Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1875-06-25
Cultivation of Strawberries.

We find the following comprehensive
article on the cultivation of Strawberries in
the Vermont Watchman, presumably from
the pen of DR.. Hoskins, good authority.
So far as our observation extends, the
most common mistake made by those who
grow Strawberries in the garden, is in trying
to perpetuate the beds more than two years.
Nothing in a garden offers so fine chance for
weed seeds to collect and grow safely, as
strawberry bed. Even if the plants are kept
strictly in hills, aud the runners removed
with persistent care, dandeion, white clover
and grass will fiud protection under the
spreading leaves, and cause unlimited trou-
BILE in removing them. And in matted
bed Of plants and runners the case is very
much worse.
Next to weeds, drouth is the great foe of
the strawberry crop. Very often, even in
wet summer, we have two weeks or so of
dry, hot weather about the last of June aud
first OF july just when the berries are SWELL
ing aud ripening. This will much impair
the yield, and if it continues into the third
week, will cut off all the later berries.
Any plan of avoiding these two difficulties
will prove very advantageous to the straw
berry grower. We should, land do), obviate
them both first, by setting the plants this
spring for crop next year, and plowing
them up as soon as the crop is gathered hay.
ing set new bed somewhere else for the
succeeding year and, second, by having the
beds handy to water, either near the well or
by the side Of a brook, so that in case of
drouth they can be easily watered.
The plan Of taking but one crop from a
setting, may seem to some a wasteful one,
both of time and labor, but we have not
found it so on the contrary we practice it
to save time and labor. In very clean land,
or where hill-culture is practiced bed may
be allowed to stand another year, but the
crops always fall of after the first, while the
labor increases.
Too little attention is paid to the selection
Of plants for setting out a new bed, and also
to the work of setting them out. No old or
weak plants should ever bo used. Take al
ways the strongest plants of last years
growth. Young plants may be distinguished
from old ones by their yellow roots, the roots
of old plants being black. As to care in
setting strawberry plants, we feel rather dis
couraged in offering advice, since we find it
so difficult to induce would-be fruit growers
to take any proper care in setting fruit trees.
But it makes a very great difference in the
yield of strawberry bed, whether the roots
of the plants are jammed in together, in q
small hole, or spread out carefully, as they
grew.
Strawberries require rich soil all the bet
tel if it is naturally rather moist, 80 that it
be not wet, or the moisture stagnant Some
varieties require richer land than others. A
good crop of the Wilson's Albany Ithe most
common garden variety is not to be hoped
for on poor soil, though on rich one it
yields prOfusely On only moderately rich
land, especially If it is sandy, either the
Green Prolific or French's Seeding will be
found to yield better than the Wilson.
The best kind of manure for strawberry
bed is well rotted COW dung. A spoonful Of
good superphosphate scattered around each
plant, at the time of setting, will help to
give a vigorous growth. Ashes are also
beneficial on light soils.
Strawberries should be hoed as faithfully
as cabbages during the first year Of their
growth. If grown in hills the runners should
bo removed at each hoeing If in rows. the
runners should be pushed around, so as to
have the young plants root between aud along
side of the old ones. For all American
varieties We prefer the row system. The
foreign sorts usually do best in hills. But
many Of the new varieties are so much
crossed aud hybridlEed that each IsOrt re-
quires to be studied by itself as to its adap'
tation to one method or the other. If the
tendency Of the plant is to grow up out Oi
the ground, forming thigh crown, As mos
foreign sorts will, and especially If the BED
is to be preserved more than one or two
years, the hill system is the best, because