STRAWBERRIES
There is a very general impression that light, dry, sandy soils are the
best for the strawberry. Just the reverse of this is true. In its
desire for moisture it is almost an aquatic plant. Experienced
horticulturists have learned to recognize this truth, which the Hon.
Marshall P. Wilder has suggested in the following piquant manner: "In
the first place, the strawberry's chief need is a great deal of water.
In the second place, it needs more water. In the third place, I think I
should give it a great deal more water."
While emphasizing this truth the reader should at the same time be
warned against land whereon water stands above the surface in winter
and spring, or stagnates beneath the surface at any time. Moisture is
essential to the best results; good drainage is equally so. The
marvellous crops of strawberries raised in California under
well-directed systems of irrigation should teach us useful lessons. The
plants, instead of producing a partially developed crop within a few
brief days, continue in bearing through weeks and months. It may often
be possible to supply abundantly on the Home Acre this vital
requirement of moisture, and I shall refer to this point further on.
My first advice in regard to strawberries is to set them out
immediately almost anywhere except upon land so recently in grass that
the sod is still undecayed. This course is better than not to have the
fruit at all, or to wait for it A year without strawberries is a lost
year in one serious respect. While there is a wide difference between
what plants can do under unfavorable conditions and what they can be
made to do when their needs are fully met, they will probably in any
event yield a fair supply of delicious fruit. Secure this as soon as
possible. At the same time remember that a plant of a good variety is a
genius capable of wonderful development. In ordinary circumstances it
is like the "mute, inglorious" poets whose enforced limitations were
lamented by the poet Gray; but when its innate powers and gifts are
fully nourished it expands into surprising proportions, sends up
hundreds of flowers, which are followed by ruby gems of fruit whose
exquisite flavor is only surpassed by its beauty. No such concentrated
ambrosia ever graced the feasts of the Olympian gods, for they were
restricted to the humble Fragaria vesca, or Alpine species. In
discovering the New World, Columbus also discovered the true
strawberry, and died without the knowledge of this result of his
achievement.
I can imagine the expression on the faces of those who buy the "sour,
crude, half-ripe Wilsons," against which the poet Bryant inveighed so
justly. The market is flooded with this fruit because it bears
transportation about as well as would marbles. Yes, they are
strawberries; choke-pears and Seckels belong to the same species. There
is truth enough in my exaggeration to warrant the assertion that if we
would enjoy the possible strawberry, we must raise it ourselves, and
pick it when fully matured--ready for the table, and not for market.
Then any man's garden can furnish something better than was found in
Eden.
Having started a strawberry-patch without loss of time wherever it is
handiest, we can now give our attention to the formation of an ideal
bed. In this instance we must shun the shade of trees above, and their
roots beneath. The land should be open to the sky, and the sun free to
practice his alchemy on the fruit the greater part of the day. The most
favorable soil is a sandy loam, verging toward clay; and it should have
been under cultivation sufficiently long to destroy all roots of grass
and perennial weeds. Put on the fertilizer with a free hand. If it is
barnyard manure, the rate of sixty tons to the acre is not in excess. A
strawberry plant has a large appetite and excellent digestion. It
prefers decidedly manure from the cow-stable, though that from the
horse-stable answers very well; but it is not advisable to incorporate
it with the soil in its raw, unfermented state, and then to plant
immediately. The ground can scarcely be too rich for strawberries, but
it may easily be overheated and stimulated. In fertilizing, ever keep
in mind the two great requisites--moisture and coolness. Manure from
the horse-stable, therefore, is almost doubled in value as well as bulk
if composted with leaves, muck, or sods, and allowed to decay before
being used.
Next to enriching the soil, the most important step is to deepen it. If
a plow is used, sink it to the beam, and run it twice in a furrow. If a
lifting subsoil-plow can follow, all the better. Strawberry roots have
been traced two feet below the surface.
