premises, and you know exactly what is put 
 into the manure heap, you are all right ; or if it comes from 
 the stable or barnyard of some good thrifty farmer who does 
 not let weeds go to seed, you are all right ; but where hay, and, 
 worse still, the bedding comes from Tom, Dick, and Harry, if 
 you will excuse the slang, then a few loads of stable manure 
 may seed your land to such an extent that it will make you no 
 end of trouble for years to come. See page 155. 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 225 
 
 MARKING OUT THE GROUND FOR STRAWBERRIES AND OTHER 
 GARDEN CROPS. 
 
 A great many people grow strawberries who do not keep a 
 horse ; and there are other people, who have a horse part of the 
 time; and, in fact, wherever a man can take the place of a 
 horse in any operation of gardening, especially in small gar- 
 dens, it is oftentimes exceedingly desirable to do so. The pic- 
 ture below tells how this may be done where only a mark is 
 
 MARKING OUT THE GROUND BY MEN OR BOYS INSTEAD OF 
 HORSES. 
 
 needed, not a furrow. The cut and description first appeared 
 in that old standard periodical, the Country Gentleman, as long 
 ago as 1864. 
 
 It consists of a light pole with trace chains suspended from it, at dis- 
 tances for each row, or 3 or 3^ feet apart, as may be desired. Two men 
 take the pole near each end, and one of them, acting as a guide, and rang- 
 ing accurately, they walk forward, dragging the chains in the soil, mak- 
 ing a fine smooth line for each chain. The figure represents only five 
 chains. Six or seven may be employed without inconvenience, and the 
 field marked off with great rapidity. Two men, or a man and a boy, will 
 mark 2% acres in walking a mile. 
 
 Permit me to suggest that, especially for strawberry-work, 
 the machine may be made very much lighter, and equally ef- 
 fective, by using only a few links of the chain to drag on the 
 ground, and connecting the chairs to the pole by means of a 
 cord or wire. The cut above was intended for marking potato 
 ground ; in fact, it is almost the only marker used in the Trav- 
 erse region in Michigan, where they plant almost entirely with 
 the hand potato-planter described in our new book, the ABC 
 of Potato Culture. They usually mark both ways, as the po- 
 
 15 
 
226 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 tatoes are cultivated both ways. Now, where we want to do 
 marking like that described on pages 174 and 177, this machine 
 is by all means the best arrangement that can be used. It is 
 especially the thing where there is an obstruction in the way, 
 such as stumps or trees, as in working new land. A bright 
 young friend of mine a girl of fourteen remarked that the 
 picture was not just right. She said that, on their farm, it 
 should show a boy at one end of the pole and a girl at the oth- 
 er, and that she was that girl. This is a hint for the strawber- 
 ry-grower as well as the farmer. Now, if you are going to 
 have children use this implement, every thing should be as 
 light about it as possible and still have it do the work. I would 
 have a pole made of light pine, largest in the middle, tapering 
 at both ends. Have notches cut at regular distances, so jou 
 can slip the cords as required for different crops. 
 
 For working in a small garden it may be well to have poles 
 of different lengths. Two men -with a long pole will easily 
 make seven marks at once far enough apart for planting pot a 
 toes. With cross-marking, as on page 174, you can slip the 
 strings any distance apart that may be needed. This imple- 
 ment does not make a furrow, or not much of one. By using 
 links from a log-chain, especially if the ground is fine and soft, 
 quite a small furrow may be made. Where chains are not at 
 hand, a drag- tooth or any heavy piece of iron answers nearly 
 as well. The chain, however, would be less likely to get 
 caught, and would more easily slip around obstacles. 
 
 JADOO FIBER, A SUBSTITUTE FOR POTTING SOII, FOR FLORISTS. 
 This article for growing plants first made its appearance in 
 America in 1896 or '97. It was manufactured and offered for 
 sale by the Jadoo Fiber Co. , Philadelphia. I believe it was used 
 previously in European countries. Our readers will notice I 
 have mentioned it frequently in the foregoing extracts from 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 227 
 
