Appendix. 183 



thirty to thirty-six inches apart and the plants from eighteen to twenty- 

 four or even thirty inches apart in the rows, much depending on the capa- 

 bility of the variety as a plant-maker. If the plants used for a new bed 

 are strong and start into growth vigorously, the first runners are used, 

 as it has been found that under most conditions the plants about twelve 

 months old yield the greatest number of fine fruits. These first runners 

 are usually "bedded in," i. e., planted by hand, training them along the 

 wide way of the rows, using from four to eight of the first runners and 

 cutting off those growing later. This method of planting allows cultivation 

 both ways until the runners start, retaining moisture and saving labor 

 in hoeing. 



Clean straw or swale grass makes the best winter mulch. The rows 

 are covered two to four inches deep. This winter mulch should be raked 

 from the plants and left between the rows as a protection to the fruits 

 and a safeguard against drought in the fruiting season. 



The use of well-rotted manure, plowed under when fitting the land for 

 plants, gives the best of results in many cases. Especially is this the 

 case when a dry growing season occurs, the plants being able at once to 

 obtain available plant food and growing without a check and making 

 runners early in the season. In many soils the manure adds the needed 

 humus. Green or half-rotted manure is more often an injury than a 

 benefit because of the many weed seeds it contains. Many strawberry 

 beds are practically ruined by the weeds introduced by the use of such 

 manure. Perhaps the better method of using manure is to apply it rather 

 heavily to the crop grown on the land the year before strawberries are 

 planted, following that crop with a cover crop to be turned under in the 

 spring before setting plants. 



The best growers are always experimenting, and as a result many 

 special practices have developed. One of these, by George A. Davis, will 

 serve as a type: "Last year I marked a three-acre piece three and one- 

 fourth by four feet, setting two plants nine inches apart at each crossing. 

 I cultivated the piece both ways until the plants became numerous enough 

 so that there was risk of destroying them. Then cultivation was continued 

 only one way. The plants were then bedded in the narrow way (three 

 and one-half feet), and the cultivator was only run lengthwise (in four- 

 foot space), gradually narrowing the cultivator as the plants become more 

 numerous. By this method (two plants in a place) there is (1) less risk 

 of waste ground, that is, if a grub eats one there still remains a plant to 

 fill the space; (2) there is more space for pickers; (3) cultivator saves 

 expense in hoeing; (4) new plants root much more readily when the soil 

 has been cultivated than in the single matted rows." 