If the situation of the plot does not admit the use of a plow, let the
gardener begin at one side and trench the area to at least the depth of
eighteen inches, taking pains to mix the surface, subsoil, and
fertilizer evenly and thoroughly. A small plot thus treated will yield
as much as one three or four times as large. One of the chief
advantages of thus deepening the soil is that the plants are insured
against their worst enemy--drought. How often I have seen beds in early
June languishing for moisture, the fruit trusses lying on the ground,
fainting under their burden, and the berries ripening prematurely into
little more than diminutive collections of seeds! When ground has been
deepened as I have said, the drought must be almost unparalleled to
arrest the development of the fruit. Even in the most favorable
seasons, hard, shallow soils give but a brief period of strawberries,
the fruit ripens all at once, and although the first berries may be of
good size, the later ones dwindle until they are scarcely larger than
peas. Be sure to have a deep, mellow soil beneath the plants.
Such a bed can be made in either spring or fall--indeed, at any time
when the soil is free from frost, and neither too wet nor dry. I do not
believe in preparing and fertilizing ground during a period of drought.
We will suppose the work has been done in the spring, as early as the
earth was dry enough to crumble freely, and that the surface of the bed
is smooth, mellow, and ready for the plants. Stretch a garden line down
the length of the plot two feet from the outer edge, and set the plants
along the line one foot apart from each other. Let the roots be spread
out, not buried in a mat, the earth pressed FIRMLY against them, and
the crown of the plant be exactly even with the surface of the soil,
which should also be pressed closely around it with the fingers. This
may seem minute detail, yet much dismal experience proves it to be
essential. I have employed scores of men, and the great majority at
first would either bury the crowns out of sight, or else leave part of
the roots exposed, and the remainder so loose in the soil that a sharp
gale would blow the plants away. There is no one so economical of time
as the hired man whose time is paid for. He is ever bent on saving a
minute or half-minute in this kind of work. On one occasion I had to
reset a good part of an acre on which my men had saved time in
planting. If I had asked them to save the plants in the year of '86,
they might have "struck."
The first row having been set out, I advise that the line be moved
forward three feet. This would make the rows three feet apart--not too
far in ground prepared as described, and in view of the subsequent
method of cultivation. The bed may therefore be filled up in this
ratio, the plants one foot apart in the row, and the rows three feet
apart. The next point in my system, for the kind of soil named (for
light, sandy soils another plan will be indicated), is to regard each
plant as an individual that is to be developed to the utmost. Of course
only young plants of the previous season's growth should be used. If a
plant has old, woody, black roots, throw it away. Plants set out in
April will begin to blossom in May. These buds and blossoms should be
picked off ruthlessly as soon as they appear. Never does avarice
overreach itself more completely than when plants are permitted to bear
the same season in which they are set out. The young, half-established
plant is drained of its vitality in producing a little imperfect fruit;
yet this is permitted even by farmers who would hold up their hands at
the idea of harnessing a colt to a plow.
The plants do not know anything about our purpose in regard to them.
They merely seek to follow the law of Nature to propagate themselves,
first by seeds which, strictly speaking, are the fruit, and then by
runners. These slender, tendril-like growths begin to appear early in
summer, and if left unchecked will mat the ground about the parent with
young plants by late autumn. If we wish plants, let them grow by all
means; but if fruit is our object, why should we let them grow?
"Because nearly every one seems to do it," would be, perhaps, the most
rational answer. This is a mistake, for many are beginning to take just
the opposite course even when growing strawberries by the acre.
Let us fix our attention on a single plant. It has a certain amount of
root pasturage and space in which to grow. Since it is not permitted to
produce an indefinite number of young plants, it begins to develop
itself. The soil is rich, the roots are busy, and there must be an
outlet. The original plant cannot form others, and therefore begins to
produce fruit-crowns for the coming year. All the sap, all the
increasing power of root and foliage, are directed to preparation for
fruit. In brief, we have got the plant in traces; it is pulling in the
direction we wish, it will eventually deliver a load of berries which
would surprise those who trust simply to Nature unguided.
