Small Fruits. 399 



Setting the Patch — Take plants from a new bed that has never 

 been allowed to fruit. Trim the top to two or three leaves and the 

 roots to five inches length. The spade is the most satisfactory tool I 

 have yet found for setting plants ; it should never be pushed straight 

 down, thus making a large hole, the bottom of which cannot be 

 closed. The best way is to set the spade square across the mark, face 

 down ; push it into the ground on a sharp angle, push handle forward 

 far enough to insert plant under spade, withdraw spade and press 

 the earth firmly against the plant. There can, be no cavity under 

 plants thus set. Set plants 15 inches to 3 feet apart in the row, ac- 

 cording to variety. Free runners like Warfield or Brandywinc can be 

 set even four feet apart on strong soil, and the runners trained in be- 

 tween to make one continuous row. 



Care of Patch — Cultivate immediately after setting, with very nar- 

 row teeth on cultivator running close to plants ; cut off all buds the 

 first year. When runners appear cut them off. Repeat this once 

 then let them grow. My great desire now is to get them to root. 

 The best way to do this is to cover them with soil. This is accom- 

 plished by adjusting the cultivator so the front tooth will make a 

 little furrow for them to fall into and the rear tooth will fill it, and 

 so cover them. They will easily grow through two inches of soil. 



When the row is of the desired width I chop runners off with a 

 knife made of thin saw blade. By this method of getting the plants 

 rooted early in the season they will make a very strong growth by the 

 following spring, and be able to bear a large crop of berries. Neither 

 will they set so thick as they would if cut a number of times before 

 allowing them to run. 



For early berries a southern slope is best. Cultivate imtil after 

 blooming, then mulch between rows. Frost will strike much quicker 

 on straw than on cultivated land. To prolong the season, set late va- 

 rieties on a northern incline. Mulch very heavy and leave it on late. 



To every boy and girl intending to set a strawberry patch I wish 

 to add a word of warning. If you plant anything but staminate or 

 perfect-flowering kinds, be sure to set staminate varieties every third 

 row at least, to cross-fertilize. .A mistake on this point is the worst 

 you can make ; your labor will be lost. — G. H. Marshall, Mich., in 

 Ohio Farmer. 



THE BETTER THE LAND, THE BETTER TFTE BERRIES. 



The better the land, the better I like it, says R. M. Kellogg. 

 The growing of all small fruits is enormously profitable when grown 



