INDIANA' HORTICUI-TURAL SOCIETY. 467 



ground, and that acre of strawberries made very good rows, although 

 there were a number of patches in my neighborhood that never put 

 forth a runner nor made a phint. In the spring, as soon as the ground 

 will work well, I would take a disk harrow and break the soil up well. 

 Afterwards, with a harrow and a drag, or a roller, or both, I Avould 

 pack the soil thoroughly. You will not have good results in setting plants 

 in a loose soil. 



The ground being thus prepared, I will select the plants. I shall 

 not dwell long on the varieties I should set, because I do not indulge in 

 many varieties, but stick to what I have tried until I know there is 

 something better. I set Clyde and Haverland for early; Senator Dunlap 

 for medium, and Sample and Gandy for later. The time has come when 

 we should raise for quality rather than quantity. I set by a line about 

 18 feet long. We put this line on the ground, and it has two little 

 poles, one at each end, and we are very careful to keep this line straight. 

 Care should be taken to set the pistillate varieties between two good 

 perfect flowering varieties, so the latter will pollenize the pistillate varie- 

 ties. I set the rows four feet apart, and the plants twenty inches apart 

 in the row. * 



We find there is a great deal of work in the cultivation of straw- 

 berries—every weed must be taken out of the patch. I begin to cultivate 

 as soon as I get through setting, and keep it up until Octobex*. I culti- 

 vate after every rain, as soon as the ground will enable me to do so. 

 I never cultivate deep next to the plant, but deep in the center of the 

 rows. 



In cleaning out an old patch, several methods may be pursued. I 

 take a two-horse cornplow, and set the two inside shovels twisted, so 

 they will thi-ow about an inch of soil on the row; then I take a drag 

 and drag it down. Afterwards I take a harrow and cross the rows, 

 which will almost level the ridges. This must be done immediately after 

 .turning the patch off. 



Now, as to picking our berries. We pick in quart boxes, and we 

 have "bandies" that will hold four boxes. When a gallon has been 

 picked, the picker will call out "box," and our carrier will take it up. 

 giving the picker a gallon ticket for it. It is then taken to sheds near 

 our patch, in which we pack onr berries. We do not have pickers enough 

 in our county, and are therefore sometimes obliged to feend to Harrison 

 Countj' for pickers. Wo depend upon the school children for a great 

 deal of our picking; and when the schools were not out till late this 

 year we found we were short of pickers; but still we were fortunate in 

 having the few we were able to obtain, energetic pickers; the berries 

 were large, and eleven pickers picked fifty-nine cases in one day. We 

 I'ound with our eleven pickers, on that occasion, we did more woric than 

 we sometimes accomplished with twenty-five or thirty. But we generally 

 depend upon the city children to pick our berries. 