 Gleanings in Bee Culture. I was much attracted by it when it 
 first came out, and made quite a lot of experiments with it in 
 our greenhouse for growing various plants. Later I used it for 
 filling the pots for growing potted strawberry-plants. Now, if 
 I am correct, florists in general have not taken very kindly to 
 it. Some of them recommend it as an ingredient for potting- 
 soils. Very few adopted it as recommended by manufacturers 
 as an entire substitute for potting-soil ; but for the strawberry- 
 grower who grows and ships potted plants it has one great 
 thing to recommend it. This is that the plant, soil and all, in 
 which the root is growing, weighs only about a half or perhaps 
 a fourth as much as the heaviest potting-soil. In fact, beauti- 
 ful growing plants can be sent by mail, and the entire contents 
 of the pot undisturbed, for less than one cent per plant for 
 postage. This could not be done with any kind of soil or dirt. 
 Jadoo is exceedingly light, and it will hold water longer than 
 almost any thing else I know of. I do not now understand 
 why it is that florists do not recognize this fact, and send valu- 
 able plants by mail or express, rooted in jadoo fiber. I for one 
 was very sorry when the Jadoo Co. went out of business, and I 
 have never been able to find out why it is no longer on the mar- 
 ket. The article is simply a very nice light muck or peat from 
 swamps, sterilized by being boiled in certain chemicals ; and 
 those chemicals, they claim,' are a fertilizing agent. A compost 
 of swamp muck or peat and old well-rotted stable manure 
 would, I think, answer as well ; and our Ohio Experiment Sta- 
 tion thinks it is even better than jadoo. Jadoo was sold at 
 wholesale for from $15 to $20 a ton. Now, an excellent com- 
 post of old manure (perhaps cow manure would be better), 
 and some very light peat, could easily be furnished, I think, 
 for $10 a ton ; and it seems to me there is an almost unlimited 
 demand for such an article not only for potting strawberries 
 but for the benefit of everybody who grows house-plants. I 
 know our florists advertise potting-soil by the barrel, and it is 
 all right, except that it is heavy, and expensive to ship, and 
 
228 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 none of it comes anywhere near being equal to the jadoo in 
 this one point of light weight for sending plants already rooted, 
 ready to grow.* 
 
 In closing this item about jadoo, permit me to copy what 
 the originator of the Nick Ohmer strawberry-plant said in re- 
 gard to some plants (potted in jadoo) I sent him by mail : 
 
 Mr. A. /. Root : Gleanings and the Darling strawberry-plant were re- 
 ceived. I never saw a plant shipped in as nice condition, and with such 
 extra large roots, as the Darling. I do not know whether I can pot plants 
 and send them in such good condition ; however, I will try to send you a 
 few plants of the numbers named. I never sold any plants or berries, but 
 have sent many plants to friends and others. I sold my ground a year 
 ago, where I grew berries for 26 consecutive years, and very many fine 
 ones. I now have only the east end of a forty-foot lot, and occupy a place 
 of, say, 35 feet by about 60 in berries ; but it is astonishing to see what can 
 be grown on a patch of that size. I am very glad to hear that you are 
 meeting with a " happy surprise " in the Nick Ohmer. Your description 
 of its foliage is correct, only I find some have five leaves on a stem. With 
 me they have an abundance of fruit, and, when properly ripened, the 
 quality is A No. 1. 
 
 I kept the runners off all along, and it will be some time before I can 
 send you the plants. I am nearly 72 years of age, and must soon quit, al- 
 though I have great delight in raising new seedlings. I have some of the 
 Nick Ohmer and some of the No. 34, which are very nice. The seed was 
 sown in pots about Christmas, and kept in the house. From one of No. 
 34 1 have picked off four runners. I thought I could get it to bear this sea- 
 son ; but I notice it is starting new runners. If they get strong enough I 
 will pot one for you for its beauty of plant. JOHN F. BEAVER. 
 
 Dayton, O., June 13, 1898. 
 
 Perhaps I may say to our readers that Mr. Beaver has been 
 an enthusiast on growing strawberry-plants, especially in pro- 
 
 * As an illustration of what jadoo will do, we were at one time short 
 of Grand Rapids lettuce-plants, and wanted some as soon as possible. We 
 put a mixture of jadoo and sand I think about half and half sifted to- 
 gether on one of the beds in the greenhouse, perhaps a quarter of an inch 
 thick. The lettuce seed was sown in this mixture. By keeping the mois- 
 ture and temperature just right, the lettuce was up in four days, and in 
 four davs more it was large enough to transplant. This is about the quick- 
 est wo- k I have ever known. We have tried peat and swamp muck in the 
 same way, for starting seeds, and for filling the pots for getting potted 
 strawberry-plants, but have never found any thing that brought the plants 
 along so rapidly as the jadoo. 
 
