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Page 41
My first advice in regard to strawberries is to set them out
immediately almost anywhere except upon land so recently in grass
that the sod is still undecayed. This course is better than not to
have the fruit at all, or to wait for it A year without
strawberries is a lost year in one serious respect. While there is
a wide difference between what plants can do under unfavorable
conditions and what they can be made to do when their needs are
fully met, they will probably in any event yield a fair supply of
delicious fruit. Secure this as soon as possible. At the same time
remember that a plant of a good variety is a genius capable of
wonderful development. In ordinary circumstances it is like the
"mute, inglorious" poets whose enforced limitations were lamented
by the poet Gray; but when its innate powers and gifts are fully
nourished it expands into surprising proportions, sends up
hundreds of flowers, which are followed by ruby gems of fruit
whose exquisite flavor is only surpassed by its beauty. No such
concentrated ambrosia ever graced the feasts of the Olympian gods,
for they were restricted to the humble Fragaria vesca, or Alpine
species. In discovering the New World, Columbus also discovered
the true strawberry, and died without the knowledge of this result
of his achievement.
I can imagine the expression on the faces of those who buy the
"sour, crude, half-ripe Wilsons," against which the poet Bryant
inveighed so justly. The market is flooded with this fruit because
it bears transportation about as well as would marbles. Yes, they
are strawberries; choke-pears and Seckels belong to the same
species. There is truth enough in my exaggeration to warrant the
assertion that if we would enjoy the possible strawberry, we must
raise it ourselves, and pick it when fully matured--ready for the
table, and not for market. Then any man's garden can furnish
something better than was found in Eden.
Having started a strawberry-patch without loss of time wherever it
is handiest, we can now give our attention to the formation of an
ideal bed. In this instance we must shun the shade of trees above,
and their roots beneath. The land should be open to the sky, and
the sun free to practice his alchemy on the fruit the greater part
of the day. The most favorable soil is a sandy loam, verging
toward clay; and it should have been under cultivation
sufficiently long to destroy all roots of grass and perennial
weeds. Put on the fertilizer with a free hand. If it is barnyard
manure, the rate of sixty tons to the acre is not in excess. A
strawberry plant has a large appetite and excellent digestion. It
prefers decidedly manure from the cow-stable, though that from the
horse-stable answers very well; but it is not advisable to
incorporate it with the soil in its raw, unfermented state, and
then to plant immediately. The ground can scarcely be too rich for
strawberries, but it may easily be overheated and stimulated. In
fertilizing, ever keep in mind the two great requisites--moisture
and coolness. Manure from the horse-stable, therefore, is almost
doubled in value as well as bulk if composted with leaves, muck,
or sods, and allowed to decay before being used.
Next to enriching the soil, the most important step is to deepen
it. If a plow is used, sink it to the beam, and run it twice in a
furrow. If a lifting subsoil-plow can follow, all the better.
Strawberry roots have been traced two feet below the surface.
If the situation of the plot does not admit the use of a plow, let
the gardener begin at one side and trench the area to at least the
depth of eighteen inches, taking pains to mix the surface,
subsoil, and fertilizer evenly and thoroughly. A small plot thus
treated will yield as much as one three or four times as large.
One of the chief advantages of thus deepening the soil is that the
plants are insured against their worst enemy--drought. How often I
have seen beds in early June languishing for moisture, the fruit
trusses lying on the ground, fainting under their burden, and the
berries ripening prematurely into little more than diminutive
collections of seeds! When ground has been deepened as I have
said, the drought must be almost unparalleled to arrest the
development of the fruit. Even in the most favorable seasons,
hard, shallow soils give but a brief period of strawberries, the
fruit ripens all at once, and although the first berries may be of
good size, the later ones dwindle until they are scarcely larger
than peas. Be sure to have a deep, mellow soil beneath the plants.
Such a bed can be made in either spring or fall--indeed, at any
time when the soil is free from frost, and neither too wet nor
dry. I do not believe in preparing and fertilizing ground during a
period of drought.
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