The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1895-02-12
STRAWBERRY PLANTING BY
MACHINE.
Mulching for Proft---Varieties That Did
Eest the Past Season.

GSSG the F&SG season.
Correspondence of the Progressive Farmer.
Rio VISTA, Va.
Having planted the past season most
OF my Strawberries by machinery, l
thought it would be of interest to the
readers of your journal to let them
know If it was success. can truly
say prefer the planting machine to
any other method I have tried. A
great many wondered if it could be
possible to plant strawberries, tobacco,
cabbage, tomatoes, ETC., by machine.
l say yes, and water them at the same
time. Well you say, how can it be
done, and what does a planter COST
1t would take up too much of your
space to tell all about this machine,
but will give your readers some idea.
It takes two horses or mules q use the
latter TO pull it. They go very slow at
first until the droppers get used to
handling the plants. They can be
planted 6. 10, Is, 18 inches apart, or as
much farther apart as you desire. It
the machine and two boys or men to
sit behind, putting in the plants. The
machine has two wide wheels, elevated
on top is barrel holding about 80 gal
Ions of water. There is a hose con-
nected with the barrel leading to the
ground, whereby the water can be let
out at the bottom of an opening that
is made by a cutler to insert the plants
1t opens the space, and as fast as two
hands, sitting on the back of the ma,
chine, can straighten out the roots and
hold them in position until hoe comes
along, opens in the center and presses
the dirt on each plant, not disturbing
the plant in the least, and the job is
done, and it leaves the land level and
bettes for cultivating ard hoeing than
anything have yet seen. This ma
chine of mine cost $50. and / am sure
it has more than paid for itself this
year in labor alone of planting. Well,
you say, how many acres per day will
such a machine plantf This rather de,
pends on how close you plant them in
the row, and how far your rows are
apart. Iplant strawberries from Is to
Is inches apart in the row, according
to the variety, and the rows 81 feet
apart for fruit. Keeping the beds
narrow, in this manner we plant about
acres per day. When the plants are
planted, say feet in the row. one man
would be plenty, and if the rows are 5
feet apart, twice as many acres can be
planted per day. We have boy who
gets the plants ready at the end of the
row, by laying them straight in little
box. These little boxes the planters
hold in their laps; in this way the ma.
chine is kept moving all the time, and
this is very important at this season of
the 3ear. I think my hands will be
able to do much better next season, as
they will now know better how to
handle the machine. Any one cau see
at a glance that by having a little
water at the bottom of the opening,
and the plants put in the moist ground
the instant the opening is made and
covered up, that it is almost impossible
to have plants die. I did not wait for
rain, but planted as soon as I was
ready. If rain comes, so much the
better, but your plants planted in this
way will stand quite drouth, and l
am confident plants planted by this
machine are much surer to grow than
by the old method.
MULOHING STRAWBERRIES.
Yes, the same old story every year.
with some too much trouble and ex-
pense. I saw the past season five
strawberries sold for 70 cents per crate,
and had to sell at that because they
were dirty. Had the same been clean
they would have sold readily for 90
per crate, estimating the crop at 100
crates per acre, which is small enough
for many of our new varieties, also
old ones will yield 300 crate; so we find
q loss of 81 % per acre, just for the
sake of spending say $40 per acre for
applying the mulch. Besides, by
mulching you keep the land moist
during a dry spell, and it will be a
poor year when mulching does not in
crease your crop 25 bushels of berries
per acre and fine berries. Growing
show berries without a mulch to keep
them clean, claim does not pay; so
il you have not already done it. there
is still time up few days of picking,
but the sooner the better. Your ber-
ries will not only be clean, but brighter.
If you doubt whst say, just leave