A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 229 
 
 ducing new varieties, all his life. I have also included what 
 friend Beaver has to say about the importance of mulching dur- 
 ing a dry time, as it is certainly of interest to all strawberry- 
 growers, even if it has no direct bearing on the subject of jadoo. 
 From a newspaper clipping forwarded me by Mr. Beaver I 
 take the following : 
 
 MULCHING DURING FRUITING, ETC. 
 
 Mr. Beaver said one cause of failure in strawberry culture in a dry sea- 
 son was insufficient mulch around the plants to keep the soil cool and 
 moist. The soil on his strawberry -beds was so wet that he had to protect 
 his knees against the moisture while gathering the fruit, and all this with- 
 out irrigation simply plenty of good mulching. Mr. Beaver showed four 
 plates of strawberries of such unusually large size and fine color as entire- 
 ly to dispel all doubts as to the correctness of his mode of culture. 
 
 DIFFERENT VARIETIES ; PICKING THEM OUT BY BOOKING AT 
 THE FOLIAGE, ETC. 
 
 An expert with apple-trees will go into an orchard and pick 
 out the different kinds by the shape of the tree, wood, leaf, 
 etc. , even before any fruit has made its appearance. In the 
 same way, an expert strawberry-man will name many of the 
 kinds just by looking at the plants, before they have borne 
 fruit. It is almost impossible to explain how this is done ; but 
 most varieties of strawberries have certain peculiarities or " ear- 
 marks," we might almost say, that distinguish them at a glance. 
 One of the most marked cases of this kind that I know of is in 
 regard to the Nick Ohmer ; and our friend Beaver, in the letter 
 above, alludes to it. This plant, every little while, sends up a 
 stem with four leaves instead of three. It is like a four-leafed 
 clover ; and, stranger still, in almost every patch of a dozen or 
 two plants you will find here and there not only a four-leafed 
 plant, but one of these four will have a leaf united clear around, 
 so as to make a funnel-shaped cup ; in fact, I have picked off 
 these cup-shaped leaves and given them to the children, show- 
 ing them they could get a small drink of water out of these 
 strawberry-leaves. Now, to one who makes strawberry-plants 
 a study, and who loves to hunt up and discover these peculiar 
 
230 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 freaks that every variety has, it is a most interesting and won- 
 derful study ; and it has a practical bearing also. One young 
 man in my employ will go through a field where the boys have 
 been setting out plant? , and will sort out the wrong plants by 
 their looks, where the boys have made a blunder, and in this 
 way he prevents sending a customer some plants at some future 
 time that are not true to name. 
 
 BEDDING THE FIRST RUNNERS WHERE YOU WANT THEM; 
 
 SOMETHING FROM CORNFLI, UNIVERSITY IN REGARD 
 TO THE MATTER. 
 
 Through the kindness of Prof. Bailey I am enabled to give 
 a picture on next page of what I should call a model field of 
 strawberries. 
 
 The following we take from Bulletin 198, April, 1901 . The 
 subject of the bulletin is " Oswego Strawberries." 
 
 As to methods of planting, it may be said that the old method has 
 been discarded, planting in rows three to three and one-half feet apart 
 and the plants from twelve to fifteen inches apart in rows, keeping off the 
 runners until late in July and then allowing the runners to grow and root 
 at will, making a matted row. In this old system many plants are almost 
 on top of others, the roots barely in the ground, and they suffer in a tea- 
 son of drouth. The rows are so wide that, to pick fruit in the center, it is 
 almost necessary to crush fruits on the outside of the row. This system 
 gives few large first-class fruits. The up to-date grower starts with the 
 assumption that the largest and highest-colored fruits are found on plants 
 along the outside of the rows, and therefore he plans to have as many out- 
 side rows as possible. This he accomplishes by havine his rows closer to- 
 gether and much narrower. The rows are made from 30 to 36 inches apart 
 and the plants from 18 to 24 or even 30 inches apart in the rows, much de- 
 pending on the capability of the variety as a plant-maker. If the plants 
 used for a new bed are strong, and start into growth vigorously, the first 
 runners are used, as it has beeu found that, under most conditions, the 
 plants about twelve months old yield the greatest number of fine fruits. 
 These first runners are usually '" bedded in," i. e., planted by hand, train- 
 ing them along the wide way of the rows, using from four to eight of the 
 first runners and cutting off those growing later. This method of plant- 
 ing allows cultivation both ways until the runners start, retaining mois- 
 ture and saving labor in hoeing. 
 
 You will notice the above instruction is directly in line with 
 the plan given us by Dan White, on page 177, and the one 
 recommended by Henry Young, of Ada, O., on page 174. 
 
