The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-02-26
No 3
Horticulture.
CULTURE-MARCH WORK

Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer
There are probably more straw
berry plants set in March in the
United States than during any other
month of the year. Therefore we
shall devote this months article
largely to that part of strawberry
culture.
Break the land about six inches
deep. It can be subsoiled by rum
ming either regular subsoil plow or
an ordinary plow minus the wing,
in the furrow behind the breaking
or turning plow. All of this plowing
can we'll be done the winter or late
fall preceding. If so, disk harrow
run over just before planting time
leaves the soil in excellent condi-
tiOn. While Of great service on
cloddy or rough land of any kind the
harrow can be dispensed with.
If stable manure is to be used it
should be evenly scattered over the
land and plowed or narrowed in.
While stable manure is not COM
plete fertilizer for Strawberries it is
of the highest value when supple
mented with other manures rich in
the properties in which stable ma
nure is comparatively poor. These
properties, potash and phOsphoric
acid, can later on be applied in the
form of kainit or sulphate of potash
and acid phosphate.
If enough stable manure is thus
applied, say fifty loads or more an
acre, no fertilizer need be applied be-
fore planting. If none or not enough,
cotton seed meal at Ohe rate of 500 to
700 pounds per acre should be used, as
the land is poorer or richer. Run
off the rows three feet apart as
straight and uniform as possible.
Sow this in the drill and mix with
the soil by running light cultivator
down the row. List on this with a
furrOw from each side. Knock this
list or low bed down nearly even
with the field by means of hoes, or a
rough wooden implement shaped
like a plOw can be made to be pulled
by a horse. This plow-shaped i'm
pIement has, instead of wing or
point, piece of board about foot
long nailed to the wooden share at
right angles to the beam. With it
these lists or beds can be knocked off
as fast as a horse can walk, and left
low or high according to the weight
thrown on the handles.
On this low bed the plants should
be set from twelve to eighteen inches
apart, according as the soil is poor or
rich, and the variety is a moderate
or luxuriant grower. This distance
that all runners shall be
clipped and the plants grown in
stools. If the matted row system
(non-sy stem is the usual result Of
this plan) is to be followed set the
plants two feet apart in row.
Some growers have the rows four
feet apart and set the plants only one
foot apart for matted rows. There
is one very serious objection to this.
On wide rows like this the plants are
almost sure to form such broad bed
that the pickers walking in the mid
dies trample the beds in reaching
across to get the berries
So much for planting. Now as to
other March work. There need be
no lack of it. It is, or should be
generally, month Of action-the
very wind gives this hint and by it's
keen edge spurs US into activity.
March is the month to kill the
weeds in the fields, planted the spring
before and now soon to come into
bearing. Be not deceived by their
meek and lOwly appearance at this
period. A weed apparently as inno-
cent as lamb, is in fact crouching
lion, biding it's time, watching it's
chance to devOUr. There is some
thing sentient, nay diabolic in the
humility with which it hugs the
ground till the hoes are hung up, the
liberal top dressing of fertilizers ap-
piled and the mulch put on over all.
Then it knows that it's time has
come-that it is master. For if the
acreage is large hand wedding is out
of the question. Then it casts off
innocence and no longer clotheth it.
self in the garment of humility. It
upward and spreadeth out
ward and pusheth downward, and if