308 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



One of the most important items of strawberry-growing is the 

 distance the plants are apart at fruiting time. I believe that six or 

 eight inches by one foot, in the matted-row system, will give as good 

 if not better results than to have them closer. It is easier to tell how 

 the plants should stand than to make them stand just that way. I 

 think that, as a rule, berry-growers are too much afraid of spending^ 

 money enough on their plantations to obtain best results. 



The present season I counted 260 berries and blossoms on a 

 single plant that had plenty of room to show what it would do if given 

 a good chance. Even if this plant would only mature fifty good, large- 

 sized berries, and that they would only fill one wine-quart box, who is- 

 there before me today that would begrudge that plant even a square 

 foot of ground '? The best and cheapest way that I know of to get 

 your plants six or eight inches by one foot is to set your plants threfr 

 by five feet and cultivate both ways, and keep all blossoms and run- 

 ners off the plants until they are well-established, good, strong plants, 

 and then only let four runners form on each plant. Train the first 

 two runners lengthwise of the rows, so that you will have a single row 

 of plants one foot apart in the rows and the rows five feet apart ; then 

 let each plant make two more runners and train at right angles to the 

 row, and let each one of these runners make two plants, and keep all 

 the balance of the runners pulled off. 



This will insure you some very large, fine plants that will bear ber- 

 ries in piles instead of a few little stunned berries, as we often see in 

 matted rows where the plants stand not over one inch apart. The 

 great mistake that I have made has been in allowing plants to mat toe 

 closely, but I intend to thin heroically in the future, and I expect that 

 every cent that I spend on my patch will be doubly repaid to me in 

 fine, large berries that will sell at the very highest market price. 



I am trying 10 acres in hill culture this season, but am not sure 

 that this will pay better than the matted rows, if properly cultivated^ 

 Will give you a report of them after the crop next spring. 



Wherever the ground is of such nature that the frost will heave 

 plants out in the winter, or where they are planted on gound that will 

 spatter the berries with dirt during the berry or picking season, they 

 should be mulched with clean wheat straw, prairie hay or some other 

 substance that will lay up loose over the plants to keep them from 

 heaving, or from getting gritty. Many put on a great deal more mulch 

 than is necessary. A very thin layer of straw, thin enough so that you 

 can see the plants dimly, is plenty thick enough. You will not have to 

 remove it in the spring, but let the plants grow right up through it. 

 The soil on our hill lands in Oregon county was never yet known to 



