STRAWBERRIES.
We begin with the strawberry, which, though small and unpretentious, has been from year to year rising in importance until it has become second only to the apple in the estimation of a majority of consumers.
The past year's experience has taught, as does that of each year, that great care should be taken in selecting varieties adapted to each particular soil and situation. This may be said to be the important thing in strawberry growing.
It is a difficult thing to find such varieties by the ordinary means of selecting; namely, recourse to the catalogues of growers. Man has a wonderful amount of selfishness in his composition. I say wonderful, for it is a wonder when we consider how much better he would enjoy life were all selfishness eliminated from it, and benevolence, coupled with true self love, were substituted. "Each crow thinks its own young the blackest," and each (almost) originator or "exclusive owner" of a new variety of plant or tree, labors hard to convince himself and others that he has the best of his kind; but, owing to the weakness of human nature, even the sincere among these are liable to be biased, and thus mislead others. The only safety, therefore, lies in planting such varieties as you know to succeed well near you in similar soil, while new varieties, commended as superior by persons of known integrity and experience, for similar soil and climatic condition, should be tried only on a small scale as an experiment. If they succeed, you can soon have plenty of plants of your own growing—if you prefer to grow them. This advice, though often before given will bear frequent repetition—for the desire for "something new" is as prevalent with us now as it was with the Athenians in St. Paul's time. We have seen Big Bobs, Great Americans, and other monstrosities dwindle to pigmies in the hands of ordinary cultivators, and the demand for Sharpless become less sharp through its sensitiveness to the influence of Jack Frost; and hosts of other sorts, really good and valuable somewhere, and under peculiarly favorable conditions to be comparatively valueless for general cultivation. Therefore every person designing to plant should repeat to himself this injunction—"Go slow on new varieties."
It is not desirable for persons who plant for their own use solely to select the pistillate varieties; for these, although the most profusely productive when well fertilized, are liable to overrun their staminate neighbors, and soon render the "strawberry patch" unproductive, or productive only of small or imperfect fruit. The leading pistillates offered in the catalogues now are Crescent, Col. Cheney, Windsor Chief, Jersey Queen, Big Bob, Manchester, Green Prolific, Golden Defiance, Champion, Park Beauty, Gipsey, and some others.
There are a few sorts, having perfect blossoms, which give profitable returns on a variety of soils, and which may be considered safe to plant. These are Charles Downing, Miner, Bidwell (kept in single rows or single plants), Piper, Cumberland Triumph, Phelps ("Old Iron Clad"), Sucker State, Finch, Capt. Jack (acid), Longfellow (with good, rich culture), Mt. Vernon (late), and for sandy soil, Kentucky (late). This list may be said to constitute the cream of the thousand and one varieties offered which have been well tested. Of course those who grow strawberries for market will plant largely of some of the pistillate sorts, owing to their great productiveness.
The past year has taught the folly of too great haste in removing the covering from strawberry plants; as those which bloomed early were badly damaged by the frost. Plantations, also, which were partially screened by rows and belts of evergreens produced twice to three times the quantity of fruit that was obtained from the same varieties fully exposed. Plants in orchards also escaped to a great degree, for the trees were in leaf when the destructive frost occurred, and thus gave partial protection. Strawberries are at home in a young orchard; the cultivation given the plants is good for the trees, and the slight shade of the young trees is no perceptible detriment to the plants or fruit.
The general crop was about one-third an average—the chief damage being done by the frost—though the tarnished plant-bug was very destructive in Southern Illinois, and did some damage in other localities. Prices were from fifty to a hundred per cent higher than usual—supply and demand being the factors, in the fruit trade, as well as in all others, which regulate prices.
Spring is better than summer or autumn for planting strawberries. In thirty years' experience in strawberry culture I have never, except in two instances, found any advantage in summer or fall planting, and in these pot-plants were used, which are too expensive for general planting and not always preferable. Three or four of the varieties named, 100 of each, planted as early in spring as the ground is in good condition, in rows three to three and a half feet apart, and confined, as they run, to narrow strips, will give an abundance of fruit for two or three years for a large family. Certainly such planting and care is as good an investment as can be made upon any farm or in any garden.