232 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 ; In concluding this book, perhaps I should mention that 
 there are several allusions in the back pages to the fact that we 
 have for many years done quite a business in selling strawber- 
 ry-plants. At present we have none to sell. It is a work that 
 I very much enjoyed, but it is now two or three years since we 
 have done any thing in that line. As a rule I would advise you 
 to get your plants of some reliable grower near by the nearer 
 the better, other things being equal ; and if you wish to get a 
 statt with a certain variety that suits your location, by all means 
 grow your own plants on some of the plans described in this 
 book. If you are compelled to send off a distance, do not send 
 a large order to some unknown party. Get a few samples and 
 see how you like them. When you are pleased with a man's 
 way of doing business and the kind of stock he sends out, then 
 give him a large order if you choose. One of the reasons for 
 buying at home is that you can get your ground all ready, tLen 
 go and get your plants. Delays are exceedingly bad both ways. 
 If you get your plants ahead of time, they may suffer by wait- 
 ing till your ground is ready. If you wait till your ground is 
 all ready, during the rush of the season, you may suffer by be- 
 ing obliged to wait till it is too late for the best results. This 
 applies to spring setting. 
 
 Hoping that the information given in this book may give 
 you happy hours besides much fruit, and that you may enjoy 
 the work as much as I have enjoyed strawberry-growing, as 
 well as trying to make this book helpful to those who may 
 come after me, I remain 
 
 Your old friend and well-wisher, 
 
 Medina, O., Jan. 22, 1902. A. I. ROOT. 
 
ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 233 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Barber Berry-farm 208 
 
