THESIS
THE. STRAW BERRY
BY

M. G. Kains,
ULASS OF '95,

 

 

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THESIS
THESIS

THE STRAWBERRY.

By Ch

-GIKAINS,

Class of ‘95.

 
 

 

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THE STRAWBERRY.
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Owing to the wide extent of country to which it is adaptdd,
the strawberry is, perhaps, the most important small fruit.
It is grown frofitably in nearly all parts of North America and
is found wild over all this territory, and mor8. On account of
its productivemess, its ease of cultivation, its salability
and its dietetic value, it is justly entitled to this high pos-

ition.

History.

The commercial berry of to-day is largely a conglommeration
and its history is wrapped in considerable obscurity. Fragaria
vesoa, F. elatior, F.grandiflora, and F. virginiana are each
supposed to be progenitors of the modern berry. The first
named seems to be the most important of the four. Just when
the strawberry was cultivated is unknown. Its accidental men-
tion in ancient literature does not prove that it was then of
economic importance, and though Shakespeare uses the name in
Richard II and Henry V it may an anachronism if it is taken for
granted that the berries were cultivated. But in 1667 forced
strawberries appeared in the menu at the installation dinner at
Windsor. This would preve that they were more or less cultiva-
ted at that time.

The origin of its name is as doubtful as its debut. Some :
writers say it is so called from the practice of throwing straw
among the plants to keep the fruit clean; others,that it from
the Anglo-Saxon word "strahan® to scatter, from the straying
nature of its runners; still others, that it is from the little
hairs,(the styles) on the fruit. Whatever may be the origh of
the name is now of little moment.

Though the older botanists thought the strawberry a perfect
flowered plant, it is now known to vary from the purely pisti-

late, to the hermaphrodite of decided staminate Gevelopment,, but
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| without the discovery of a strictly staminate plant. The

flowers are proteranderous; thus close fertilization is guard-
ed against. As with other plants, however, the pollen of other
varieties is more potent than the pollen of the same variety.
When pistilates are grown it is necessary to have staminate
plants near by to furnish pollen. These should be planted in
separate rows to prevent mixing, for the pistillates are often
more rampant growers and soon choke out or conceal the stami-
nate varieties if grown in the same row.

Cultivation.

By runners amd seeds we have the principal methods of pro-
pagat ing the strawberry; plant division should be practiced nn-
ly when valuable varieties,which are chary in the production of
runners are to be saved and increased. Propagation by seed is
used when new varieties are desired, but otherwise it is not
to be recommended as the strawberry does not come true to sedd,
the re being a great tendency to vary. Crossing and hybridizing
will be touched on later.

Commercially, propagation by means of runners is the only

: reliable method. Munners are produced abundantly by nearly all

varieties. These be treated in either of two ways, first,
rooted naturally’ and, in pots. The former is the commoner way,
but when potted,the plants generally do better when set out,
especially if shipped any distance or planted in an unfavorable
season.

Like other fruits, especially early bloomers, the straw-
berry does best on a northern slope ,or, where natural air-drain-
age is good,on high ground. The blossoms are then not so lia-
ble to be nipped by a late frost and the soil is not exposed in
the sane degree to the hot south winds which sap its moisture
and thus injure the plants.

A good way to prepare the soil is to grow a crop of pota-
toes or corn on it, thus working over and fining it. The plat
 

 

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should be thoroughly mamured for this preparatory crop so that
' when it is off the surplus plant food will be in good condition
' for the berry plants. For an instance, én fall planting of the
strawberry let us follow tke processes from start to finish.
Raise a crop of early potatoes on ground thoroughly mamred and
' gultivated. This crop should be out in July when the land may
| be plowed, dragged, marked with a corn-marker in rows three to
, four feet apart, and then planted with young plants from a

: previous year’s bed. These should be set from twelve to eight-
' gen inches. apart according to the variety, and the whole finé

