The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1879-10-16
Yearly Renewal Of strawberry Beds.

You refer to some remarks of mine
with regard to the yearly renewal of
strawberry beds. With your consent l
will give the plan which seems to me
to be the best after many years of ex-
perience. have repeatedly tried both
fall and spring setting, but much pre-
fer the latter. With the former 1 have
sometimes been very successful, but
with the latter have never had a fail
ure. select a piece of sandy loan
that is in a high state of cultivation,
preferring it should be rather moist
than too dry; still no water must ever
stand upon the ground or about the
roots of the plants if you are to have a
large crop. Plow deep and manure
heavily. Have the land in first-rate
condition in every way. When the
plants are just starting in the spring,
we take them up and reset in the new
beds. We take strong, healthy plants,
being more careful with regard to the
roots than the tops. The ground is
way, and the plants set where the
lines cross. This, Of course, makes
them in rows each way, which renders
the cultivation very easy.
"But,' said a friend who was visit
ing me not long since, 81 should not
think that you, with your system of
high cultivation, could afford to give
two years to one crop of strawberries
even though it might be large one"
1 do not think so either; and in order
to make the land pay its way the first
season we have some large early cab
bage plants, and generally set them in
every second space. For this the Jer-
sey Wakefield is preferred; Being set
in every second space, they are, of
course, four feet between the rows, and
may be only sixteen to eighteen inches
apart in the rows. The ground being
very rich they are brought forward very
fast. They grow nicely together until
the latter part of July or first part OF
August, when the strawberry plants
are throwing out runners very rapidly.
But the roots are pulled out, the ground
put in the best of order, the runners
trained in every direction about the
plant. The cabbage has paid nicely
for the seasons work upon the straw
berries, and we can afford to help them
!
weeds are allowed to grow, and by the
time winter sets in they are sheet Of
the most beautiful dark green that car
be imagined.
Just as the ground freezes up for the
winter they are mulched about one incl
deep. / do not like straw for covering
because there are more or less fou
seeds in it that come up early in the
spring, and sometimes annoy us very
much. 1 prefer either marsh hay Of
pine leaves. The next spring the Gov
ering is taken off, and another coat Of
well-rotted manure put on the top O
the ground. We often use ashes for The
spring dressing, and like it very much
We put on about seventy-five to one
hundred bushels of unleached ashes
per acre; if leached, considerably more
than that. The plants now come for
ward with great rapidity, and by thu
middle of May are about as beautiful
sight as a strawberry grower can desire
to see. From this time on they arr
watched with great care. All weed
and grass are carefully taken out. L
they are more than usually full of bios
SONS another coat of fine manure is pu
on to prevent the plants from becoming
too much exhausted before the last o
the fruit is picked. If the weather i
too dry for them they are watered arti
ficially. In short, nothing is left un
done that we know how to do to secure
an immense yield. and we rarely fail. /
! In the summer of 1875, by this sys
TEN, we picked from an exact quarte
of an acre 2,571 quarts of merchantabl'
berries. This was at the rate of 446.
bushels per acre. I cultivate chief.
the Wilson, and find that when the.
have borne one of these very larg'
crops the plants are SO completely ex
hausted that we can never get anything
more than a very moderate crop of in
different fruit afterward, consequent.
i we turn it over Immediately after til,
4 last berries are picked, and again set j
with cabbage; and in this manner VI
get three good crops in the two year
instead Of one. One need not ofneces