Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-05-30
How | Grow Strawberries

aim to see how many acres we can
care for. but rather how many BUSH
els of strictly No. / berries We can
grow on a given area. We have made
IA local market for first-class fruit and
our customers have come to exnect
such fruit. For years we have been
growing and putting on the market
what has come to be known as MA
Dledel strawberries, Mapledell beinr
the name of our farm, and so closely
has this name become associated with
our berries that people living out of
town and not knowing where they are
grown think it the name of the berry,
and wonder why other people do not
grow that kind.
our soil is both light and heavy.
Some is a sandy loan, and some n
heavy clay loan. Inc former washed
up here by the Connecticut river ages
ago and the latter came down from
the mountains. We fruit our straw
berry beds but one season. and plow
the land as soon as the crop is off.
! sometimes sowing buckwheat which
we chop up with disk harrow in the
fall and let lay on the ground as Il
cover for the land through the winter,
or pillow and SOW to table beets for
winter use. These beets sown in July
make the finest winter beets. Growing
so quick they are very tender and
sweet.
After harvesting the beets late in the
fan we manure the land very heavily
with the best stable manure and pillow
again. This late blowing will destroy
any stray insects or grubs that may be
in the soil Again in the spring we
spread on more manure and cross pillow,
harrow and work the land until it is
fine and mellow, and then with a mark
er mark the rows 20 inches apart the
narrow way OF the field, and set lne
plants by line 12 feet the long way.
Thus our plants are rowed both ways,
20 inches by 3 IL feet.
We get plants from beds set ex-
pressly for plants on our own place,
and do not trust to plants that have
to be shipped if we can avoid it, This
is a very important matter, far more
so than many people imagine. Imme-
diately after the plants are set we go
both ways over the piece with wheel
hoe, with the Weeder attachment, which
hoes and rakes every inch of the
ground. leaving it as smooth and even
as if raked by hand. This is practi-
cally all the tool we use in our straw
berries during the season. If there are
any stones or clodS on the piece, we
rake them up and carry them off. We
can work right up to every plant and
by going over them once a week we
keep down every weed. AS these tools
go into the ground only about three
fourths of an inch, we always have a
light mulch which holds the moisture.
After the runners start to grow, we
cannot run the hoes through the mar
row way but keep them going the 9TH
er way. AS soon as there are Suffi-
cient runners we go through them and
stir up every inch of soil about the
plants, cut off all but two runners from
each plant and place one plant on each
side of the old plant, making row
each side the old one. This gives us
three rows of plants s to 10 inches
apart with the plants 20 inches apart
in each row. After these spaces are
filled we allow no more runners to
grow, but keep the ground clean from
weeds until winter.
BY this method every plant has plenty of
room for full development the weeds are
easily kept down and there is no crowd
ing of plants, as where the runners have
their own way. and half dozen plants
are crowded into the space of as many
inches. We use no horse or cultivator i'll
our Strawberries at any time after the
plants are set. The roots of the plants
can occupy all the land they like.
For month in winter we use coarse
horse manure, spread on the ky between
the rows and leave it on in the spring to
serve as mulch to keep the berries out Of
the dirt. In the spring do nothing to