. ished before the second week in August. Cultivate to keep down
the weeds, mulch to conserve the moisture; clean culture is al-
) important. The mulch Bay be of marsh hay, straw, rotted street
| sweepings, litter, etc. Except for keeping down weeds nothing
' need be done till the ground is frozen . Then " wkyithe crust

| will bear a team give aliber& dressing of straw to prevent

| heaving of the plants by frost\.~ In April this mulch may be

| raked into the spaces between the rows when growth has started,
| at the same time the under milch may be stirred. But in the

_ bearing year the ground should not be molested for fear of in-
| Juring the roots. During this year a partial crop may be ga-

' thered but the only important work is to keep the plants gerw-
| ing vigorously and to hoe out the weeds. In the fall of this

| year a dressing of compost and, later, a mulch areaal thé is

| necessary. The bed will be in full bearing the following sp

. spring and may be cropped three years. Two years’ croppéhg is
| betterj;and,in commercia work, one year is the common pratice.
‘At the timeof plantinga little sodium nitrée is god to as-
' gist the youngplats in getting agood stzt. The srawberry is
a Mhdsf gross feeder and in a general way cannot be over-fed.

, It is better to have the plant food already in the soil as a

' surplus from a former crop than to give applications of manure
| during the growing season; but applications of well-rotted man-
i ure and commercial fertilizers may be given in the spring or
the fall at the time of mlching.
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Many good grwers prefer spring planting as being more cer-
tain. The ground is prepared as in fall plantimg and the plant
| are treated in a similar manner. The main objection to spring
_ planting is that there is then so mh other work to do that
| the work is often dohe in a slip-shod manner. With fall plant-
| ing the objection is that though the work may be #11 done as
' far as care in plantang is concerded, the plants run great
| riskt¥ of being Bhved by frosts,--greater because tity “ee are
| not thoroughly established. Which plan is really "the better
is hard to say; each has its advocates.
The two principal ways of cultivating the strawberry are
the hill and the matted row systems. The former is best adap-
' ted to the wants of the amatwer. It consists in setting the
plants twelve or fifteen inches fpert and képing dow bhe run-
! ners. By bhis method they produce numgous obo w tq, look pret-
| $y, give a fair crop of larger berries; but three or Sour times
: as many plants are required for the same area and the work is
| far greater than is necessary in the matted row system which
_ has superseded it commercially. The matted row system consists
: in allowing the plants to spread out both sides of the row afd
: to fill all the space for two feet or less. It may be seen
| that this method requiring so little attention, would naturally
become very popular.

Enemies.

Qne great advantage the strawberry grower has over the

: grower of nearly all other fruits, is the small expense to

| which he is put in fighting parasites and insects. Only one

| serious disease attacks thestrawberry. This is the leaf-blight
| (Sphaerella fragkaria) which attacks the leaves, stems and

| fruit stalks. It appears as a purplish spot with a white een-
: ter and it later on turns brown anddries up. It produces both
' summer and winter spores, the fermer being borne on long, slen-

| der hyphae; the latter, concealed beneath the epidermis ,brak-
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forth in theppring and thus disseminate th’ddsease. Often ak

crop is r#ined by an attack ator about the time the fruit sets.

| The tender fruit stalks are attacked and girdled in a very A

short time. Tie Bordeaux mixture (40-gallon formula) and the
copper sulphate solution (1# to 250 gallons of water) are now

. relied on to prevent the destructive effects of this parasite.

Applications of Bordeaux mixture may be made when growth com-
mences\ just before blossoming and, if necessary, about ten
days after blosseming. If further spraying is considered
necessary an application %the copper sulphate solution may be
given even as late qs the coloring of the fruit. After fruit-
ing the Bordeaux mixture may again be ysed. In young non-bear-
ins plantations Bordeaux mixture may be used almost with im-

' punity as its only deleterious effect is soiling the fruit

_ thus making it unsightly.

In a similar way the strawberry grower need not lay in a

' lot of poison for insect pests as the strawberry is not the

victim of much entomological depr&dation. The white Bab is
often destructive, but as this is found principally, if not
wholly, on newly plowed sod land, it may be avoided by pre-
vious tilling of the plot, thus giving the graub@ time to escape,

' Leaf rollers, aphis , and caterpillars of various kinds, occa-

sionally’ppear but they cannot be said to be specific pests and
as they can be fought with kerosene emlsion, hellebore, or
Paris grean, no mention need be made of special methods of de-
struction, except that if leaf rollers are very numerous and
troublesome, the patch may be burned dver after fruiting. This
method is very effective as the secon: brood is then in pro-

‘ ess of development.

