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FARMER ON THE STRAWBERRY

The New Strawberry
Culture
AND
Fall Bearing Strawberries

Farmer On The Strawberry – I have been engaged in the culture of strawberries and other berry fruits since 1883,
beginning when I was a boy of 17 years. A person of ordinary intelligence who has been engaged in any business for this length of time cannot help but find out many things that are valuable to himself in his business and may be made valuable to others if he has the ability to impart his knowledge.

That is the particular reason for my writing this little book on strawberry culture. I do not pretend that I know it all, or that this little pamphlet will cover all there is to be said about the culture of strawberries’ and other small fruits, but I have applied myself closely to the study of this subject during all these many years and must have found out many things that are not known to the average person.

I would not be doing my duty if I did not try to impart this knowledge to others in some way or other. There is nothing written in this little book that cannot be found out by years of experience, but experience is costly and the most of us rather learn to avoid mistakes rather than to suffer the expense of these mistakes to gain the costly experience that they teach.

When I began strawberry culture, there were few popular books on the subject and while I learned much by reading the writings of such men as E. P. Roe, A. M. Purdy, Matthew Crawford and others, the most of my knowledge has been gained by experience, and I can tell you, much of it has been pretty costly; but however, it has been, I do not regret the experience, no matter the cost.

There is a certain class of people for whom I have little charity and they do- serve the contempt of every progressive horticulturist. 1 refer to the class that have the advantage of perfecting themselves, becoming experts in any subject, and yet, never impart their knowledge to others. They attend meetings of farmers, horticultural society meetings, &c &c ,
and when called upon to tell something of what they know about their specialist, they have nothing to say.

They absorb everything they hear, but like a sponge, they take up more than they give out, even if squeezed. I am amused as well as somewhat disgusted to hear now and then of some man who has learned something about growing berries that he considers he is the sole possessor of.

He goes about in his self-conscious way and chuckles to himself that he knows something that he won’t tell others. Generally, I have a way of getting this out of him and when I find out the so-called secret, it is usually something that-most progressive fruit growers have known for years and partially forgotten.

My idea is that the world is wide, and nobody makes much by practicing selfishness. When I learn of a really good new thing, I pass it along to others, and by the time they have learned and put it into practice, I have generally found out something still more valuable along the same line.

A Well-Balanced Strawberry Plant

Really the most important item in strawberry culture is the plant itself. You must start with good plants in order to make a Succes. If the plants are puny, weak and of no vitality, your efforts will be largely wasted. Likewise, will the results be disappointing if the plant is of a comparatively worthless variety. Be sure to get good healthy plants of the right variety.

The typical well fed strawberry plant. It must have been grown on good soil with plenty of room. Such a plant ought to produce a quart of berries during the fruiting season. Its runners should lie strong and produce new plants of the same superior quality.

That fleshy part of the strawberry plant where the roots and leaf stems unite, is known as the crown of the plant. It is the real life of the plant. You can cut off the roots close up to the crown and the plant will grow a new set of roots, if it is kept moist.

You can cut off every leaf from the strawberry plant, close down to the crown, and a new set of leaves will come out. But,
if you remove the crown of a strawberry plant and destroy it, you cannot grow a new crown from either the roots or the leaves. The crown is the real vital part of the strawberry plant.

Of all the so-called small fruits or bush fruits, the strawberry is the most interesting and the most popular. They come at a time of the year when fruits are scarce and supply a long felt want, they are so luscious and palatable that few are the people who do not eat and enjoy them.

The strawberry plant thrives and bears fruit from the frozen North to the sunny South, in all localities and on all soils that most any crop will grow upon. They live and bear in unfavorable places and under neglect but on the other hand do better in ideal locations and respond nobly to intelligent, thoughtful care.

Chilian and Virginian species, improved by high culture and by crossing and recrossing the blossoms and sowing the seeds. The scrub native cow can be improved and bred up in two ways, —by crossing her with a thoroughbred, the progeny is improved. ” In the same way, she and her progeny are improved from generation to generation with high feeding and good care. It is the same with the strawberry.

Origin o£ the Strawberry

The origin of the name given to this fruit is not clear, some authorities claiming that it comes from one source and
some from another. Some reasons given for the name are “straw” a perversion of the name “stray” berries because of their universal distribution throughout the fields.

Then “straw” from the straw-like character of the runners. Then “straw” from the habit of growers covering the vines and the ground about them with straw as a winter mulch and also as a mulch to keep the vines moist and the berries clean throughout the picking season.

The strawberry has covered the plains and valleys of all continents since man has been an inhabitant of this globe, undoubtedly. Ancient history, and the writings of Greek and Roman authors speak of them. They figure in poetry and prose of most all ancient writers and undoubtedly grew by the waysides in Palestine when the “Prince of Peace” trod those sacred pathways.

The origin of the modern cultivated strawberry is somewhat of a mystery. Some authors claim that it has been evolved from the common wild berries by a system of sowing seeds and giving good culture from generation to generation until the large, fine flavored, productive variety was finally secured.