Some one may object that this is a troublesome and expensive way of
growing strawberries. Do not the facts in the case prove the reverse? A
plant restricted to a single root can be hoed and worked around like a
hill of corn or a currant-bush. With comparatively little trouble the
ground between the rows can be kept clean and mellow. Under the common
system, which allows the runners to interlace and mat the ground, you
soon have an almost endless amount of hand-weeding to do, and even this
fails if white clover, sorrel, and certain grasses once get a start.
The system I advocate forbids neglect; the runners must be clipped off
as fast as they appear, and they continue to grow from June till frost;
but the actual labor of the year is reduced to a minimum. A little boy
or girl could keep a large bed clipped by the occasional use of a
shears or knife before breakfast; and if the ground between the plants
is free of runners, it can be hoed over in an hour. Considering,
therefore, merely the trouble and expense, the single-plant system has
the facts in its favor. But our object is not to grow strawberry plants
with the least trouble, but to have strawberries of the largest and
finest quality.
In addition to ease and thoroughness of cultivation, there are other
important advantages. The single narrow row of plants is more easily
protected against winter's frosts. Light, strawy manure from the
horse-stable serves well for this purpose; but it should be light and
free from heat. I have seen beds destroyed by too heavy a covering of
chunky, rank manure. It is not our purpose to keep the beds and plants
from freezing, but from alternately freezing and thawing. If snow fell
on the bed in December and lasted till April, no other protection would
be needed. Nature in this latitude has no sympathy for the careless
man. During the winter of 1885, in January, and again in February and
March, the ground was bare, unprotected plants were badly frozen, and
in many instances lifted partly out of the ground by midday thawing and
night freezing. The only safe course is to cover the rows thoroughly,
but not heavily, early in December. If then light stable-manure is not
at hand, leaves, old bean-vines, or any dry refuse from the garden not
containing injurious seeds will answer. Do not employ asparagus-tops,
which contain seed. Of course we want this vegetable, but not in the
strawberry bed. Like some persons out of their proper sphere, asparagus
may easily become a nuisance; and it will dispossess other growths of
their rights and places as serenely as a Knight of Labor. The proper
balance must be kept in the garden as well as in society; and therefore
it is important to cover our plants with something that will not
speedily become a usurper. Let it be a settled point, then, that the
narrow rows must be covered thoroughly out of sight with some light
material which will not rest with smothering weight on the plants or
leave among them injurious seeds. Light stable-manure is often objected
to for the reason that employing it is like sowing the ground with
grass-seed. If the plants had been allowed to grow in matted beds, I
would not use this material for a winter covering, unless it had been
allowed to heat sufficiently to destroy the grass and clover seed
contained in it. I have seen matted beds protected with stable-manure
that were fit to mow by June, the plants and fruit having been over run
with grass. No such result need follow if the plants are cultivated in
a single line, for then the manure can be raked off in early
spring--first of April in our latitude--and the ground cultivated.
There is a great advantage in employing light manure if the system I
advocate is followed, for the melting snows and rains carry the
richness of the fertilizer to the roots, and winter protection serves a
double purpose.
We will now consider the proper management for the second year, when a
full crop should be yielded. I know that many authorities frown upon
cultivation during the second spring, before plants bear their fruit. I
can not agree with this view, except in regard to very light soils, and
look upon it as a relic of the old theory that sandy land was the best
for strawberries. Take the soil under consideration, a sandy loam, for
instance. After the frost is out, the earth settled, and the winter
covering raked off, the soil under the spring sun grows hard, and by
June is almost as solid as a roadbed. Every one knows that land in such
condition suffers tenfold more severely from drought than if it were
light and mellow from cultivation. Perennial weeds that sprouted late
in the fall or early spring get a start, and by fruiting-time are
rampant. I do advocate EARLY spring cultivation, and by it I almost
double my crop, while at the same time maintaining a mastery over the
weeds.
