Success with Small Fruits

by Edward Payson Roe

Black Naples.

Gooseberries

Downing.

Houghton Seedling.

In the Sixth Annual Report of the New Jersey State Board of Agriculture, I find the following interesting statement from the well-known horticulturist, Mr. P. T. Quinn.

"ONE ACRE OP STRAWBEREIES.

"NEWARK, October, 1878.

"The following are the methods of culture and the products of one acre of strawberries, grown on my farm near Newark, during the season of 1878. The ground on which these strawberries were grown was planted with Early Rose potatoes and heavily manured in the spring of 1877. These potatoes were dug and marketed during the last week in July and first week in August of the same year. The ground was at once cleared off, plowed and harrowed smoothly. Furrows were then opened four or five inches deep and two and a half feet apart. Between the 15th and 22d of August, 1877, the strawberry plants were set in these furrows from fifteen to eighteen inches apart, without any manure being added. Some plants died here and there, but the bulk of those set out made a strong growth before cold weather. They were kept free from weeds by running a cultivator twice between the rows and hoeing twice. This treatment kept the ground absolutely free from weeds. In the middle of December, the plants were covered over with a compost of the sweepings of the vegetable and fish markets, with some horse manure mixed through it. The whole was thoroughly decayed and light in character. About the middle of April, 1878, the coarsest part of this mulch was raked off the strawberry plants, and left in the spaces between the rows, the finer portion being left among the plants. To the coarse part raked off was added salt hay, pressed under the leaves of the plants on either side of the rows, enough being added to keep the soil around the plants moist and the fruit free from grit. There was no disturbance of the soil in any way in the spring, beyond the cutting off at the surface of a few straggling weeds that started up here and there.

"The varieties grown upon this acre were Charles Downing and Green Prolific, and the yield was five thousand four hundred and eighty-seven (5,487) quarts. The gross receipts from this acre of berries was seven hundred and ninety-five dollars and sixty-one cents ($795.61). Deducting the commissions and picking the fruit, the net returns were $620.60."

Messrs. Gibson and Bennett, of New Jersey, stated before the Western New York Horticultural Society, that they "liked the bedding system, say four-row beds, with plants one foot apart each way and two-feet walks between the beds. We fertilize with fine horse manure, spreading it heavily and plowing it under. We start plants in pots and transfer them to the beds in September, the earlier the better. These potted plants form fine large crowns ready for the finest fruit. The beds are covered with manure January 1. The fruit is picked the following June, and the beds then plowed under at once and planted with other crops."