Newspapers / The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, … / Aug. 23, 1906, edition 1 / Page 1
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Selecting Next Year's Seed Corn. By J. El. Johnson. A Farm and Home Weekly for the Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia. PROGRESSIVE PARMER VOL. XXI. NO. 28. THE COTTON PLANT VOL. XXIII. NO. 27. RALEIGH, N. C, AUGUST 23, 1906. Weekly-$1 a Year. HOW TO CULTIVATE THE STRAWBERRY FOR I FAMILY USE. I President Blacknall of the Continental Plant Com pany Writes on the Best Methods of Cultiva tion. Messrs. Editors:- I take pleasure in complying vith your request and giving ,the result of my long experience in growing strawberries for home use long, I say, for I have had now thirty-three ears' experience in that line. The strawberry is about the easiest thing in the world to grow, provided it has a litle timely atten tion. But the attention must be timely. Ap parently the work can be put off and so it can, and still some measure of success be attained; but for real success the little work required must be done just at the right time. Strawberries Easy to Grow. The strawberry is one of the most accommodat ing plants in the world. It grows in every lati tude from Alaska clear down through the Ameri cas to Patagonia. It seems to grow on nearly ev ery sbil intermediate between those points. The chief difficulty in growing it is that it is. a low growing plant and is liable to be choked by weeds, and the richer the soil the greater the trouble. If grass and weeds are kept down, the strawberry plant will do nearly all of the rest. While I should have no doubt as to success on any soil in this territory, I should prefer a moist but soggy, sandy loam, though I have grown prodigious crops nearly 10,000. quarts to the rxi'e on stiff clay. After all, it is largely a mat ter of fertilizing and, as I have stated, timely at tention, to get the biggest results. The strawberry should always be set in land that has had clean cultivation for the last year or two. If the patch is large enough to plow, the plants can be set in rows two and one-half feet apart and the plants fifteen to eighteen inches apart in the row. If only a small plot of land can be devoted to them, then they can be set in rows fifteen inches apart and the plants fifteen inches . apart in the row. When set this way there must be a two-feet walk-wayr left between, each series of three rows.; In a plat of this kind all the work A FLOCK OF SHEEP IN TENNESSEE. .would haveto.be done with a hoe. When" set In rows as above-described, a horse cultivator can be used. How to Fertilize. Any good garden soil is abundantly rich for strawberries as far as ammonia is concerned. If much stable manure has been used on the ground it will probably be too rich in this one element. If so, wood ashes alone will supply just the prop erties needed phosphoric acid and potash. If the soil is poor, then apply well rotted stable manure say from one to two ; inches thick- spread evenly. Then wood ashes at the rate of, say, half a pound (or a little over) to the square yard. This is pretty heavy manuring and, in fact, too heavy unless the manure and ashes are thoroughly mixed with the soil. Howiever, good results can be got from applying it at the rate of five hundred pounds to the acre in the drill and mixing it well in the soil. A good strawberry or general fertili zer should have about 4 per cent ammonia, 8 pei cent phosphoric acid, and 8 per cent or 10 per cent potash. -Set Plants in Fall, Winter or Spring. . Strawberry plants in this climate can either be set in fall, winter or spring. They will; need no cultivation until the weeds and grass begin to grow in the spring. They should then have shal low cultivation often enough to kill the weeda and grass as fast as; it comes. All runners should be clipped off as fast as they come out and as long as they come. This can be cheaply and rapidly done by a boy with an old knife. It is very doubtful whether winter protection of strawberries pays in North Carolina. The mulch ing that the strawberry needs is to keep the straw berry clean. Pine straw is the best of mulches. It should be scattered around and between the plants about the time that growth begins in the spring. Scrape out all weeds as shallow as possi ble before applying the mulch. If the weeds come out through the mulch afterwards, pull them out. Avoid Weeds, Grass, and Runners. Remember at all times that the chief foes to the strawberry are the weeds and grass, and that the next foe, almost as great, is the strawberry plant CourtesyZof.Southern Railway. itself when runners are allowedUogrow and take root and "form? a densely matter row, which they will surely do on rich soil unless the runners are kept cut. ! Ashes makeian excellent top dressing for straw berry plants in either new or old beds. The ashes should be applied in winter when the plants are dormant. It can then be sown directly over them. If applied while the plants are in a growing state, it must be scattered around and between them. Half a pound tb the square yard, counting middles and all, can be applied this way if at the proper ; time. : ! - . " ; 1 In a word, keep off runners and keep down grass and weeds at all times, and with good varieties, the crop cannot be failure. Of course shallow cul tivation is also beneficial to keep the soil moist in a dry time. ; A bed can be kept in bearing two years. A new. one can be s4t and coming on the winter and spring before the old one is plowed under in June after bearing. ; O. W. BLACKNALL. Vance Co., N. C. Tired! Tired of Hartje; tired of Thaw; tired. of John D. Tired of Mr. and Mrs. Corey. Tired of scan dal, divorce, dirt, indecency, red lights, high life. Tired of manufactured sensations. Tired of reading of badness instead of goodness. Tired of publishing it. Tired of feeding nauseous doses to healthy minds. Dayton Herald. And so is every well-balanced person. These scandals and crimes are no worse than the crime against humanity perpetrated day by day by. the yellow journals who through sensational headlines and big black or red type scatter this indecency and made-to-order "nauseous doses' broadcast, fil ing the home and polluting the minds of the boys and girls and weak men and women. Toledo Blade. "College doesn't make fools; it develops them. It doesn't make bright men; it develops them. A fool will turn out a fool whether he goes to college or not. He may turn out a different sort of a one, though." "Old Gorgon Graham." V
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
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Aug. 23, 1906, edition 1
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