Success with Small Fruits

by Edward Payson Roe

The best white strawberry I have ever seen is Lennig's White. When exposed to the sun, it has a decided pink flush on one side. It is beautiful and delicious, and so aromatic that a single berry will perfume a large apartment. The fruit is exceedingly delicate, but the plant is a shy bearer.

In the White and Bed Alpines, especially the ever-bearing varieties, and in the Hautbois class, we have very distinct strawberries that are well worthy of a place in the garden. From a commercial point of view, they have no value. This may settle the question with some, but not a few of us like to plant many things that are never to go to market.

In conclusion, if I were asked what is the most beautiful and delicious strawberry in existence, I should name the President Wilder. Perfect in flavor, form and beauty, it seems to unite in one exquisite compound the best qualities of the two great strawberry species of the world, the F. Virginiana and the F. Chilensis. The only fault that I have ever discovered is that, in many localities, it is not productive. No more do diamonds lie around like cobblestones. It is, however, fairly productive under good culture and on most soils, and yet it is possible that not one in a hundred of the habitues of Delmonico's has ever tasted it.

CHAPTER XIV

SETTING OUT PLANTS

We may secure good plants of the best varieties, but if we do not set them out properly the chances are against our success, unless the weather is very favorable. So much depends on a right start in life, even in a strawberry bed. There are no abstruse difficulties in properly imbedding a plant. One would think that if a workman gave five minutes' thought and observation to the subject, he would know exactly how to do it. If one used his head as well as his hands, it would be perfectly obvious that a plant held (as in Figure e) with its roots spread out so that the fresh, moist earth could come in contact with each fibre, would stand a far better chance than one set out by any of the other methods illustrated. And yet, in spite of all I can do or say, I have never been able to prevent very many of my plants from being set (as in Figure a) too deeply, so that the crown and tender leaves were covered and smothered with earth; or (as in Figure b) not deeply enough, thus leaving the roots exposed. Many others bury the roots in a long, tangled bunch, as in Figure c. If one would observe how a plant starts on its new career, he would see that the roots we put in the ground are little more than a base of operations. All along their length, and at their ends, little white rootlets start, if the conditions are favorable, almost immediately. If the roots are huddled together, so that only a few outside ones are in contact with the life-giving soil, the conditions are of course most unfavorable. Again, many planters are guilty of the folly illustrated in Figure d. They hastily scoop out a shallow hole, in which the roots, which should be down in the cool depths of the soil, curve like a half-circle toward or to the very surface.

In the most favorable weather of early spring a plant is almost certain to grow, no matter how greatly abused; but even then it does far better if treated properly, while at other seasons nature cannot be stupidly ignored. It is almost as easy to set out a plant correctly as otherwise.

[Illustration: WRONG METHODS OP PLANTING]

Let the excavation be made deep enough to put the roots, spread out like a fan, down their whole length into the soil. Hold the plant with the left hand, as in Figure e. First, half fill the hole with fine rich earth with the right hand, and press it firmly against the roots; next, fill it evenly, and then, with the thumb and finger of both hands, put your whole weight on the soil on each side of the plant—as close to it as possible—and press until the crown or point from which the leaves start is just even with the surface.

If you can pull the plant up again by its leaves, it is not firm enough in the ground. If a man uses brain and eye, he can learn to work very rapidly. By one dexterous movement he scoops the excavation with a trowel. By a second movement, he makes the earth firm against the lower half of the roots. By a third movement, he fills the excavation and settles the plant into its final position. One workman will often plant twice as many as another, and not work any harder. Negro women at Norfolk, Virginia, paid at fifty cents per day, will often set two or three thousand. Many Northern laborers, who ask more than twice that sum, will not set half as many plants. I have been told of one man, however, who could set 1,000 per hour. I should examine his work carefully, however, in the fear that it was not well done.