THE STRAWBERRY.
In addition to the several vegetables enumerated in the preceding
pages, there is one of the small fruits that has taken such a
prominent place in what may be termed farm horticulture as to deserve
mention here. It is the strawberry.
This berry is, perhaps, the most popular small fruit in America, and
because of its perishable character, is one that requires strictly
local production. It cannot be shipped long distances without loss of
character and flavor, and hence the local grower will never be crowded
out of his own market.
The culture of the strawberry is simple and easy. There are many ways
of setting out plants, and the after-treatment also differs widely.
There will always be controversy concerning the respective merits of
the hill system and the matted row system. Each cultivator must decide
for himself which is the better.
For the farmer, whose acres are many and whose duties are pressing,
there is, perhaps, no better way than to set strawberries in rows 4
feet apart, with plants 2 feet apart in the row, and to allow the
plants to run together in the rows, giving sufficient attention to
keep the alleys well stirred and the whole bed clear of weeds. To set
an acre will require about 5,000 plants.
The winter covering of litter should be raked into the walks or alleys
as soon as winter is over and allowed to remain there as a mulch for
keeping the soil cool and damp and for the purpose of keeping the
berries clean.
[Illustration: New Twice-Bearing French Strawberry "Mammoth Perpetual."
For Description, see "Johnson & Stokes' Garden and Farm Manual."]
As soon as the crop is off, the bed should be plowed, turning
strawberries and litter under, and sweet corn or other quick crop at
once planted. This will insure the gathering of two crops in two
years; otherwise a strawberry crop means a two-years' use of the soil.
The setting out of a new strawberry bed every spring is good practice;
and it is altogether advisable for farmers to occasionally introduce
new varieties of strawberries on their farms, to replace old or
enfeebled sorts.
The profits of strawberry culture are quite large, the gross receipts
not infrequently running to $250 per acre. New boxes and crates are
advisable, and are distinctly profitable.
INDEX.
Page.
Asparagus 27
Bacteria 15, 19
Barnyard manure 10
Beans 33
Bedding plants 119
Beets 39
Bordeaux mixture 63
Borecole 91
Cabbage 42
Cantaloupe 97
Carrot 49
Celery 75
Citron 97
Cold frame 120
Crimson clover 20
Corn worm 55
Corrosive sublimate 64
Cucumber 85
Egg plant 88
Glass 119
Green manuring 19, 21, 22
Horseradish 56
Hot bed 119
Humus 14
Irrigation 17, 18, 62, 125
Kale 91
Kerosene emulsion 97
Legumes 19
Lettuce 92
Lime 9
Location, choice of 24
Marketing 24
Manure, storage 11
Manure, value of 13, 19
Melon louse 97
Melons 94
Mushrooms 99
Muskmelons 97
Onions 101
Oyster plant 58
Parsnip 57
Peas 108
Potato 59
Potato blight 63
Potato scab 63
Potato rot 63
Preservatives of manure 12
Pumpkin 65
Radish 110
Rhubarb 110
Ruta baga 72
Salsify 58
Salt 31
Sashes 119
Soil inoculation 36
Spinach 112
Squash 65
Strawberry 121
Swedes 72
Sweet potato 114
Tomatoes 66
Turnip 71
Waste products 17
Water cress 84
Whale-oil soap 97
Wood ashes 17
=Everybody Should Read our New Book=
=IRRIGATION
BY CHEAP MODERN METHODS=
=Double the Crops--Water will do it.
Strictly up-to-date. Fully Illustrated.=
=Tells you just what you want to know in just the way
you want to be told.=
There is something here for every farmer and gardener. That thing is a
sufficient water-supply. Irrigation makes deserts to rejoice and
gardens to blossom. Nature often withholds needed moisture at critical
times. Millions of dollars are lost annually through the uncertainties
of the weather. After reading this work you will be surprised at the
cheapness and practicability of irrigation, which will double the
production at an expense of from $10 to $1,000, just according to what
you want to spend, while it reduces soil culture to an exact science
and enables the tiller of the soil to work on schedule time.
For terms on which this book can be had, see our "Garden and Farm
Manual," which is sent free to all who write for it.
Compiled and published by
=JOHNSON & STOKES=
=..SEED GROWERS AND MERCHANTS..=
=217 and 219 Market Street Philadelphia, Pa.=
[Illustration: The Largest Seed Warehouse in the East
Nos. 217 and 219 Market Street, Philadelphia, Pa.]
Floracroft Seed Gardens and Trial Grounds
In order to get the best results from our efforts, and make sure that
customers shall receive from us the best seeds that the world
produces, we have for many years maintained and carried on extensive
trials at our Floracroft Seed Gardens and Trial Grounds, located about
nine miles from our city warehouses. All operations are under the
personal direction and management of one of our firm, who resides
there. Here are planted each season, for thorough trial, samples of
all "Novelties" offered by other seedsmen both in this country and
Europe, as well as anything which may be sent us, claimed to be new
and superior, by our amateur or market garden customers. By this means
we are enabled to satisfy ourselves of the true character and value of
any novelty before it can find a place in our catalogue.
Many acres are also devoted to the production of pedigree stock seed,
from which the seeds we offer are grown. We plant the best seeds
obtainable; then go over the crop, plant by plant, carefully
"rogueing" and destroying the inferior and selecting and saving only
the best. This stock seed from selected plants is sent to be grown on
our farms in localities where the conditions of soil and climate are
best adapted to the perfect development of the particular variety. It
is the product of such stock seed only that we offer for sale.
Here are also located our Seed Testing Houses, where a sample of every
lot of seed, whether grown by ourselves or grown for us under contract,
is thoroughly tested, in mother earth, for vitality and purity of stock,
and only those of satisfactory quality and germinating power are sold.
In fact, we leave no stone unturned to gain and hold the confidence of
all customers and secure them from disappointment.
=JOHNSON & STOKES=
=..SEEDSMEN..=
=217 and 219 Market Street, Philadelphia, Pa.=
[Illustration]
That grow into dollars for the professional market gardener will
also grow the choicest vegetables and flowers in the Home Garden.
=Our Garden and Farm Manual
Tells All About Them=
_It is Sent Free to Seed Buyers_
=Johnson & Stokes
217 and 219 Market Street
PHILADELPHIA, PA=.
Transcriber's Note
* Obvious punctuation and spelling errors repaired.
* Footnote moved to the end of the appropriate paragraph.
* Notes moved to the end of the appropriate section.
* Text enclosed between equal signs was in bold face in the
original (=bold=).