The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1868-05-04
The afrnNherrI.

NO PAobt ASReyo
than the strawberry-either on large
or small scale. An expenditure OF three
hundred dollars per acre, judiciously
applied, will give much greater per,
centage of profit, than will be realized
by the ordinary mode of culture, which
seldom costs morethan one-tenth Of that
sum.
In a good season the yield of straw
berries Per acre will bring from two
hundred dollars to twenty-five hundred
dollars, according to the manner IN
which the ground has been prepared,
and the attention given to the plants.
With the highest culture, seven thous,
and quarts of fine strawberries would
not be moro than fair product. Berries
raised upon the stool system, with good
culture, are much larger than those
grown on any other plan, making tbe
labor of picking less, and bringing from
three to five times as much in market.
Mr.. j. Knox, of Pittsburgh, one of the
best informed, most successful and most
extensive strawberry cultivators, grows
all bis plants upon the stool system and
matches. Last season his strawberries
sold in the Philadelphia aud New York
markets at from fifty to seventy-tive
cents per quart, while the same markets
were full of common berries, selling at
ten and twelve cents per quart. In the
height of the season, Mr.. Knox has
picked and sent to market about two
hundred bushels of strawberries per
day. We have had, and have frequent
ly seen, beds of properly cultivated
strawberries yield one quart per stool.
Strawberries, planted two feet apart
each way, will require ten thousand
eight hundred and ninety plants to an
acre.
Thorough undertaking and deep sub
soiling are of the utmost importance TO sue
cessfm strdpberry culture. After the
ground for the proposed strawberry bed
has been underdrained, it should be
subsoiled from two to three feet deep,
care being taken to bury the top soil.
After the trench is finished, the best
soil should be on the top. When sub
soiling, dig in through the soil good
supply of ipeI rotted stable manHre, at
the rate of at least fifty large loads to
an acre, and double that quantity
would not be toe much.
We prefer to prepare the bed in the
manner designated, late in the fall, or
during the winter, and as early in the
spring as it is possible to properly work
the ground, to plant the strawberries
two feet apart each way. Good strong
plants, should, if possible, be procured.
If they have been raised in pots, they
will produce moderate crop the first
season; if not raised in pots, they bear
the second season. Trim off the old
leaves and cut off about One-third of the
roots. Then dip the roots in thin So
luton made by mixing equal parts of
fresh cow manure and clay soil with
water. Make the hole large enough to
contain all the roots carefully spread
out. When thus arranged, cover ever
and press the soil close about the roots,
being careful not to press il too hard
about the crown of the
plant. After planting, the bed
should be at once covered over
with a mulch about one inch
thick, of spent hops, rotten tanbark, or
cut straw. The first is probably the
best, and can be obtained for the haul
ing, from any brewery. Care must be
"hNA "Pp'JtSS sHc A~N ~
cover the crown of the plants.
Three or four times during the grow
ing season all runners should be cut
from the plants, allowing the plants to
grow as stools only. The mulching
should oe raked ever once or twice dur
ing the season, but the soil should not
be disturbed. Strawberry roots run
very near the surface; still, when prop
erly cultivated they extend down from
three to five feet. Ne weeds should be
in the beds.
In the fall, soon after the first killing
frost, the beds should be again mulched
with long straw, at the rate of about
one ton to an acre. AS the first mulch,
when thoroughly decomposed, acts as a
fine manure, it should not be removed.
The straw mulch remains on the bed in
the spring, being only removed from
Immediately over the crown of the
plants to give them egress.
To procure extra large fruit, cultivate
as here suggested, and water the plants
literally every day or two, and about
once week with liquid manure not too
streng. Pick off all but one fruit stem,
and thin that out. Occasionally, when
the sun is very strong, shade the plants
a little. BY this treatment, if you have
selected one of the large varieties, you
can produce enormous fruit.
Pistillate varieties are more reliable
and produce much larger crops than
the hermaphrodites. They require
about one-tenth their number of her
maphrodites to fertilize them. If the
two sexes are within forty or fifty feet
of each other, they will bear enough for
proper fertilization. Great care should
be taken that the varieties which are
to fertilize each other, be those that
blossom at the same time.
We cultivate, solely for our own use
and amusement, the following varieties:
Golden Seeded, Fillmore, DR.. Nicaise,
Kittley's Goliah, Longworth's Prolific,
Jucunda, Nimrod, Triomphe de Gand,
Golden Queen, Napoleon I'LL, Durand,
Nicanor, Charles Downing and Ro-
meyn's Seeding, having altogether
about eighteen hundred stools. We
place Kittley's Goliah and Nimrod
among the best late straw berries, al
though they are in the rejected list of
the American Pathological Society Of
1858.