Middletown transcript., 1898-09-03

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A NOVEL ENTERPRISE.

fine Strawberries In August From Ice
Covered Beds.
Mention has recently been made in
The Rural New Yorker of very novel
enterprise, that of retarding the fruit
ing of strawberries by covering the beds
with ice, so that fine fruit is secured in
August. A correspondent of The Rural
visited the farm of Mr.. S. R. Divine,
Sullivan county, N. Y, where the ex-
pertinent occurred, on April IA and
again on Aug. 8, and these are ''cold
facts" which he reports:
April IA had walked over two over
coats of ice, in all 80 inches in thick
ness. On top Of this ice was covering
Of straw eight to ten inches thick. 1t
seemed to me then that the plants did
not have very comfortable quartersrfor
their long sleep. just three months and
two days later these same plants .insre-
turn for this cold charity are producing
large, fine favored fruit, all of which
proves more oonclusively that the limits
and capabilities of the strawberry
not yet known by any means.
visited Mr. Divine's place again, on
Aug. 8. There were at least 80 quarts
of ripe berries on the vines at this time.
The Marshall would give good pick
ing for at least ten days more. They
will thus fruit this variety under this
experiment for over one month. An
abundance of green berries Of allssizes
were yet on the vines. The color .oftthe
fruit was darker than I ever saw it be-
fore, and the flavor positively better
than any Marshall had ever eaten.
Brandywine would have plenty .-of
fruit for 12 or Is days to come. The
fruit, however, does not average as
large as the Marshall.
The Candy was about done fruiting,
and would not be as late as the Marshall
or Brandywine.
The Parker Earle and Warfeld had
quantity of ripe and green fruit on
their vines. 1t looked as though they
had not picked these varisties for a day
or more.
Mr.. Divine and Mr.. Swift who super
intended the work, gave me the follow
ing facts about tbs successful under
taking: The plants were set in June,
1897, and were pot grown plants that
had been kept in cold storage. They
were fruited in small way in Septem-
Der of that year, so that this is their
second year of fruiting. Mr.. Divine
thinks that they would bear even more
fruit next year than they did this The
plants were covered last fall after the
ground had frozen with about two
inches Of cornstalks and other litter.
There was one foot Of snow on the
ground Jan. 20, when they began put
ting on the first layer of ices which
was 16 inches in thickness. This work
was finished Feb. 5. Thus there were
az feet of ice on the plants. To be ex-
act, it took $50 tons Of ice to cover the
quarter of an acre. On top Of this ice
were put ~ tons of buckwheat straw,
etc., or a covering about eight to ten
inches deep. This was put n.between
Feb. 10 and 81, and nothing further
was done until my first visit April ID,
when an examination of the plants was
made, and everything looked favorable.
May 90 one row was uncovered and
of course the fruit from this row ripen-
ed some time before the rest Of the
rows. The covering of straw was re-
moved little at a time, making six
separate jobs of this work. On June 23
all the straw with some small pieces Of
ice on different portions of the patch
was removed. The ground was then
mulched. The first ripe fruit was picked
from the Marshall July 16. Aug. 8 the
ground was quite free from weeds.
The whole thing is a pronounced sue
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