PEOCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL MEETING. 



121 



being crossed, and are never matted nor excluded from the soil, as in" the 

 case of setting with spade or trowel. No plant can be too high or too low, 

 but must be just right; the roots are braced in every direction, so it can 

 not be pulled out nor injured by the weeding machine. [Figure 4.] All 

 plants set in the forenoon are cultivated with this weeder immediately 

 after dinner, loosening up the surface and making a fine dust mulch an 

 inch deep, under which the water will rapidly collect, being drawn up by 

 capillary action from the subsoil. The plants make a vigorous growth at 

 once. 



The roots, not being bunched, have an abundance of root pasturage on 

 all sides, and laterals start out in every direction at once. [Figure 5.] Not 

 a single dead root can be found, but all are alive and doing their work. 

 Not a. missing hill should be found on an acre at the next harvest. 



The weeding machine does all the work — no hand-weeding when plants 

 are set in this way. If plants were set with spade or trowel, this machine 

 could not be used, because so many plants would be set so low that the 

 ends of the teeth would tear the crowns out; and many, being set so 

 high, would be caught in the roots and pulled out. But, when set as 

 directed, with the perfection plant-setter, I guarantee it will not injure a 

 single plant, and it will do more and better work than any tool ever 

 invented. 



FigQre 4. 



The ideal bed is always grown in hills. Hill culture may be called the 

 concentrating of many small plants with small roots and small fruiting 

 crowns into one large plant, with long, large roots going down deep and far 

 out in search of food and moisture to bring to great perfection an immense 

 number of very large berries of richer flavor, finer texture, and higher 

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