As soon as the severe frosts are over, in April, I rake the coarsest of
the stable-manure from the plants, leaving the finer and decayed
portions as a fertilizer. Then, when the ground is dry enough to work,
I have a man weed out the rows, and if there are vacant spaces, fill in
the rows with young plants. The man then forks the ground lightly
between the rows, and stirs the surface merely among the plants. Thus
all the hard, sodden surface is loosened or scarified, and opened to
the reception of air and light, dew and rain. The man is charged
emphatically that in this cultivation he must not lift the plants or
disturb the roots to any extent. If I find a plant with its hold upon
the ground loosened, I know there has been careless work. Before
digging along the row the fork is sunk beside the plants to prevent the
soil from lifting in cakes, and the plants with them. In brief, pains
are taken that the plants should be just as firm in the soil after
cultivation as before. Let the reader carefully observe that this work
is done EARLY in April, while the plants are comparatively DORMANT.
Most emphatically it should not be done in May, after the blossoms
begin to appear. If the bed has been neglected till that time, the
SURFACE MERELY can be cultivated with a hoe. When the plants have
approached so near to the fruiting, the roots must not be disturbed at
all. EARLY cultivation gives time for new roots to grow, and stimulates
such growth. Where the rows are sufficiently long, and the ground
permits it, this early loosening of the soil is accomplished with a
horse-cultivator better than with a fork, the hoe following and
levelling the soil and taking out all weeds.
My next step during the second season is to mulch the plants, in order
to keep the fruit clean. Without this mulch the fruit is usually unfit
for the table. A dashing shower splashes the berries with mud and grit,
and the fruit must be washed before it is eaten; and strawberries with
their sun-bestowed beauty and flavor washed away are as ridiculous as
is mere noise from musical instruments. To be content with such fruit
is like valuing pictures by the number of square inches of canvas! In
perfecting a strawberry, Nature gives some of her finest touches, and
it is not well to obliterate them with either mud or water. Any light
clean material will keep the fruit clean. I have found spring rakings
of the lawn--mingled dead grass and leaves--one of the best. Leaves
from a grove would answer, were it not for their blowing about in an
untidy way. Of course there is nothing better than straw for the
strawberry; but this often costs as much as hay. Any clean litter that
will lie close to the ground and can be pushed up under the plants will
answer. Nor should it be merely under the plants. A man once mulched my
rows in such a way that the fruit hung over the litter on the soil
beyond. A little common-sense will meet the requirement of keeping the
berries well away from the loose soil, while at the same time
preserving a neat aspect to the bed. Pine-needles and salt-hay are used
where these materials are abundant.
Make it a rule to mulch as soon as possible after the plants begin to
blossom, and also after a good soaking rain. In this case the litter
keeps the ground moist. If the soil immediately about the plants is
covered when dry, the mulch may keep it dry--to the great detriment of
the forming berries. It is usually best to put on the mulch as soon as
the early cultivation is over in April, and then the bed may be left
till the fruit is picked. Of course it may be necessary to pull out
some rank-growing weeds from time to time. If the hired man is left to
do the mulching very late in the season, he will probably cover much of
the green fruit and blossoms as well as the ground.
After the berries have been picked, the remaining treatment of the year
is very simple. Rake out the mulch, cultivate the soil, and keep the
plants free of weeds and runners as during the previous year. Before
hard freezing weather, protect again as before, and give the plants
similar treatment the following spring and summer. Under this system
the same plants may be kept in bearing three, four, and five years,
according to the variety. Some kinds maintain their vigor longer than
others. After the first year the disposition to run declines, and with
the third year, in most instances, deterioration in the plant itself
begins. I would therefore advise that under this system a new bed be
made, as described, every third year; for, it should be remembered, the
new bed is unproductive the first year. This should never be forgotten
if one would maintain a continuous supply of berries, otherwise he will
be like those born on the 29th of February, and have only occasional
birthdays.