 Beds, Starting from New 
 
 Plants in July 156 
 
 Bees, Strawberries, and Eter- 
 nal Life 158 
 
 Berries, Gathering the First as 
 soon as Ready for Market 
 
 160,171 
 
 Berries, Getting Exceedingly 
 
 Early 213 
 
 Berries, Gilt-edged 94 
 
 Berries, List of Valuable 149 
 
 Berries, Number to Quart 112 
 
 Berries, shall Farmers Grow 
 
 them to Sell? 5, 45 
 
 Berries, Small, at a Lower 
 
 Price .- 93 
 
 Berry, Largest Known 127 
 
 Blossoms Protected from Frost 
 
 with Straw, Leaves, etc 80 
 
 Bone Meal and Ashes 90 
 
 Boys and Girls Getting Inter- 
 ested 37 
 
 Brandywine 210,218 
 
 Bubach Planted in the Fall 164 
 
 Bubach for Fancy Berries and 
 
 Fancy Market 189 
 
 Bubach 54. 109, 165 
 
 Champion of England 212 
 
 Chickens Running among 
 
 Strawberries 12 
 
 Chickens, Why they Learn to 
 
 Eat Strawberries 13 
 
 Children, Importance of to the 
 
 Strawberry-grower 45 
 
 Clergyman in Strawberry patch.,113 
 
 Clyde 214 
 
 Cra' es and Boxes, Cost of at Fac- 
 tory 188 
 
 Crescent 53, 207, 209 
 
 Croo. Selling when there is a 
 
 Glut in the Market 162 
 
 Cultivating and Hoeing 33 
 
 Cultivating Both Ways 77 
 
 Cultivating Strawberries Three 
 
 Ways 200 
 
 Cumberland 57, 209 
 
 Dan White's Model Patch 177 
 
 Darling 204, 213, 228 
 
 Distinguishing Varieties by 
 
 Appearance 229 
 
 Downing 54,207 
 
 Earliest 213 
 
 Empress 224 
 
 Enhance, The 174 
 
 Fall Planting 76, 217 
 
 Farmers, Shall they Grow their 
 
 own Strawberries? 5, 45 
 
 Fertilizers for Strawberries 18, 45 
 
 Field Culture, Open v. Small 
 Beds for Testing New Va- 
 rieties 216 
 
 Firming the Ground for Straw- 
 berries 183, 215 
 
 Fitting the Ground 18 
 
 Frost an Injury to Blossoms 26 
 
 Fruit-stems, Clipping to Get 
 
 Extra-nice Plants 199 
 
 Fungous Enemies to Strawber- 
 ries 137 
 
 Furrower and Marker 136 
 
 Gandy 53, 57, 103, 124, 139, 178, 211 
 
 Glut ting the Market 220 
 
 Ground, Marking Out. .27, 62, 174, 235 
 Ground, Smoothing and Level- 
 ing 200 
 
 Growing the Best Importance 
 
 of 97 
 
 Half-acre of Strawberries, 
 
 Plants 2 ft. apart each Way ..205 
 Harvesting Three Crops on One 
 
 Ground in One Season 142 
 
 Hay, Marsh, for Mulching 83 
 
 Haverland 55. 58, 103, 119 
 
 Hills and Side Hills for Straw- 
 berries and other small 
 
 Plants 187,208 
 
 Horse Story 207 
 
 How it Pays 46, 47 
 
 Insect Enemies to Strawberries.,137 
 
 Irrigation for Strawberries 85, 212 
 
 Jadoo 216,226 
 
 Jessie 56 
 
 Lady Thompson 220 
 
 Location 12 
 
 Making a Piece of very'pror 
 Ground into the very best 
 for Strawberries .... 203 
 
234 
 
 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 Manure, Stable, and Weed Seeds 187 
 Manure, Stable, Buying at 
 
 I,ivery Stables, etc 224 
 
 Manures and Fertilizers for 
 
 Strawberries 90 
 
 Margiret 201, 210 
 
 Marking Ground 225 
 
 Marshall 210 
 
 "Matted" Half-acre 217 
 
 Matthew Crawford 126 
 
 Michel's Early 214 
 
 Mulch of Dry Earth 86 
 
 Mulch, Reaving it on till I,ate 207 
 
 Mulching 38. 78, 112 
 
 Mulching and Manuring Straw- 
 berries at the same time 205 
 
 Mulching with Cut Straw 39 
 
 Mulching with Strawy Stable 
 
 Manure :.. 84 
 
 Mulching that does not contain 
 
 Weed Seeds 40 
 
 Mulching, Drawbacks 82 
 
 Mulching Heavily with Straw 
 for Black berries and Rasp- 
 berries 139 
 
 Mulching, Trouble with Grain 
 
 in Straw 39 
 
 Nick Ohmer .204, 210, 213, 228 
 
 Nick Ohmer, Ear-marks 229 
 
 Paths. To Make, in Matted 
 
 Half-acre 217 
 
 Paths, Width of 37 
 
 Picking and Marketing 92 
 
 Picking Regularly whether 
 
 They are Sold or Not 220 
 
 Picking Strawberries Men, 
 Women, or Children 
 
 Which? 221 
 
 Picking, To Reduce Cost 209 
 
 Plantation Bearing More than 
 
 One Year 98 
 
 Planting in the Fall 76, 217 
 
 Plant, Old, shall we Cut it out of 
 
 the Matted Row? 75, 217 
 
 Plants, Growing Nice 195 
 
 Plants Grown from Plants that 
 
 have not Borne Fruit. ..20, 41, 199 
 Plants, Growing on your own 
 
 Ground 72, 232 
 
 Plants, Importance of Good 20 
 
 Plants, Making in Jadoo 228 
 
 Plants. Number to Acre 32 
 
 Plants. Pot-bound 196 
 
 Plants, Putting up for Shipment 144 
 
 Plants, Selling 216 
 
 Plants, Settrng 25 
 
 Plants, Setting them in the 
 
 open Ground 198 
 
 Plants, Taking them Up 41 
 
 Plants, Thinning them Out 74 
 
 Potato-vine^ for Mulching 212 
 
 Potted Plants 129 
 
 Potted Plants, Setting them in 
 
 the Fi-ld 132 
 
 Potting Soil for House-plants 204 
 
 Preparing Ground for Summer 
 
 I and Fall Planting 135 
 
 Product of One Square Rod 50 
 
 Profits per Acre 101 
 
 Purslain among Strawberries 34 
 
 Ridgeway Berry 223 
 
 Rio 214 
 
 Rio for Extra Early 214 
 
 Rotation 17 
 
 Rows, Importance of Straight... 63 
 
 Rows, Matted 69 
 
 "Runners" 35 
 
 Runners and Plants, Getting 
 
 out of Season 148 
 
 Runners, Fixing where you 
 
 want Plants 26 
 
 Runners, Keeping them Off 49, 73 
 
 Runners, Placing 193, 195 
 
 Setting every third or fourth 
 
 Row to a Perfect Variety 24, 
 
 28, 31,32 
 
 Shade, Rooting Strawberry- 
 plants in 204 
 
 Sharpless 181, 182, 211 
 
 Side Hill v. Hill-top for Straw- 
 berries 187 
 
 Soil, Potting 227 
 
 Soil, Stirring during Dry Weath- 
 er. Need of 64 
 
 Stable Manure and Weed Seeds..206 
 Staminate and Pistillate Per- 
 fect and Imperfect 22 
 
