Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1859-05-06
How to Raise Strawberries.

the year for planting the strawberry
For this reason, and because many per-
sons still imagine that there is some mys-
terry in the raising of this excellent fruit,
we will now set forth all that is really
necessary to know on the subject. For
more full discussion of the theory and
practice, we refer the readers to articles
in our recent volumes.
The strawberry likes warm, sandy
loan, with sunny exposure. 1t will
bear fruit in poor soil, but to produce
large berries and plenty Of them, the
land must be enriched. 1t will bear fruit
short time, in light and thin soil, but
to prolong the season of bearing into the
midst of dry weather, the soil must be
deepened by trenching digging. Some
varieties have imperfect flowers, i. e. are
either staminate or pistillate, (male or fe-
maIe) and can fertilize themselves, there
fore those of one sex need to be planted
in the neighborhood of the other. A
few have perfect flowers, and are called
hermaphrodite. In the artificial soil of
our gardens, strawberry plants are apt to
grow too rank and dense for their high
est productiveness, and should be thinned
out, so as to keep them several inches
apart.
The above are perhaps the most i'm
portant general principles connected with
successful strawberry culture. Now for
an application choose a warm portion of
the garden, unshaded by trees or vines,
and where there is no standing water in
the subsoil. If the garden has already
been trenched eighteen inches or two feet
deep, and if the soil is warm, rich and
porous throughout, all you have to do is
to just spade up the earth, level it of,and
set out your plants. But, supposing the
subsoil is hard, and the top soil somewhat
stiff and cold, and exhausted by other
crops, then proceed as follows: Begin
at one end of the proposed bed, and take
off the top soil one spade deep and four
feet square, and carry the same to the
other end. Spread over this uncovered
spot, compost of old manure and rotted
weeds or muck from the woods,and spade
it down, and mix it thoroughly together.
Then uncover four feet more, throwing
the top soil over the part already manur-
ed. Manure the uncovered soil as before,
and so proceed the whole length of the
bed on reaching the end you will find
use for the top soil taken off at the be-
ginning. If now, the top soil is not rich
enough, or is too hard and sterile, apply
a dressing of fine compost, or sand ard
wood-earth and ashes, mixing the whole
thoroughly. Then level off and lay out
the beds four feet wide, and as long as
your space demands. Three beds of that
width and fourteen feet long, will supply
an ordinary family and their cousins, with
an abundance. Set three rows in each
bed, and let the plants be eighteen inches
apart in the rows. Mulch the ground
between the plants with tan-hark or
straw. If the weather is dry for several
weeks after planting, give an occasional
watering. Keep the runners clipped, land
4 the weeds-let none be seen. You may
be tempted to let the plants bear fruit the
first year; but this will only weaken
them and prevent bountiful crop the
\ second season. The very best way is tc
. keep down all the runners, and to pinch
off every blossom the first year.
AS to the best varieties, it is no easy
matter to decide, where there are so ma.
ny excellent sorts but the following may
be relied on as certainly good:
Staminate sorts Wilson's Albany
Longworth's Prolific, Hooker, and Large
Early Scarlet.
PiStiHatss: Hovey's Seeding, McA
] voy's Superior, Burr's New Pine, Blacl
r Prince, Crimson Cone.
Some of the above are regarded in Ger
tain quarters as hermaphrodite, viz -
$ Longworth's Prolific, Hooker, and Viii
sons Albany.
The staminates and pistillates may b,
t set together in the same bed but it i
: better to keep them in separate patches
It If they are within six or eight feet G
It each other, the. pistillate plants will b
+ sufficiently fertilized.--Ana. Aqrtculturis
THE REPUBLICAN" CREED.