If the old bed is just where you wish, and has been prepared in the
thorough manner described, it can be renewed in the following manner:
When the old plants begin to decline in vigor--say the third or fourth
spring--a line of well-decayed compost and manure from the cow-stable a
foot wide may be spread thickly down between the rows, dug under
deeply, and young plants set out just over the fertilizer. The old
plants can be treated as has already been described, and as soon as
they are through bearing, dug under. This would leave the young plants
in full possession of the ground, and the cultivation and management
for three or more years would go on as already directed. This course
involves no loss of time or change of ground for a long periods. If,
however, a new bed can be made somewhere else, the plants will thrive
better upon it. Unless there are serious objections, a change of ground
is always advantageous; for no matter how lavishly the plot is
enriched, the strawberry appears to exhaust certain required
constituents in the soil. Continued vigor is better maintained by
wood-ashes perhaps than by any other fertilizer, after the soil is once
deepened and enriched, and it may be regarded as one of the very best
tonics for the strawberry plant. Bone-meal is almost equally good.
Guano and kindred fertilizers are too stimulating, and have not the
staying qualities required.
As has been intimated before, the strawberry bed may often be so
located on the Home Acre as to permit of irrigation. This does not mean
sprinkling and splattering with water, but the continuous maintenance
of abundant moisture during the critical period from the time the fruit
begins to form until it ripens. Partial watering during a drought is
very injurious; so also would be too frequent watering. If the ground
could be soaked twice a week in the evening, and then left to the
hardening and maturing influence of the sun and wind, the finest
results would be secured. I am satisfied that in most localities the
size of the berries and the number of quarts produced might be doubled
by judicious irrigation.
The system given above applies not only to sandy loam, but also to all
varieties of clay, even the most stubborn. In the latter instance it
would be well to employ stable-manure in the initial enriching, for
this would tend to lighten and warm the soil. Care must also be
exercised in not working clay when it is too wet or too dry. Mulch also
plays an important part on heavy clay, for it prevents the soil from
baking and cracking. One of the best methods of preventing this is to
top-dress the ground with stable-manure, and hoe it in from time to
time when fighting the weeds. This keeps the surface open and mellow--a
vital necessity for vigorous growth. Few plants will thrive when the
surface is hard and baked. Nevertheless, if I had to choose between
heavy clay and light sand for strawberries, I should much prefer the
clay. On the last-named soil an abundant winter protection is
absolutely necessary, or else the plants will freeze entirely out of
the ground.
The native strain of cultivated strawberries has so much vigor and
power of adaptation that plenty of excellent varieties can be grown on
the lightest soil. In this instance, however, we would suggest
important modifications in preparation and culture. The soil, as has
been already shown, must be treated like a spendthrift. Deep plowing or
spading should be avoided, as the subsoil is too loose and leachy
already. The initial enriching of the bed should be generous, but not
lavish. You cannot deposit fertilizers for long-continued use. I should
prefer to harrow or rake in the manure, leaving it near the surface.
The rains will carry it down fast enough. One of the very best methods
is to open furrows, three feet apart, with a light corn-plow, half fill
them with decayed compost, again run the plow through to mix the
fertilizer with the soil, then level the ground, and set out the plants
immediately over the manure. They thus get the benefit of it before it
can leach away. The accomplished horticulturist Mr. P. T. Quinn, of
Newark, N. J., has achieved remarkable success by this plan.