 Sterling 54, 59, 103 
 
 Straw, Cut. as a Mulch 79 
 
 Strawberries and Ice Cream 112, 168 
 Strawberries Beneficial to Health 11 
 
 Strawberries in Hills 71 
 
 Strawberries on Sod Ground 
 
 Danger of Grubs 13 
 
 Strawberries Planted between 
 
 Raspberries and other Crops 14 
 
 Strawberries under Glass 147, 196 
 
 Strawbei ries v. Tea, Coffee, 
 
 and Tobacco 43 
 
 Strawberries, 3 cts. a Quart 219 
 
 Strawberries, 66 Meals in Suc- 
 cession 11 
 
 Strawberries, $1000 worth on 
 
 One Acre 109 
 
 Strawberries, Crop in Fall 146 
 
ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 
 
 235 
 
 :Stra wherries, Different Ways 
 
 of Growing 69 
 
 Strawberries, Everbearing 146 
 
 Strawberries Gathering 44 
 
 Strawberries, Getting a Crop 
 in only 9 or 10 months af- 
 ter the Plants are Set 215 
 
 Strawberries, how many can an 
 
 Average Family Consume?.... 16 
 
 Strawberries Grown in a Barrel..222 
 
 Strawberries, Selling at a Big 
 
 Price 95 
 
 Strawberries, Selling During 
 
 Glut in Market 106 
 
 Strawberries, Spacing for Best 
 
 Results 172 
 
 Strawberry Culture for those in 
 Poor Health 145 
 
 Strawberry, Earliest 217 
 
 Strawberry Festival 221 
 
 Strawberry Industry at Barnes- 
 ville, Ohio 185 
 
 Strawberry growing for Con- 
 sumptives 128 
 
 Strawberry-erowing for Liter- 
 ary and Professional Men 48 
 
 Strawberry-growing for Young 
 Indies 123 
 
 Strawberry - growing near 
 
 Norfo k, Va 219 
 
 Strawbeiry-harrow 110 
 
 Strawberry- patch Long and 
 
 Narrow 16 
 
 Strawberry-plants for Improv- 
 ing the Soil 141 
 
 Strawberry- plants, To Grow the 
 
 Best 192 
 
 Sub irrigation 197, 212 
 
 Sub-irrigation in Open Air 197 
 
 Terry's Berries in June, 1891 160 
 
 Terry's Home 120 
 
 Tiling the Ground for Straw- 
 berries 14 
 
 Tools for Cultivating 65, 66, 68 
 
 Tools for Hand Work among 
 
 Plants 33 
 
 Transplanting machine 190 
 
 Transplanting tubes 18 
 
 Transplanting tubes, To Use 133 
 
 Ups and Downs in Gardening 210 
 
 Varieties 20, 51 
 
 Varieties to Use for Fertilizers... 60 
 Vines, getting them Bear more 
 
 than one Year 154 
 
 Viit to Terry's in July, 1894 166 
 
 Visit to Terry's 116 
 
 Water in Puddles on Strawber- 
 
 rv Ground 34, 200 
 
 Weeding. Plan to Lessen La- 
 bor of 155 
 
 Weeds Getting Out, or Plowing 
 
 Patch under 99 
 
 William Belt 210 
 
 Working Giouud with a Horse 
 
 instead of by Hand 35 
 
 Yield on Half-acre in 1890 102 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS, 
 
 Blossoms, Perfect and Imperfect 22 
 
 Bubach 54 
 
 Chain Marker 22o 
 
 Cumberland Triumph 57 
 
 Dan White's System of Setting 
 
 Plants 177 
 
 Furrower and Marker 13 
 
 Gandy 53 
 
 Garden plow. Cole's 201 
 
 Harrow Attachment for Cultiva- 
 tor 66 
 
 Hand Cultivator, Scuffle hoe, 
 
 and Weeder 202 
 
 Haverland .55 
 
 Henry Young's Plan of Mark- 
 ing Ground 174 
 
 Henry Young's Plants after they 
 
 are Set 175 
 
 Hill Culture 2(X) 
 
 Machine for Transplanting 
 
 Strawberries 190 
 
 DIAGRAMS, ETC. 
 
