Trees, Fruits and Flowers of Minnesota, 1916. Various
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preacher said. "You can learn something from most any fool." The boy said, "That is just what father says when he hears you preach." I don't expect to tell you much that is new, but I want to emphasize the good things that others have said:
Soils. I once had twenty-one acres of heavy oak, hickory, crab apple and hazel brush, with one old Indian corn field. I measured hazel brush twelve feet high, and some of the ground was a perfect network of hazel roots; the leaf mould had accumulated for ages. The first half acre I planted to turnips, the next spring I started in to make my fortune. I set out nineteen varieties of the best strawberries away back in the time of the Wilson, than which we have never had its equal. The plants grew well and wintered well, but they did not bear worth a cent, while just over the fence I had a field on ground that had been worked twenty years without manure that gave me two hundred and sixty bushels to the acre. It took three years with other crops to reduce that loose soil before I could make strawberries pay. My fortune all vanished.
Last June while judging your strawberry show, I found a large collection of twenty-five kinds of the poorest strawberries I ever saw, grown on the college grounds. I visited the field, found over a hundred varieties, well tallied, well cultivated, on new oak opening soil. First crop, the soil seemed ideal, every thing good except the plants and the fruit. The foliage was defective and the fruit very poor. Was it the new soil?
I have always found good garden soil would produce good strawberries; the best beds were those that followed potatoes. Cut worms and white grubs seldom follow two years of hoed crops.
Preparation. Preparation for the best strawberries should be started three years before planting. Using soil from sand to clay, well drained, well manured, sowed to clover, take off the first cutting of clover, then more manure plowed under deep with the second crop of clover, as late as can before freezing up, to kill insects and make the soil friable and ready for a crop of potatoes the next spring. After harvesting 300 bushels of potatoes to the acre use a heavy coat of well rotted manure without weed seed, plowed under late in fall. The following spring, as soon as the ground will work, thoroughly disk and harrow, and harrow twice more. Then roll or plank it, mark both ways two by four feet, set by hand either with dibble or spade, no machine work. Crown even with the surface, with best of plants from new beds, leaving on but two leaves, and if the roots are not fresh dug, trim them a little. Firm them good.
Now start the weeder and go over the field every week till the runners start, then use the nine-tooth cultivator with the two outside teeth two inches shorter than the others. Cultivate every week till the middle of October. Use the hoe to keep out all weeds and hoe very lightly about the plants. Weeds are a blessing to the lazy man, but I don't like to have it overdone. Don't let the soil bake after a rain. Keep the cultivator running. In garden work a steel tooth rake is a splendid garden tool.
Volume 1905, page 230 (An. Report Minn. State Hort. Society). Mr. Schwab gets an ideal strawberry bed, then kills it with twelve inches of mulch. If the ice and snow had not come perhaps the plants would have pulled through. Volume 41, page 390. Mr. Wildhagen gives an ideal paper on strawberries, it will pay you to read it again and again. Instead of one year's preparation, I would have three.
Winter Protection. Unless in an exposed place, marsh hay is the best and cleanest mulch, but high winds may roll it off. Clean straw away from the tailings of the machine is next best. For small acreage if one inch can be put on as soon as the ground is frozen a half inch, it will save the many freezings and thawings before winter sets in. For large acreage it is not practical to cover till frost will hold up a loaded wagon. Two inches of mulch, that covers the plants and paths from sight is enough, but I see you cover deeper, from four to twelve inches in Minnesota, and often smother the plants. If we could have a snow blanket come early and stay on late in spring, that would protect the plants, but we want the mulch also to protect from drouth and keep the berries clean. A January thaw is liable to kill out any field that is not properly mulched.
A two inch mulch will not hinder the plants coming through in spring; four inches will require part of the mulch raked into the paths; if plants don't get through readily loosen the mulch. I have known some successful growers to take off all the mulch from the paths in spring and cultivate lightly but thoroughly, then replace the mulch to protect from drouth and to keep the berries clean, but I don't think it pays.
Weeds. In the best fields and beds I ever saw there will come up an occasional weed in spring, and it pays to go over the ground with a spade or butcher knife and take out such weeds. We almost always get a drouth at picking time, better a drought than too much rain. A good straw mulch will usually carry us through.
Irrigation. If irrigation is attempted the fields must be prepared before planting to run water through between the rows. Sprinkling will not do except at sundown. Rain always comes in cloudy weather; you cannot wet foliage in sun in hot weather without damage. A good rainfall is one inch, which is a thousand barrels to the acre, so what can you do with a sprinkling cart? Showers followed by bright sunshine damage the patch.
If your plants are set too deep they rot, if too high they dry, if not well firmed they fail. When I have used a tobacco planter I have had to put my heel on every plant. Of course you know that newly planted June varieties must have the blossom buds cut out, and everbears bearing must also till July.
Picking. The man who has acres to pick must secure his boxes the winter before and have at least part of them made up if they are to be tacked. I have found a boy can make up boxes as fast as thirty pickers can fill. If you use the folding box no tacks are needed. Too many boxes made up ahead are liable to be damaged by the mice.
Pickers. Engage your pickers ahead; agree on the price and that a part of the pay is to be kept back till the close of the season, which is forfeited if quitting before time. If pickers are too far away, transportation must be furnished—free boxes of berries are appreciated by the pickers.
Marketing. Sometimes the marketing of the fruit is harder than the growing of it. If enough is grown form an association to sell it, get advice from a successful association how to form and how to run it. Sometimes a well made wagon, a good team and a good man can sell from house to house in the country and city and make good returns. In this way you get back your crates and part of the boxes. I know a successful grower in Iowa, who sold his crop of ten acres to the farmers and city people, they doing their own picking and furnishing their own boxes, at a given price. All the proprietor had to do was sit at the gate and take in the cash. It is worth a good deal to know how to grow the best of strawberries and often it is worth more to know how to turn them into cash.
What Varieties? Dunlap and Warfield have a general reputation for profit, can be picked together and sell well; dark color, good canners and good shippers. If you want a third variety take Lovett. Some of your growers want nothing but Bederwood, but it is too light and too soft to ship, though it is a good family berry. I expect Minnesota No. 3 will soon be the only variety you will want of the June kinds.
Insects. Winter drouth often injures the roots and some lay it to insects. The winter of 1899 was the worst winter drouth I ever knew; it killed every thing. If you are troubled with the crown borer, root lice, leaf roller or rust, grow one crop and plow under, or move your fields a good distance from the old bed. What shall be done with the old bed? If you have insects or rust plow under and get the best place to start a new bed, and don't set any of your own plants if you have insects or rust—and be sure you buy of a reliable grower.
Old Beds. If the first crop is big, plow under, if light and you have a good stand of plants, no insects or rust, you can mow and teddy up the mulch and in a high wind burn it over—a quick fire will do no harm. Then you can plow two furrows between rows and drag it every way till not a plant is seen. Soon, if the rows are left a foot wide, the plants will come through. Then manure (better be manured before plowing), and you may get a good second crop. Some mow and rake off and burn outside the bed, then with a two horse cultivator dig up the paths and cultivate and get the ground in condition. Put on the manure and hoe out part of the old plants.