MOWING THE TOPS OF STRAWBERRIES. 209 



grapes can be raised for three cents a pound, and pay better 

 than any crop you raise down here. Three cents a pound is a 

 dollar and a half a bushel, and I think grapes can be grown as 

 cheaply as potatoes ; they certainly can with me. 



Now, perhaps I have said enough about grapes, and as I 

 shall be able to speak but a little while longer, I will say a few 

 words in regard to strawberries. 



.1 am growing strawberries quite extensively, and I regard 

 them as a profitable crop, when properly managed. Without 

 any particular preliminaries, I will say, that my usual method 

 of planting is to plant them in rows, four feet apart, and twelve 

 or fourteen inches apart in the rows. Whatever way I want to 

 grow them, I make up my mind to have them in straight lines. 

 If I am going to make a bed which is to remain three years, 

 as it would be necessary to do with the Triomphe de Gand, 

 the Agriculturist, or the Jucunda, for the reason that none of 

 these large varieties can be grown to a full crop under what 

 is called the matted-bed or Belmont system, it is the best way, 

 because in single rows, with the runners cut off, they can be 

 made to produce good crops. 



The greatest success that I have realized in growing straw- 

 berries, has been from mowing off the tops. You will think 

 that is a pretty rough operation, but I will venture to say that 

 not once in twenty times can a man grow a second crop of 

 strawberries, with any success, particularly under the matted- 

 bed system, without mowing the tops. Immediately after you 

 have taken of the crop, don't wait, but mow them all over. 

 Don't have any nonsense about it, but mow them right down 

 close to the ground, and then rake the leaves off clean. Sup- 

 pose you are going to keep your bed over, it will not be half 

 the work to weed that bed after it is mown, that it would have 

 been if you had not mown it. Then with a horse and a small- 

 sized plough, go through the paths and turn two small furrows 

 together — in all a strip from thirteen to fifteen inches wide ; 

 then with a Hexamer-prong hoe level the furrows and gather 

 any rubbish in small heaps, after which the bed should be 

 loosened .with a small-pronged hoe, and any white clover or 

 grass rooted up. By doing this it will be much less work to fin- 

 ish the weeding, which should be done at once, and you will 

 be astonished to see what a handsome bed of strawberries you 



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