It is a well-known fact that on light land strawberry plants are not so
long-lived and do not develop, or "stool out," as it is termed, as on
heavier land. In order to secure the largest and best possible crop,
therefore, I should not advise a single line of plants, but rather a
narrow bed of plants, say eighteen inches wide, leaving eighteen inches
for a walk. I would not allow this bed to be matted with an indefinite
number of little plants crowding each other into feeble life, but would
leave only those runners which had taken root early, and destroy the
rest. A plant which forms in June and the first weeks in July has time
to mature good-sized fruit-buds before winter, especially if given
space in which to develop. This, however, would be impossible if the
runners were allowed to sod the ground thickly. In principle I would
carry out the first system, and give each plant space in which to grow
upon its own root as large as it naturally would in a light soil, and I
would have a sufficient number of plants to supply the deficiency in
growth. On good, loamy soil, the foliage of single lines of plants,
three feet apart, will grow so large as to touch across the spaces; but
this could scarcely be expected on light soil unless irrigation were
combined with great fertility. Nevertheless, a bed with plants standing
not too thickly upon it will give an abundance of superb fruit.
Strawberries grown in beds may not require so much spring mulching to
keep the fruit clean, but should carefully receive all that is needed.
Winter protection also is not so indispensable as on heavier soils, but
it always well repays. A thick bed of plants should never be protected
by any kind of litter which would leave seeds of various kinds, for
under this system of culture weeds must be taken out by hand; and this
is always slow, back-aching work.
When plants are grown in beds it does not pay to continue them after
fruiting the third year. For instance, they are set out in spring, and
during the first season they are permitted to make a limited number of
runners, and prepare to fruit the following year. After the berries are
picked the third year, dig the plants under, and occupy the ground with
something else. On light soils, and where the plants are grown in beds
instead of narrow rows, new beds should be set out every alternate year.
In order to have an abundant supply of young plants it is only
necessary to let one end of a row or a small portion of a bed run at
will. Then new plants can be set out as desired.
While more strawberries are planted in spring than at any other time,
certain advantages are secured by summer and fall setting. This is
especially true of gardens wherein early crops are maturing, leaving
the ground vacant. For instance, there are areas from which early peas,
beans, or potatoes have been gathered. Suppose such a plot is ready for
something else in July or August, the earlier the better. Unless the
ground is very dry, a bed can be prepared as has been described. If the
soil is in good condition, rich and deep, it can be dug thoroughly, and
the plants set out at once in the cool of the evening, or just before a
shower. During the hot season a great advantage is secured if the
plants are set immediately after the ground is prepared, and while the
surface is still moist. It is unfortunate if ground is made ready and
then permitted to dry out before planting takes place, for watering, no
matter how thorough, has not so good an influence in starting new
growth as the natural moisture of the soil. It would be better,
therefore, to dig the ground late in the afternoon, and set out the
plants the same evening. Watering, however, should never be dispensed
with during warm weather, unless there is a certainty of rain; and even
then it does no harm.
Suppose one wishes to set a new bed in July. If he has strawberries
growing on his place, his course would be to let some of his favorite
varieties make new runners as early as possible. These should be
well-rooted young plants by the middle of the month. After the new
ground is prepared, these can be taken up, with a ball of earth
attached to their roots, and carried carefully to their new
starting-place. If they are removed so gently as not to shake off the
earth from the roots, they will not know that they have been moved, but
continue to thrive without wilting a leaf. If such transplanting is
done immediately after a soaking rain, the soil will cling to the roots
so tenaciously as to ensure a transfer that will not cause any check of
growth. But it is not necessary to wait for rain. At five in the
afternoon soak with water the ground in which the young plants are
standing, and by six o'clock you can take up the plants with their
roots incased in clinging earth, just as successfully as after a rain.
Plants thus transferred, and watered after being set out, will not
wilt, although the thermometer is in the nineties the following day. If
young plants are scarce, take up the strongest and best-rooted ones,
and leave the runner attached; set out such plants with their balls of
earth four feet apart in the row, and with a lump of earth fasten down
the runners along the line. Within a month these runners will fill up
the new rows as closely as desirable. Then all propagation in the new
bed should be checked, and the plants compelled to develop for fruiting
in the coming season. In this latitude a plant thus transferred in July
or August will bear a very good crop the following June, and the
berries will probably be larger than in the following years. This
tendency to produce very large fruit is characteristic of young plants
set out in summer. It thus may be seen that plants set in spring can
not produce a good crop of fruit under about fourteen months, while
others, set in summer, will yield in nine or ten months. I have set out
many acres in summer and early autumn with the most satisfactory
results. Thereafter the plants were treated in precisely the same
manner as those set in spring.