Varieties.

Of the hundreds of vaieties now offered for sale by nur-
serymen, only about a score are considered of specia 1 worth.
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Of these I will describe five.
Crescent, a dirly prodctive, healthy, vigorous, pistillae

variety with medium sized, rather acid berrieghas gSdK ship-
| ping qualities. It is now giving place to W¢eJ¢r@ Haverland
' and Warfield.

|

Warfield és a pistillate berry with strong healthy foliage
and a gre-at producer of fruit and rupners. The fruit ripens
very early,has firm, sub-acid, medium-sized berries, and is a

good shipper.

Haverland is also a pistllate wariety. The fruit is of

good size and quality, but rather soft for shipment unless
| picked before fully ripe. Its ffeliage is very healthy. It is
' a@ vatuable variety for near market or home use.

' learned, as the laws of animal breeding. Scrubs produce scrubs'
choice sorts as parents, while not always producijg choice

Jessie, a bi-sexual variety, is a good “e and pro-
ducer of excellent fruit, but is rather subject to disease.
BederWood, Captain Jack, and Michell’s Early are all good

' bi-sexual varieties nad are thus goo

Crossing.

Owing to the ease with which the strawberry produces new
varieties, less attention has been given to it than it deserves
Haphazard wind fertilization is the, practice. The stéck rais-
er is very particular about t he parents of his thoroughbred:

carnation, or rose originator, is careful about the type o!
flowers he selects for parents of his varieties: each exer-

| cises judgment in his selection. But the grower of small
' fruits, especially the originator of this most delicious fruit,

allows insects to carry pollen from worthless varieties into%

the bed he is using for the production of new and improved soré

Is it any wonder, then, that so little improvement, comparative:

ly, has been made in sise, shape, flavor and hardiness of late?
The laws of plant breeding are the same, as far as yet

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| sorts, are liable to produce desirable varieties,--more, at

! least, than nondescripts. In raisin. new kinds as rigid care
| should be exercised as in other branches of breeding. System-
' atic hand fertilization; removing the stamens of the selected
female parent as soon as the flower begins to open; keeping

| the flower covered with/geiésfrom then on till the fruit is

| répe; carefully applying the pollen of the male parent when the
pistils of the females are ready for fertilization; carefully

_ labeling the plants to show parentage and other data}; sowing,

‘ marking, etc., gn a systematic manner; and keeping record of

_ the plants’foints, good and bad, are the rules which should be
' followed. In selecting the parents, a definite type of plant

‘ and fruit). should be in view. Have in each parent as many de-

| girable qualities and as few defects as possible, remembering

. that a feeble plant is liable to transmit its weakness to its
| seedlings. Other} defects are as sure to appear as weakness.

| From the start, keep the parents in as vigorous condition as

— controllable conditons will permit: vigor and vitality must not
_ suffer beeause of deficiendy in plant food, careless mulching,
| and poor cultivation.When the seedlings appear, surround Ktem

' with every needful requisite to develop them fully, because,

| like animals, they are influenced greatly by their environment.
: They are not adults, and hence require greater care. When the

| fruitcng season arrives, having in mind all data of growth, ete
' eritically examine, and ruthlessly discard all tiaose which show
' undesirable characteristics. None but superior varieties shoud
| be retianed.

Effect. of Pollen.

Therehas been more or less debate about the influence of
_ pollen on the fruit. In various other plants a marked influk-
' ence is observed, the most noticeable of which is,perhaps,
| corn. Here we often see dark grains on a white grained cob and
| vice versa. If the surroundings are carefully observed, we may
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find a dark seeded variety growing near the white, the wind
carrying the pollen. Many leading horticulturists, among them
Mr. A.S.Fuller, a gentleman of national reputation, é@laimyy
that they have observed these effects in the strawberry, But

. this point is not well espablished and needs further investi-
- gation and experiment.
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