CHAPTER VI.

THE STRAWBERRY.

In addition to the several vegetables enumerated in the preceding pages, there is one of the small fruits that has taken such a prominent place in what may be termed farm horticulture as to deserve mention here. It is the strawberry.

This berry is, perhaps, the most popular small fruit in America, and because of its perishable character, is one that requires strictly local production. It cannot be shipped long distances without loss of character and flavor, and hence the local grower will never be crowded out of his own market.

The culture of the strawberry is simple and easy. There are many ways of setting out plants, and the after-treatment also differs widely. There will always be controversy concerning the respective merits of the hill system and the matted row system. Each cultivator must decide for himself which is the better.

For the farmer, whose acres are many and whose duties are pressing, there is, perhaps, no better way than to set strawberries in rows 4 feet apart, with plants 2 feet apart in the row, and to allow the plants to run together in the rows, giving sufficient attention to keep the alleys well stirred and the whole bed clear of weeds. To set an acre will require about 5,000 plants.

The winter covering of litter should be raked into the walks or alleys as soon as winter is over and allowed to remain there as a mulch for keeping the soil cool and damp and for the purpose of keeping the berries clean.

As soon as the crop is off, the bed should be plowed, turning strawberries and litter under, and sweet corn or other quick crop at once planted. This will insure the gathering of two crops in two years; otherwise a strawberry crop means a two-years' use of the soil.

The setting out of a new strawberry bed every spring is good practice; and it is altogether advisable for farmers to occasionally introduce new varieties of strawberries on their farms, to replace old or enfeebled sorts.

The profits of strawberry culture are quite large, the gross receipts not infrequently running to $250 per acre. New boxes and crates are advisable, and are distinctly profitable.

INDEX.

Page.

Asparagus 27

Bacteria 15, 19

Barnyard manure 10

Beans 33

Bedding plants 119

Beets 39

Bordeaux mixture 63

Borecole 91

Cabbage 42

Cantaloupe 97

Carrot 49

Celery 75

Citron 97

Cold frame 120

Crimson clover 20

Corn worm 55

Corrosive sublimate 64

Cucumber 85

Egg plant 88

Glass 119

Green manuring 19, 21, 22

Horseradish 56

Hot bed 119

Humus 14

Irrigation 17, 18, 62, 125

Kale 91

Kerosene emulsion 97

Legumes 19

Lettuce 92

Lime 9

Location, choice of 24

Marketing 24

Manure, storage 11

Manure, value of 13, 19

Melon louse 97

Melons 94

Mushrooms 99

Muskmelons 97

Onions 101

Oyster plant 58

Parsnip 57

Peas 108

Potato 59

Potato blight 63

Potato scab 63

Potato rot 63

Preservatives of manure 12

Pumpkin 65

Radish 110

Rhubarb 110

Ruta baga 72

Salsify 58

Salt 31

Sashes 119

Soil inoculation 36

Spinach 112

Squash 65

Strawberry 121

Swedes 72

Sweet potato 114

Tomatoes 66

Turnip 71

Waste products 17

Water cress 84

Whale-oil soap 97

Wood ashes 17

=Everybody Should Read our New Book=

=IRRIGATION BY CHEAP MODERN METHODS=

=Double the Crops--Water will do it. Strictly up-to-date. Fully Illustrated.=

=Tells you just what you want to know in just the way you want to be told.=

There is something here for every farmer and gardener. That thing is a sufficient water-supply. Irrigation makes deserts to rejoice and gardens to blossom. Nature often withholds needed moisture at critical times. Millions of dollars are lost annually through the uncertainties of the weather. After reading this work you will be surprised at the cheapness and practicability of irrigation, which will double the production at an expense of from $10 to $1,000, just according to what you want to spend, while it reduces soil culture to an exact science and enables the tiller of the soil to work on schedule time.

For terms on which this book can be had, see our "Garden and Farm Manual," which is sent free to all who write for it.

Compiled and published by

=JOHNSON & STOKES= =..SEED GROWERS AND MERCHANTS..= =217 and 219 Market Street Philadelphia, Pa.=

Floracroft Seed Gardens and Trial Grounds

In order to get the best results from our efforts, and make sure that customers shall receive from us the best seeds that the world produces, we have for many years maintained and carried on extensive trials at our Floracroft Seed Gardens and Trial Grounds, located about nine miles from our city warehouses. All operations are under the personal direction and management of one of our firm, who resides there. Here are planted each season, for thorough trial, samples of all "Novelties" offered by other seedsmen both in this country and Europe, as well as anything which may be sent us, claimed to be new and superior, by our amateur or market garden customers. By this means we are enabled to satisfy ourselves of the true character and value of any novelty before it can find a place in our catalogue.

Many acres are also devoted to the production of pedigree stock seed, from which the seeds we offer are grown. We plant the best seeds obtainable; then go over the crop, plant by plant, carefully "rogueing" and destroying the inferior and selecting and saving only the best. This stock seed from selected plants is sent to be grown on our farms in localities where the conditions of soil and climate are best adapted to the perfect development of the particular variety. It is the product of such stock seed only that we offer for sale.

Here are also located our Seed Testing Houses, where a sample of every lot of seed, whether grown by ourselves or grown for us under contract, is thoroughly tested, in mother earth, for vitality and purity of stock, and only those of satisfactory quality and germinating power are sold. In fact, we leave no stone unturned to gain and hold the confidence of all customers and secure them from disappointment.

=JOHNSON & STOKES= =..SEEDSMEN..= =217 and 219 Market Street, Philadelphia, Pa.=

That grow into dollars for the professional market gardener will also grow the choicest vegetables and flowers in the Home Garden.

=Our Garden and Farm Manual Tells All About Them=

_It is Sent Free to Seed Buyers_

=Johnson & Stokes 217 and 219 Market Street PHILADELPHIA, PA=.

Transcriber's Note

* Obvious punctuation and spelling errors repaired.

* Footnote moved to the end of the appropriate paragraph.

* Notes moved to the end of the appropriate section.

* Text enclosed between equal signs was in bold face in the original (=bold=).