The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1890-05-07


ter of plants and manner of setting them out l
will not take time to speak, While of great i'm
portance every practical tier of the soil knows
what is needed or can easily learn by a little in
quiry.
Inow wish to speak of plan for practical and
comparatively cheap irrigation OF the beds, and
one which propose to try on an acre now have
out at CampvilIe, Florida, five miles north OF
Hawthorne 1t must be fully understood that
every field put out in strawberries ought to be
most thoroughly ditched and drained, even if on
the top of a HILL as mine are, with a flow OF water
in all directions Then the land should be thrown
up in BEDS some say ten feet wide, but 1 think
thirty feet wide is well enough on land similar to
my own. My beds slope to the southeast slight
ly and propose to put down q drive well at the
upper end of the beds and use pitcher pump at
the intersection of each two beds, or say every
sixty feet Down the middle OF each bed / pro-
pose to place well made plank trough made of
two ten inch pine plank set with a level on cross
ties, similar plan to railroad track, only on a
small scale. In this trough 1 will bore half inch
auger holes near the bottom, every twenty in
ches, down the entire length on each side of the
trough alternately, and as the upper end OF my
bed gets wet and the plants seem supplied with
water, pass along and insert Corks in the 1ger
holes, thus forcing the stream to pass farther
down the bed to find an outlet. Thus until the
whole bed is supplied. Then transfer the stream
of water from the pump to the adjoining bed and
do likewise. When two beds wet down, trans
fer the pump to the other well and go ahead.
cheap man to pump day after day, while the
owner overseer devotes his time to cultivation
or other matters and helps distribute the water.
l trust shall be able to show this plan in prac-
tical operation next winter.
The protection of berries from frost is another
matter of great Importance. The simplest and
l think the most effective means, that [ have
learned OTIS the placing of small handful ofpine
straw and wire grass over each plant, berries and
all, the night frost is expected. Close, careful
attention to this method am cert ain will meet
with success.
The proper handling, sorting and packing of
berries for market is of very great Importance
and often makes the difference between large and
small or perhaps no profits at this business.
Picking the berries by their stem and not touch
ing the surface of the berry with the finger, in
sures perfect condition. Sort out all poor, speck
ed fruit and if sold at ALL sell it by itself. Do
not try mixing the good with poor berries in or
der to make the sell the other. Do not send
over-ripe fruit to q distant market. Get the
berries into refrigerator to cool off before
the final packing for shipment
The question of mulchng in the field has been
of diversity of experience and opinion.
White crickets, bugs and cut worms seem to har-
Dor freely under the mulch and eat freely of the
crop. The great claim for mulching is that it
keeps the ground damp and keeps the sand from
the berries. By means of the irrigation 1 pro-
pose the first will not be necessary If berries
sandy, the bestcOn trivance have yet seen is
small sieve made of double thickness of mo-
squito netting in which the berries can be gently
shaken and rolled about q moment and rolled
our leading strawberry raisers incline to put an
endto mulching
Mr.. PHELPs.-We would like to have
Mr.. Breese say why he put lime on the
soil?
Mr.. BREEsE.-The understanding that
| have in regard to the use of lime in case
of new soil, is that turning up the vege-
table matter in the soil has a sour. cOndi-
ton that the lime counteracts. The
lime has the effect of eating up or doing
away with that sour or inert condition
of the soil which exists, and but for the
action of the lime upon it the plan is
would fail to take hold and make use Of
the plant food in the soil. That issimply
my suppostion.