If the plants must be bought and transported from a distance during hot
weather, I should not advise the purchase of any except those grown in
pots. Nurserymen have made us familiar with pot-grown plants, for we
fill our flowerbeds with them. In like manner strawberry plants are
grown and sold. Little pots, three inches across at the top, are sunk
in the earth along a strawberry row, and the runners so fastened down
that they take root in these pots. In about two weeks the young plant
will fill a pot with roots. It may then be severed from the parent, and
transported almost any distance, like a verbena. Usually the ball of
earth and roots is separated from the pot, and is then wrapped in paper
before being packed in the shallow box employed for shipping purposes.
A nurseryman once distributed in a summer throughout the country a
hundred thousand plants of one variety grown in this manner. The earth
encasing the roots sustained the plants during transportation and after
setting sufficiently to prevent any loss worth mentioning. This method
of the plant-grower can easily be employed on the Home Acre. Pots
filled with earth may be sunk along the strawberry rows in the garden,
the runners made to root in them, and from them transferred to any part
of the garden wherein we propose to make a new bed. It is only a neater
and more certain way of removing young plants with a ball of earth from
the open bed.
Some have adopted this system in raising strawberries for market. They
prepare very rich beds, fill them with pot-grown plants in June or
July, take from these plants one crop the following June, then plow
them under. As a rule, however, such plants cannot be bought in
quantities before August or September.
As we go south, September, October, or November, according to lowness
of latitude, are the favorite months for planting. I have had excellent
success on the Hudson in late autumn planting. My method has been to
cover the young plants, just before the ground froze, with two or three
inches of clean earth, and then to rake it off again early in April.
The roots of such plants become thoroughly established during the
winter, and start with double vigor. Plants set out in LATE autumn do
best on light, dry soils. On heavy soils they will be frozen out unless
well covered. They should not be allowed to bear the following season.
A late-set plant cannot before winter in our climate become strong and
sturdy enough to produce much fruit the following season. I make it a
rule not to permit plants set out after the first of October to bear
fruit until a year from the following June.
In setting out plants, the principle of sex should be remembered. The
majority of our favorite varieties are bisexual; that is, the blossoms
are furnished with both stamens and pistils. A variety with this
organization, as the Sharpless, for instance, will bear alone with no
other kind near it. But if one set out a bed of Champions--another fine
variety--well apart from any staminate kind, it would blossom
profusely, but produce no fruit. When I was a boy, Hovey's Seedling was
the great strawberry of the day, and marvellous stories were told of
the productiveness of the plants and the size of the berries. How well
I remember the disappointment and wrath of people who bought the plants
at a high price, and set them out with no staminate varieties near to
fertilize the pistillate blossoms. Expectations were raised to the
highest pitch by profuse blossoming in May, but not a berry could be
found the ensuing June. The vigorous plants were only a mockery, and
the people who sold them were berated as humbugs. To-day the most
highly praised strawberry is the Jewell. The originator, Mr. P. M.
Augur, writes me that "plants set two feet by eighteen inches apart,
August 1, 1884, in June, 1885, completely covered the ground, touching
both ways, and averaged little over a quart to the plant for the centre
patch." All runners were kept off, in accordance with the system
advocated in this paper. "At Boston a silver medal was awarded to this
variety as the best new strawberry introduced within five years."
