Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1860-09-08
No. 36.
From the New York World.
STRAWBERRY PLANTING

/ III INC cieDlehts oI loOui Wnat luxury IL is, ana
how conducive to health, that its cultivation
should not be more general. The quantities
brought to New York the past season have been
immense; and other cities, and perhaps the
large villages are now pretty well supplied !
but in the rural districts, the very place where
it can be the most cheaply produced, and where,
owing to the prevailing styles of living, it is
most needed, its cultivation is too much neg
lec;ed. a few wild strawberries less every year,
as the country becomes older, seems to satisfy,
and the choice varieties wonderfully improved
by cultivation, are neglected.
Among farmers, aud mechanics as well, if
| they have but patch of land, strawberries can
be grown to the greatest advantage. Why
should they not be growing in abundance. 1t
need not take time from the solid business of
those strong TO labor. In many families there
are the aged and in more the young. Grand
pa has left the field, but he loves to work lit
tie in the garden; and Willy and Mary will
hurry home from school to pick the berries
and not chlrge farthing for that lubor and
YOU will hear Mary calling Willy to "come here
and see" for she has found Wilson's Seeding
as large as her mothers thimbc; and Willy
vociieratcS joyfully as he finds Hooker's seed
ling as large as big plum and then Mary
beats him out with Longworth's Prolific next,
Willy, not to be beat. outdoes the Whole. on a
whupping Jenny Lind, large enough to f.e at
squirrel six rods Off ii there is no better use for
it. The little hearts came up in the threats, to
think how pleased the mother will be- and how
the fathers eyes will stare when he comes in to
tea and secS such monster berries OH the table
and thus love and childish industry grow to.
gether, and the little folks have been most
| pleasantly kept out OF mischief till Just tired
enough to take their supper, and go to bed, and
! grow toward the childrcus' good of being "great
II Ell and women" How pleasant and useful,
could every family have good strawberry plot.
II the growing Of this fruit were difficult and
costly operation andif success, when undertaken,
were rare as angels visits, no more need be
said. Bat there is no difficulty in the case !;
and as to the cost, it is almost nothing. We
get them in this city, after the carriers and the
hnchsters have made more money on them than
the grocerS get, about as cheap as any food
we can find, viewing them simply as food and
looking at them oply with an economical eve.
How much need they cost the country resident,
and how much better are his berries than ours,
because his children bring them fresh from the
garden To- the table. while ours have been sold
and rc-,old, summed and wilted often commenced
to decay, 1t is now a settled point, that straw
berries can be grown as cheaplv as Indian corn.
aside from the picking, which. for family use,
cost just nothing. Half rood has often pro-
duccd bushcl and il is considered nothing to
brag Of, to take bushel from rood. The
manure required is, if ANYTHING, less than for
corn and the labor is not much more, proy-
ded YOU know how to do the work as thorough
ly and yet economically in one case as in the
other
Very biref directions are all that is needed
by farmers and country mechanics already ac-
qualnted with the general principles of cultiva-
ting the soil and growing crops.
Select soil rather moist-and soil that would
grow a crop Of corn-and plow and spade it to
the depth of one foot or little more. If a
portion of the plot is somewhat shaded your
shaded part will mature its fruit later than the
sunny side Of the plot, and later on the shady,
your seasons for enjoying the fruit will be length
ened to the best part of two months. Old, well
decompoSed manure black with age and ex-
pcsu.c, i recommended for strawberries. II
ynl say this is the very thing you cannot spare
from ylu: wheat field, the answer is, YOU can
r gto" strawberries JUS as well without it. Sun
dry recipe, have been put forth Tor liquid dress
, iig> compounded of nearly all the carbonates
, >uphute> and chlordes in existence. and no
! doubt they good but these you need not
trouble YOUR head with. The truth is the ma
nu'iug for strawberries is very easy and cheap
Leaf mold gathered from the woods, OF
swampweed dug few months beforehand and
exposed to air, rain and sunshine, and wood
ashes afford all the clements of the strawberry
t II you plow in liberal allowance of this com
; post, and then SOW on a few ashes every spring
t II viii be long before your crop will fail for tn,
want of manure, and then more of the same
. will be all that will be needed. 1t is Il mstak,
TO suppose that the best manure OF the farm
c and in large quantities, must be distracted 10,
a the strawberry plot
V There are various ways of proceeding witt
o the cultivation, many of which may be good
e but not all can be the best. II, after bringin!
;. the surface to nice level ;ilth you set the row
y two feet apart, and the plants one foot in th
t row, there can be great error far. DO no
h raise the hills above the general level in setting
5 and let the cultivation he such as to keep tn,
. entire surface as nearly level as may he. II th
}, plants are set now, in August, and the groun,
:, be kept clean, the runners will take root il
= considerable numbers this fall, and in grea
e numbers next spring, and pretty good cro
Y (more than half of "A large one) may be obtain
G ed in ten months from the setting. Som
1t would let them occupy the whole ground, am
II then they would become perfect thicket an
d would give an immense crop the second yeal
e but would be more difficult to keep clean after
J. wards. Others prefer to confne the plants t
= a foot in width, leaving one foot vacant between
d thus stripping the plot with an alternate foot q
e vines, and vacant foot to be covered wit
II mulch (spent tan, seaweed, salt hay, or some
IS thing of the kind) so thick as to keep the groun
d moist below, and so porous and dry on the to
:, that the runners would not take root. This
1t certainly good way. In case of adopting i
you will find it easy to renew the bed, when tn
V. weeds and grass may have become Troublesome
IS 1t is done by simply removing the mulch, Q
le digging it in, spading the unoccupied stripe
h. and setting it with new plants after the frutin
1T time of one year, and then digging up the oil
d vines and mulching the ground on which the
g stood, as long as the new vines continue to d
1t well, and then repeating the operation. In thi
,r way good crops may be obtained from the pic
s. perpetuay only that on the year of the re
,e moval, you would have about half a crop on IT,
if whole surface, instead of full crop on but ha
IS the surface, which would amount to about tn
in same. Others prefer to let the runners TAX
g root in but quarter of the surface, leaving
1t vacant stripe Of foot between the rows, an
? vacant space between the hills about a foe
n square. In this way, perhaps, more ground an
re less labor would be required; and the process
in running would be much the same as above dt
l. scribed. Others still prefer TO set the plant
h very thickly, let them occupy the whole groun,