The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-07-02
horticulture.
strawberry GROWING AT THE SOUTH.
Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer.

The strawberry IS not as easy 80
raise at the South as it is at the
North. Weeds and grass are more
rampant under Southern suns than
in cooler regions, requiring more cul-
tivation. There are also fewer varie-
ties that succeed at the South. In
deed the strawberry is an exotic on
the alluvial lands of the far South.
It's natural home is amid the hills of
the central part of the country. In
fact this fruit is singularly partial
to hills. There is not, I believe, a
hill country in the world in which it
is not found growing in a wild state.
In the torrid zone it has to climb
higher to find it's habitat, being
found there on the mountain slopes.
Though if the strawberry calls for
more Judgment and labor from the
Southern grower, it also, as a rule,
yields him far more profit than it
does his Northern brother. The ear
illness with which his fruit ripens
and the quickness and cheapness of
transportation in refrigerator cars,
enables him to reach a comparatively
bare market and usually to realize
good prices.
But to avail himself of this ad-
vantage he must, as above stated,
have the right varieties and Guilt
vate them right. A great many of
the finest varieties of strawberries
do not succeed very far South. Some
very large kinds that do thrive there
are too soft to bear the long trans
pOrtatiOn necessary to reach North
ern markets. Firmness is not as
essential as it was before the perfec-
ton of refrigerator transportation.
of shipment can now be carried
safely. Still it is a most valuable
quality when combined with other
good ones, such as prOductiveness,
size and color.
The Hoffman is the ideal Southern
shipping berry. With large size it
combines unsurpassed frmness and
briIliancy of ~cOlOring and extreme
earliness. The plants are vigorous
and uncommonly free from disease.
While not as productive as the Lady
Thompson the high prices and good
profits realized for years on the Hoff-
man at Charleston proves it's very
great value.
No variety has ever set the world
agog as the Lady Thompson has.
The vigor, vitality and productive
ness of this variety is truly marvel
Gus, What is singular about it, that
these qualities seem to be on the in
crease instead of the wane as is the
case with nearly all new kinds.
The Lady Thompson will grow and
bear on soil too poor and thirsty to
produce any other variety with any
degree of success. And while many
quarrel with it's qualities, all plant
more or less of it.
Brapdywine combines much of
the frmness and brilliant cOlOring of
Hoffman with the productiveness of
the Lady Thompson. In size it SUI
passes either. Excepting the few
localities in which the Brandywine
plants are held not to thrive this is
one of the most profitable varieties
that can be grown at the South.
Brandywine differs from both Hoff-
man and Lady Thompson in that it
also does we'll at the North, the two
latter varieties being like fish out of
water when carried out of their nat
ural habitat-the South.
Excelsior, an extremely early
variety, is very similar to it's parent,
the Hoffman, but far more produc-
tive. Like Brandywine it succeeds
generally over the whole country,
except a few places at the far South
where the plant is not thrifty.
Newman is still planted by some
IOTlud growers WHO value l6 LOE us
fine shipping qualities. But few are
grown elsewhere.
Cloud, on account of it's remark
able healthfulness of plant growth,
is popular in many parts of the
South. 1t is a good sized, firm, we'll
colored berry and very productive
in some regions. 1t fails at the
North.
There are other varieties of straw.
berries that succeed at the South.
Those mentioned above are simply
the leading ones.
The Southern straw arrY grnMer