People reading such laudation--well deserved, I believe--might conclude
the best is good enough for us, and send for enough Jewell plants to
set out a bed. If they set no others near it, their experience would be
similar to that which I witnessed in the case of Hovey's Seedling
thirty odd years ago. The blossom of the Jewell contains pistils only,
and will produce no fruit unless a staminate variety is planted near. I
have never considered this an objection against a variety; for why
should any one wish to raise only one variety of strawberry? All danger
of barrenness in pistillate kinds is removed absolutely by planting
staminate sorts in the same bed. In nurserymen's catalogues pistillate
varieties are marked "P.," and the purchaser has merely to set out the
plants within a few feet of some perfect flowering kind to secure
abundant fruit.
As a result of much experience, I will now make some suggestions as to
varieties. In a former paper I have given, the opinions of others upon
this important subject, and one can follow the advice of such eminent
authorities without misgiving. The earliest strawberry that I have ever
raised, and one of the best flavored, is the Crystal City. It is
evidently a wild variety domesticated, and it has the exquisite flavor
and perfume of the field-berry. It rarely fails to give us fruit in
May, and my children, with the unerring taste of connoisseurs, follow
it up until the last berry is picked. It would run all over the garden
unchecked; and this propensity must be severely curbed to render a bed
productive. Keeping earliness and high flavor in view, I would next
recommend the Black Defiance. It is not remarkably productive on many
soils, but the fruit is so delicious that it well deserves a place. The
Duchess and Bidwell follow in the order of ripening. On my grounds they
have always made enormous plants, and yielded an abundance of
good-flavored berries. The Downing is early to medium in the season of
ripening, and should be in every collection. The Indiana is said to
resemble this kind, and to be an improvement upon it. Miner's Prolific
is another kindred berry, and a most excellent one. Among the latest
berries I recommend the Sharpless Champion, or Windsor Chief, and
Parry. If one wishes to raise a very large, late, showy berry, let him
try the Longfellow. The Cornelia is said to grow very large and ripen
late, but I have not yet fruited it. As I said fifteen or twenty years
ago, if I were restricted to but one variety, I should choose the
Triomphe de Gand, a foreign kind, but well adapted to rich, heavy
soils. The berries begin to ripen early, and last very late. The
Memphis Late has always been the last to mature on my grounds, and,
like the Crystal City, is either a wild variety, or else but slightly
removed. The Wilson is the great berry of commerce. It is not ripe when
it is red, and therefore is rarely eaten in perfection. Let it get
almost black in its ripeness, and it is one of the richest berries in
existence. With a liberal allowance of sugar and cream, it makes a dish
much too good for an average king. It is also the best variety for
preserving.
It should be remembered that all strawberries, unlike pears, should be
allowed to mature fully before being picked. Many a variety is
condemned because the fruit is eaten prematurely. There is no richer
berry in existence than the Windsor Chief, yet the fruit, when merely
red, is decidedly disagreeable.
The reader can now make a selection of kinds which should give him six
weeks of strawberries. At the same time he must be warned that plants
growing in a hard, dry, poor soil, and in matted beds, yield their
fruit almost together, no matter how many varieties may have been set
out. Under such conditions the strawberry season is brief indeed.
While I was writing this paper the chief enemy of the strawberry came
blundering and bumping about my lamp--the May beetle. The larva of this
insect, the well-known white grub, has an insatiable appetite for
strawberry roots, and in some localities and seasons is very
destructive. One year I lost at least one hundred thousand plants by
this pest. This beetle does not often lay its egg in well-cultivated
ground, and we may reasonably hope to escape its ravages in a garden.
If, when preparing for a bed, many white grubs are found in the soil, I
should certainly advise that another locality be chosen. The only
remedy is to dig out the larvae and kill them. If you find a plant
wilting without apparent cause, you may be sure that a grub is feeding
on the roots. The strawberry plant is comparatively free from insect
enemies and disease, and rarely disappoints any one who gives it a
tithe of the attention it deserves.
There are many points in connection with this fruit which, in a small
treatise like this, must be merely touched upon or omitted altogether.
I may refer those who wish to study the subject more thoroughly to my
work, "Success with Small Fruits."