The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1884-05-01
Strawberries for Farmers.

I wish I could induce every farme
reader of this paper who does not grow
strawberries to appreciate the value Of
q strawberry patch. 1 believe there is
no fruit which combines so many ex-
cellent qualities. Delicious, healthful,
comparatively free from insect pests
and easily produced in all kinds of soils
what other luxury so cheap and yet so
good? 1t is perhaps creditable to
farmers that the use of strawberries is
rapidly growing popular among them;
yet it seems unjust that any person
having a patch of land should deprive
himself and family of a full allowance
of this delicious fruit during its fruiting
season.
The chief reason that strawberries
are not more generally grown by
farmers, is that the term strawberry
bed" often signifies something which
the ordinary, pushing farmer cannot
afford. The strawberry bed'' is as
ISOLATED with the flower garden, the
lawn and the grapery, rather than the
cabbage patch and the onion bed. In
other words, most farmers who do not
raise strawberries for family use believe
that their production requires a vast
amount of skill, patience and labor
more than they can afford. This is by
no means the case. Every person who
can have a cabbage patch can also have
a strawberry patch, and the latter re-
quires nc more brains, patience or labor
than the former. Indeed those who
are accustomed to growing straw
berries in plenty for home use would
drop the cabbage patch rather than the
strawberry patch.
The modern strawberry bed, instead
of meaning a very small, raised plat of
ground in the garden among the flowers
and shrubbery, as it often existed in old
fashioned gardens, signifies a good
sized piece of ground where strawberry
plants are set out and cultivated with a
horse as we cultivate the corn and cab
bages. AS labor is the chief item of
expense in growing garden products, it
is important to practice a cheap system
of growing Strawberries. MY system
the chief merit of which is economy and
cheapness-is as follows:
I set out a strawberry patch every
year in the spring as early as practical
bic, usually during April. 1 do not ex-
pect to obtain but one crop from a
planting, although occasionally the
plants are left to bear two crops. The
advantages of this 'sone-crop PLAN are
that the first crop is nearly always the
best, and that to preserve a bed to
produce more than one crop requires
too much labor in order to thoroughly
clean the soil of grass and weeds, and
about the plants. By sitting out a
patch every spring and blowing down
another one every year after it has
produce a full crop of fine, large ber-
ries, and the expense for wedding and
cultivation is trifiing.
/ plant in rows three and a half fee:
apart, and the plants are one foot apart
in the row 1 keep the soil clean, loose
and open by frequent cultivation and
the use of the hoe. No runners are cut,
but they are allowed to take root along
the line of the rows. Late in the season
the c%ultivator teeth are narrowed up
and the runners are allowed to form
matted rows a foot or eighteen inches
wide. Late in autumn after the ground
freezes hard enough to hold up a team,
the entire bed is covered over with
clean wheat Or rye straw. My rule is
to cover just enough to hide the soil
and plants from view. In the spring
after the frost is but of the ground, the
straw covering is raked into a light
winrow between each two rows OF
plants and left there to remain to keep
down grass and weeds and prevent tn
soil from becoming dry. This is all tn,
labor required before the fruit ripens,
unless it be to pass over the bed an,
pull, out a few weeds which may make
their appearance. l believe this to be
the best system for those who have
plenty of land and on heavy Soils
! Tor. Country Gentleman.