Middletown transcript., 1870-01-15
oN NEW CASTLE COUNTY, DELAWARE SATURDAY

products, 1 have found this to be the mos
certain of all. l have never failed ir
growing an abundant crop.
1t is in the country and on the farm
alone, that the Strawberry can, and ought
to be enjoyed in its greatest excellence
and the almost total neglect that it there
receives seems to be utterly incxcusable,
though not altogether unaccountablc
There are l suppose but few cultivators Of
the soil, but who, sometimes in their lives
make the attempt, generally unsuccessful,
to grow Strawberries. And it shall be
my object in the few remarks to which I
am confined, by the limited time allowed
IN their preparation, to endeavor to point
out some of the causes of this failure. |
have said that the actual labor necessary
to produce a crop of Strawberries is not
SO great, if that labor is guided by skill
and intelligence. And the great trouble
u.s. that most persons 60 into it with their
heads full of erroneous ideas upon the
subject, derived from theoretical essaysts.
who have no pi actical knowledge of what
they are writing about. 1t is much to be
regretted, but seems to be unavoidable,
that all the useful information obtainable
from the mass of stuff daily printed, upon
agricultural subjects is like grain of
wheat in bushel of chaff. This is be-
cause people who write seldom work, and
those who work, have no inclination to
write. l have noticed that all, of the
many writers who constantly undertake to
enlighten the public upon this subject
through the newspapers, recommended
Summer or Fall paintings this is the first
great mistake. 1t is in vain he is told by
the market gardener where he goes to
procure his plants, that the Spring is the
proper time to plant Strawberries. He
has read of the wonderful crops obtained
the next year from plants set out in the
fall, and he can't think of losing a whole
year So the plants are procured, and
with much patient care and time spent in
watering and nursing them, few are
persuaded to live, and some even make a
feeble growth. The next Spring, the
Strawberry patch presents a rather un-
promising appearance, with here and there
a feeble looking plant, and huge intervals
OF empty space in the rows. Still the
hopeful proprietor is sanguine of at least
part of crop. He is sure he has
earned it, as he has spent deal of labor
and done everything laid down in the
books to insure success. Great is his dis
appointment to find his crop of fruit barely
taste for the neighboring Catbird or
Robin. Still he is not ready to give the
matter up. He is determined that all the
hard labor he has bestowed in digging and
trenching and hoeing and watering and
wedding, and money spent for plants and
for phosphatcs and fertilizers, shall not be
thrown away. He thinks the fall must
have been too dry, or the winter too Sc
we're, or the spring too unfavorable, and
the crop will be sure thing next year.
Accordingly he goes to work as soon as a
Few runners have taken root to fill UP the
gaps in his rows. He finds now the soil
hard and unpromising in appearance, and
the plants now set out have even a harder
struggle for existence than their predeces-
So sors. The prospect is not encouraging.
Inc owner finds vast amount of tedious
labor necessary to save his Strawberries
from being choked to death with other
vegetation. All the weeds known and
unknown persist in growing there; and
all the grasses, cultivated and uncultiyated
spring up from the manure used as a
mulch, to use homely expression. as
thick as the hair on dog. For time.
the warfare against these is doggedly kent
up. but human patience has its limit. BY
and by the idea of Strawberries becomes
associated in his mind with unpleasant re-
collections of fatiguing and Improbable
toll and the Strawberry patch finally
abandoned to its fate, becomes a sod. The |
owner avoids its sight as much as pos
slble. Strawberries are a humbue, his
mind is made up about that, and he never
wants to hear the word mentioned.
When the Strawberry season comes round
again and the good wife comes to look for
he long wished for fruit, she is rewarded
litter much patient research, of the sight
ieep down amongst the clover, of a few
pale acid berries. A crop of grass is
gathered instead of y crop of Strawberries,
md thus the experiment is ended. In
nineteen cases out of twenty of the at
empts to grow Strawberries this is about
he result.
The main cause of failure in this case.
Vas' as | have said, planting in the wrong
eason of the year. Had this man been
Wiling to wait till Spring, and been con-
ented to obtain full crop of fruit the
blowing year, he would no doubt have
'und, that Strawberries require deal of !
'ork, but with a quarter of the labor ac-
lally bestowed, he would have had crop
least sufficient to have encouraged fur :
Ter efforts.
l have mentioned this cause of failure {
nrticularly because have noticed it to t
more common than any other. There t
70 OF course many other mistakes that 3
'e commonly made, WHICH | have not n
me to speak Of. n
Next to the season of planting, the c
ost important matter and about which h
g most mistakes are made, is in obtain I
g the proper varieties. Some will have Il
lly certain sort, that they have seen II