The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1902-06-24
horticulture.
SUMNER WORK ON A strawberry
FARM.
Cor. of The Progressive Farmer.

VA ~ @G "C@
which, after more than twenty years
experience, we have adopted as best on
our strawberry farms. While this sys-
tenn can be modified to suit the condi-
tions prevailing in different localities,
I believe that it will be found applica-
bic to a large portion of the country.
Strawberry fields that have borne
two crops are plowed under and sowed
In COW peas. And we would impress
on all that success with the COW pea,
this ~unrivalled soil improver, depends
largely on the way it is planted. 1t is
nearly always covered too deep, the
custom being to SOW broadcast and
pillow under with turning plows. The
result of this deep covering is that
the peas are late in forcing their way
up through the soil and that a great
many, often the larger proportion,
never come up at all.
IF peas are to be b~roadcasted the
land should be plowed first, the peas
then evenly sown at the rate of six to
eight pecks to the acre and worked in
with a disk harrow. This narrowing
not only covers the peas just the right
depth, n to two inches, but at the
same time converts the soil into an
ideal seed bed.
As a rule We prefer to SOW peas in
rows or lists. This requires only n
bushel of seed an acre. Break up the
old strawberry bed or field, and harrow
if cloddy or turfy. The cow pea,
while exceedingly hardy when well es-
tablished, requires favorable condi-
tions of soil to start it off.
Well, the soil well narrowed run off
the rows three feet apart and SOW the
peas evenly. Cover then by means of
a small tooth c~ultivator. To make the
cu~ltivator effective in this respect, re-
move all but the two side teeth. Then
run so that these teeth will run on
each side of the furrow in which the
peas have been sown and near enough
thereto to throw an inch or two of dirt
on the seed.
Land titled this way will need no
hoe work. Two plowings with a cult
vator will suffice to make a good crop.
Skillful and timely blowing of the
peas will keep dowr the crab grass till
the pea vines get large enough t.
smother it out. This is a most desir-
able thing, for the less crab grass seed
that fo1ms ibis summer the less crab
grass to fight amid the strawberry
plants next summer. And it is i'm
mensely easier and cheaper to kill it
with a pillow now among the peas than
with fingers and hoe amid the straw
berry runner a year later. I have
kept pea fields so clean of grass for
two summers that when planted in
Strawberries the third year scarcely
any crab grass at all came. This vast
ly simplifed and cheapened the cult
walton of the Strawberries.
Whether drilled or broadcasted the
pea vines should be turned under or
cut for forage just as the pea forms.
If the vines are cut the stubble should
at once be plowed under. Some allow
most of the peas to ripen, pick them
and then cut or turn under the vines.
But a field will give better results in
berries when the vines are cut or
plowed under before the pea natures.
Maturing seed is the process that ex-
hausts the soil with peas as with other
crops.
The peas or the stubble turned I'M
der in September, the land may be pre-
pared and again set in plants as soon
as rains come to get the soil in good
condition.
So much as to the fields hat are to
be plowed under, rotated in peas, and
reset In Strawberries the following fall.
Now as to ~cultivating a field that has
borne only one crop and which it is
desired to prepare for a crop the fol-
lowing spring. Bar off the rows with
a turning pillow leaving a strip about
one foot wide. If the plants have been
grown in stools or hills work them out
nicely. If the matted system has been
followed chop out the plants leaving
a single chop out the unplowed strip;
chop the plant about a foot to a foot
chop the plants about a foot to a foot
1000 pounds cotton seed meal an acre
on each side of the plants and in the
furrOw made in barring off and at
once v the meal by splitting the
middles, which will throw the dirt back