 Home acre 15 
 
 Oswego Stra vberry-patch .231 
 
 Photos of Terry's Berries Com- 
 pared with Common 104, 105 
 
 Plants, Good and Poor 21 
 
 Plants. Right and Wrong way 
 
 to Set 29 
 
 Potted Strawberry-plants 131 
 
 Rows, Marking for Spacing 27 
 
 Runners, To Place the Second 
 
 Year 176 
 
 Sterling 59 
 
 Strawberries, Box of Gandy 140 
 
 Strawberries of Good Repute, 
 
 Old and New 150-153 
 
 Terry's Strawberry patch 81 
 
 Terrv's Half-acre ju>t after 
 
 Plants had taken Root Ill 
 
 Transplanting tubes. To Make. ..133 
 
 Tray for Holding Tubes 134 
 
 Weeder ....198 
 
Gleanings in Bee 
 Culture. 
 
 SAMPLE COPY FREE. 
 
 A Semi-monthly Bee-journal Devoted 
 to Modern Apiculture t and to the Gen- 
 eral Interests of the Bee-keepers' Home, 
 Including High-pressure Gardening. 
 
 The A. L Root Company, 
 
 Medina, Ohio, U. S. A. 
 
! 
 
 UNCLE - 
 
 Strawberry=plants and Seed Potatoes. 
 
 Almost every season we have a large number of inquiries 
 as to where people can get boxes for their fruit, etc. I have 
 already recommended you to get your plants near home if pos- 
 sible. When you can not do this I would advise you to send 
 to Flansburgh & Peirson, Leslie, Mich., or to The M. Crawford 
 Co., Cuyahoga Falls, O. We have bought plants of them for 
 years, and have always found them to be nice men to deal with. 
 Above we give a cut of one of Flansburgh & Peirson 's latest 
 berries, their specialty for 1902, called the "Uncle Jim." 
 
Fruit Packages 
 
 "For strawberry-boxes, crates, etc., 
 where you can not get them near home I 
 would advise you to send 1o the Berlin Fruit- 
 box Company, Berlin Heights, Ohio." 
 
 A. I. ROOT. 
 
 Berlin Fruit Box Co. 
 
 Berlin Heights, Ohio. 
 
 CATALOG ON APPLICATION. 
 
BOOKS ON RURAL SUBJECTS. 
 
 Sold by The A. I. Root Co., Medina, 0. 
 
 A B C of Bee Culture. 
 
 1901 edition; 500 
 pages ; the only 
 encyclorsedia tn 
 bees. The last 
 edition, 5000 cop 
 ies, issued in Oc- 
 tober, 1899, was 
 exhausted in the 
 short space of o: e 
 year. Even before 
 the edition was 
 out of the press, 
 1500 copies had 
 been sold ; a n d 
 before thirty days 
 had passed, 1000 more copies were 
 taken. We immediately set to 
 work to print a new edition. While 
 the edition of 1899 was morethoi- 
 oughlv revised than anv previous 
 one, that for the year 1900 has now 
 received even larger additions of 
 new matter, so that the hook from 
 beginning to end is almost entirely 
 new. It now contains 500 double- 
 column pages. It has been most 
 carefully gone over by Dr. C. C. 
 Miller, who has prepared a new set 
 of comments, and by Prof. A. J. 
 Cook, of Pomona College, Cal. As 
 before, old subjects have been re- 
 written. Descriptions of obsolete 
 methods have in all cases been 
 stricken out, and the verv latest 
 put in their place. This 1901 edi- 
 tion marks the 75th thousand. 
 
 While the brok has been enlarg- 
 ed, and hundreds of pages have 
 been rewritten and revised, the 
 price will be the same as before : 
 $1.20 postpaid, or $1 00 by express 
 or freight with other goods, or 
 when sent with our journal Glean- 
 ings in Bee Culture, which is a con- 
 stant appendix to the ABC book, 
 a journal beautifully printed and 
 illustrated, 36 pages, for the very 
 low price of $1.75 for the two. For 
 
 quantity of up-to-date bee-litera- 
 tme there is nothing else offered 
 at this low price. 
 
 A B C of Strawberry Culture. 
 
 236 pages, fully il- 
 Imtrattd Price~45c; 
 mail, 5c extra. This 
 is also one cf Ter- 
 ry's, and has receiv- 
 ed some very high 
 words of praise. The 
 1902 edition is not 
 only rtvistd, but the 
 bock is veiy much 
 increased in size, mei tioning all 
 the new varieties and new methods 
 of cultivation, bringing the indus- 
 try clear up to 1902. Who that 
 keeps horiey - bees does not also- 
 have a little garden patch? If j ou 
 would learn to raise in it that most 
 luscious of all fruits, the strawt er- 
 ry, with the best results, you can't 
 be without this little book. Even if 
 you don't grow strawberries jou'll 
 be the better for reading it. 
 
