Rocky Ford enterprise., 1913-04-11


AK there is a question of sex
in the plants. This is also
true of many nurserymen,
and scores of growers are disappoint-
ed every year because the plants they
buy do not bear fruit.
The male plant in Strawberries ia
what is known as the staminate or bi.
sexual. a perfect Towering plant. The
female plant is known as the pistillate,
and unless 1t is planted along with the
btsexual, or male plant, 80 that they
can be pollenized they will yield no
fruit.
In the illustration 1t will be seen
that in the center of the bi-sexual
flowers the pistils are surrounded by
anthers. or bulb like protrusions,
which are filled with the fiower-like
substance called pollen, which is car.
ried to other pistils all over the patch,
and this fertilizes them and thus every
blossom becomes a berry. The illus
tration shows that none of those an
thers appear on the pistillate flowers.
We explain this matter fully 80 that
every one may understand how neces-
sary 1t is that one always should set
bi-sexual plants, and that where the
pistillate varieties also are chosen
they should be SO arranged that the
pollen of the bi-sexuals will reach the
bloom of the pistillate plants. In Or
der that complete pollenation may be
secured, we advise the setting of pis-
ullate varieties between rows of bi-
sexuals of the same season. Or, one
may set the pistillate varieties be-
tween bi-sexuals of an earlier and a
later season.
In arranging the plants, II you desire
to do 80. you may set one row of pis-
tillates. or two rows, or as many as
three rows Of pistillates, between the
two rows of btsexuals, as pollen Will
be easily carried over several rows Of
plants. AS pistillate varieties fire.
Quently are the heaviest of yielders
Let us consider at the outset the
matter of soil. and let it be under
stood that strawberries will grow sue
cessfully under as great a variety Of
conditions as will potatoes or turnips
or cabbage. or any other of the com
monest sorts of vegetables or grains.
In word, your soil is Just the kind
of soil in which to grow Strawberries
whether 1t be sand. sandy loan, clay
loan, clay, black prairie soil, or vol
canic ash.
The Soil a Feeding Trough.
Indeed, the soil may be likened to a
feeding trough. 1t doesn't make any
difference whether you feed the hogs
from an oak trough or pine trough
the result would be Identical In either
case. The soil is only a medium
through which the plants receive their
food.
Therefore, the important thing for
the grower to do is to see that his
soil, whatever its nature, is properly
supplied with the elements necessary
to the feeding and growth of the
plants. Once we get this thought
clearly in mind the whole matter of
crop production is simplified, and each
grower may be confident that his soil
will do just as well as anybody else's
soil If 1t be in the proper condition for
the sustenance and development OF
plant life.
Barnyard manure is one of the
strawberry growers most valuable
assets Therefore, he should give
great dtteutiOu 10 conserving tnlS Ter
tility and seeing to 1t that 1t is prop
erly applied to the soil.
After the manure is spread comes
the breaking up of the soil. In doing
this work be careful, to see that every
particle of hard soil is worked up and
into as mellow state as 1t is pos
sible to get 1t. The depth to which
one should plow depends upon the ma
ture and formation of the soil.
Where the soil is deep one may 60
as deeply as eight inches. but in shall
lower soils the depth should not ex-
ceed from four to six inches
For our present purpose we shall
consider the three soils most common
the world over. namely, those In which
clay predominates, those having a
sandy nature. and the so-called black
soil. In the mere matter of furnishing
plant food to these soils the methods
we have referred to will do for all of
them, but from the mechanical point
OF view the treatment will be quite
different.
How to Treat Sandy Soils.
In the case of soils where the sandy
quality predominates. the surface
should be rolled and thoroughly com