Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1915-06-27
Nebraska
DOWN IN STATES
SHORTCAKE ZONE
Finest and Largest Strawberries in
the World Are Grown in
Southeast Nebraska.
INFANT INDUSTRY IS GROWING

CialO-The soil Of southeastern Ne
braska is especially adapted to the
growing of fine strawberries. and
this industry at Stella has only had
its birth and at Brownville, the
greatest strawberry shipping point
in the state. is only out of it's swad-
ding clothes. However. while grow
ing strawberries commercially in
Stella is just beginning, w. d. Bry-
ant, local grower, this year is able
20 make his patch bear continuously
for six consecutive weeks.
Mr.. Bryant began picking berries May
! aud there will be berries in the patch
when July / comes. Tr5s ~ remarkable
when IL Is stated that the bearing life Of
the usual family patch IS often not over
two weeks. BY mulching newly with
straw, Mr.. Bryant was able to keep pa IT'S
of the patch from producing carly TO
keep It back as it were. The straw
berries were mostly Jumbo, with a fcw
Warfield and few Senator Dunlap.
Half Acre Yields $500.
Mr.. Bryant's patch is about half an
ncre-a plat sixty feet wide and $50 feet
long-within the corporate limits of the
town On July %, eighty-five crates had
been sold at 1914 cents a quart, making
a sum of over 500, all bought by the
SOCIAL groceries and restaurants
Part Of the Bryant patch is three years
DID, part two years and part one year.
The patch was increased with 600 new
plants this spring. The plants are set
eighteen riches apart in rows four feet
apart Cultivation is with a hand pillow
until the runners get too big, and then
the patch is kept clean by pulling the
weeds by hand.
Strawberries and Onions.
The biggest strawberry undertaking in
the community is being handled by ].
II. Overman. About a year ago he
Fought considerable cheap property in
bhe east part Of town, and had the
lground plowed In the fall. This spring
the ground was narrowed and then It
was rolled until It was smooth as
floor. He had the roller made here in
the town. It Is a tin can two feet long
and one foot in diameter, filled with ce-
ment and weighing 300 pounds. An iron rod
with threads on the end, runs through
the center of the cement, and to this
tod shafts are attached SO a horse can
be hitched TO tho roller
Mr. Overman set out G.S00 plants, and
lver since the season opened has kept
} man busy every day that work can be
Zone in the patch. At the time of set
ling four men were employed daily. The
batch Is about two acIes-thirty-eight
rows, $50 feet long. The plants are
eighteen inches apart in rows five feet
lpart,
Mr. Overman is killing two birds with
)ne stone" or as 1t were, making two
blades of grass grow" where before
here was none. Part of his patch was
me of the most unkempt places In Stella,
md where weeds and slough grass
,hrived, now are growing fine rows of
Inons alongside of the strawberries.
sixteen bushels of onion sets were put
tut, in rows parallel with the strawberry
lows. Three rows OF onions are in the
i've feet between the strawberry rows.
The rows of onions are a foot apart and
each row of onions is a foot and
half from the strawberry row.
Profits VIII BE Large.
In normal seasons bushel of sets will
produce twenty bushels of onions, and
400 from his onions, as onions never sell
IN the local market at less than 81 a
pushed, and generally recall at cents a
pound. A small part OF the patch-in
Iize about a town lot-wes planted with
Inion seed. The harvest OF the onions
IN August will get them out Of the way
eh ample time for the runners to cover
he ground. The onion sets were put out
lbout April and a week later work was
begun to set the strawberry is5,l,ts.
Mr. Overman, who is postmaster has
become so deft handling Uncle Sans
parcels and reading young women's post
rards from their best fellows" that he
tan set two strawberry plants minute,
and his crew soon became experts in
swiftness. No soon were the plants set
than weed killing began and it will be
continued all summer long until not
D weed Is left.
Quart ia Each Plant.
Henry Freld, the Shenandoah, la,
goodman, and an authority on strawberry
culture. estimates that the plant set
one season will produce quart the next
by this he means the parent plant and
Ats runners. Accordingly II next season
Is normal, Mr., Oyerman would have $500
quarts of berries, which at 10 cents a
quart would be $3.50 from two acres. OF
course some Of the parent plants did not
live. but there will be enough runners to
practically cover the entire ground. The
first berries on the market in all prob
ability will sell at from 1919 cents to u
cents a quart.
This has been a splendid season in
many respects for strawberries and I'M
favorable in other ways. Plenty Of rain
made new plants grow well. unless they
were washed out or washed over with
dirt; plenty Of rain prolonged the sea-
son, and made the berries grow large,
but in some patches occasionally It was
too wet for picking and sometimes tho
berries were covered within I'D.
Industry Has Great Future.
There Is big future for the commerce.
al strawberry grower in southeastern Ne
braska. Two home growers supplied the
town of stella. Oscar Mason in the coun,
try sold TO his neighbors. His patch, thc
size of a town lot producet $50 worth Of
berries. At Shubert, five miles east OF
Stella, Arthur NJ. Shubert president OF
the Central Fruit Growers Association
had half acre patch, the only patch OF
any size I'm that locality, and he was un.