 What to Do, and How to be 
 Happy while Doing It. 
 
 The above book, by A. I. Root, is 
 a compilation of papers published 
 in Gleanings in Bee Culture, in 1886, 
 '7, and '8. In 1900 an appendix was 
 added, bringing it up to date. It is 
 intended to solve the problem of 
 finding occupation for those s^at- 
 tered over our land, out of employ- 
 ment. The suggestions are princi- 
 pally abrut finding employment 
 around your own homes. The r ook 
 is mainly upon market-gardening, 
 gardening under glass, fruit cul- 
 ture, poultry-raising, etc Price, in 
 paper covers, 50c; cloth, 75c. If or- 
 dered by freight or express, deduct 
 8 and lOc respectively. 
 
A B C of Potato Culture. 
 
 This is T. B. Ter- 
 ry's first and most 
 masterly work. The 
 book has had a large 
 sale, and has been 
 re-printed in foreign 
 languages. It was 
 revised and rewrit 
 ten in 1893, and the 
 1901 edition makes 
 288 pages, just the size of this, fully 
 illustrated, and bound in leather- 
 ette cover printed in gold. Price 
 45c ; mail, 50c ; cloth, 68c; mail, 75c. 
 
 A B C of Carp Culture. 
 
 In paper covers, il- 
 lustrated. This is a 
 work of 70 pages, 7x 
 10, written by Geo. 
 J. Finley and A. I. 
 Root, and the best 
 authority on the sub- 
 ject of caip culture 
 yet in print. The 
 rearing 01 carp is a 
 
 pleasant and profitable amusement. 
 
 This book will tell you all about it. 
 
 Price 25c ; by mail, 5c extra. 
 
 Maple Sugar and Sugar=bush. 
 
 By A. J. Cook. The 
 price is 25c; by mail 
 30c. This is by the 
 same author as the 
 Manual 9! the Api- 
 ary, and is most val- 
 uable to all who are 
 interested in the 
 product of our sugar 
 maples. No one 
 who makes maple sugar or syrup 
 should be without it; 44 pages, fully 
 illustrated. 
 
 Merrybanks and His Neighbor. 
 
 By A. I. Root. This is the title of 
 a little book of 210 pages and 68 
 illustrations. It narrates the alter- 
 nate failure and success of a begin- 
 ner who ultimately, through much 
 tribulation, becomes a successful 
 bee-man and a power for good in 
 
 Onionville. Appropriate original 
 cuts, many of them humorous, are 
 interspersed here and there, repre- 
 senting some of the droll experi- 
 ences which a beginner with bees 
 sometimes passes through. Besides 
 bees, it talks of other rural pur- 
 suit?, such as gardening, maple- 
 sugar making, etc. Price I5c ; 3c 
 less when sent with other goods by 
 freight or express. 
 
 Tile Drainage. 
 
 By W. I. Chamber- 
 lain. This is a very 
 valuable companion 
 to our other rural 
 books. It embraces 
 the experience of 40 
 years of one of our 
 foremost practical ag- 
 riculturists, who has 
 laid with his own 
 
 hands over 15 miles of tile. Price 
 
 35c; bf mail, 40c. 
 
 Winter Care of Horses and 
 Cattle. 
 
 This is friend Ter- 
 ry's second book in 
 regard to farm mat- 
 ters ; but it is so in- 
 timately connected 
 with his potato book 
 that it reads almost 
 like a sequel to it. 
 If you have only a 
 horse or a cow it 
 will surely pay you to invest in the 
 book, 't has 44 pages and 4 cuts. 
 Price 25c; by mail, 30c. 
 
 Tomato Culture. 
 
 In three parts. By 
 J. W. Day, D Cum- 
 mins, and A. I. Root; 
 a valuable treatise, 
 embracing field cul- 
 ture, forcing under 
 glass, and raising 
 plants for market. 
 Valuable to any ore 
 raising garden stuff 
 
 of any kind aside from tomatoes. 
 
 150 pages ; illustrated. Price 35c; 
 
 by mail, 40c. 
 
LIU 
 
 14 DAY USE 
 
 RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED 
 
 LOAN DEPT. 
 
 This book is due on the last elate stamped below, or 
 
 on the date to which renewed. 
 Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. 
 
 LIBRARY USE 
 
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 T,r> 21 A-finm-ft '57 
 
 General Library