The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1879-08-15


ling, Forest Rose, Sharpless, Monarch
of the West, Springdale, Charnpipa, 10
which may be added Great Am"ri,:.
Durand's Beauty, Glendale, President
Lincoln and several others.
AS to modes of culture, growers differ.
There are, however, two general modes
| in use, one known as the hill system and
the other as the broadcast, or matted
row system. In the former the plants
are set in rows about 21z or feet apart
and the plants ~ to IS inches asunder,
all the intervening space being kept
ners removed as fast as they begin to
push out, so that all the strength of the
plant is expended in forming a large
stool or plant.
At the approach of winter the whole
surface is covered with mulch which
protects the plants from the changes of
winter and spring, and keeps the fruit
clean from sand and dirt. This mulch
may be allowed to remain on all sum-
mer to maintain an even temperature
and counterfeit the effects of drouth or
it may be removed and the soil stirred
as in other hoed crops, the runners all
the time being carefully cut off during
| thefseason.
The latter differs from this in allowing
the runners to grow and take root around
the parent forming mat of plants in
good seasons completely occupying
the whole of the space between
the rows. The treatment of the
plantation will be the same in
both cases until after the picking of the
fruit with the exception of the removal
of the vines in one case and the encour-
agement of their growth in the other,
wherein they should be carefully laid in
and induced to take root.
After the fruit is ripened and taken of,
go over the bed with very sharp scythe
and cut off all the foliage above the
mulch aud rake off all the cOarser part
of the mulch, leaves, vines, etc, and stake
it up for future use and dig up, or pillow
up your plantation if of size sufficient
to warrant the use of horse power,
all of the bed except a strip from to 12
inches wide of the new or young plants,
in the middle of the rows as laid out at
time of setting, the width of the strips be-
ing in proportion to the thickness with
which the plants have matted over the
surface, this strip being for the purpose
of seeding the ground with young plants,
which before fall ought to cover the en-
tire surface.
The care during the season will consist
in keeping the ground clear of weeds
with hoe or cultivator, pulling out by
hand such weeds rs stand in the narrow
row of plants left to make bed for next
year.
At the approach of winter, after the
ground has become frozen, cover with a
couple of inches of straw, Coarse stable
litter by some persons called manure or
prairie hay, and in the spring carefully
loosen the covering over the crown of
the plants so that the new growth may
come up through, and little more will
be necessary than to pull out any strawy
weed that may have the temerlty to try
to grow in your bed until the time to
gather the crop of berries.
The hill system is adapted to some va
rieties, in which the stool or old plant
endures from year to year, and has the
advantage of producing few very large
specimen berries; also in allowing the
surface to be mulched in the dry wealth
er of the fall months, when unmulched
ground suffers for want of moisture. On
the other hand, the bed or matted-row
system, while it may not produce so good
exhibition berries, gives a much greater
number of berries from given area of
ground, on account of having the whole
of the surface covered with plants, hence
yielding a greater profit for the ground
and labor expended. In one case sin
gle plant has allotted to it about three
square feet of surface, in the other meth
cd there will be 10 to 20 fruit producing
plants in the same area. The advantage
in labor is decidedly in favor of the
broadcast system, especially in large beds
where horse power can be made use of,
since the amount of hand wedding which
becomes necessary is much less than is
required to keep the runners removed in
the other method, besides the liability
of loss from grubs or other causes, makes
much larger holes in the beds when the
plants are wide than when they are closer.
One of the main essentials to success,
| however, consists. not so much on the
selection of varieties, the character ofthe
soil, or the method of culture adopted,
as upon the thOroughness with which
the work is done. The care of a straw
berry bed may be compared to the care
of a young child, it must hdce constant,
regular care, and just at the right time,
or it suffers. A fruit tree or shade
tree, when properly set, may be left for
days, or even at times for weeks, without
attention, but this kind of treatment will,
IN the case of strawberry bed, result in
failure. 1t requires daily, almost hourly
watching, when the task is comparative
ly light one, but once neglect it and
let the weeds get little the start of you,
or, if you have hill culture, the runners
begin to spread, you may as well give il
up-strawberry culture with you is
failure, and this is not good strawberry
country. But never for one moment
neglect your beds. Keep the soil well
enriched, loose and mellow, the weeds
all out, carefully remove or lay in your
runners, and you will be surprised at the
fine fruit you will be enabled to raise.
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