THE AMATEUR CULTURE OP STRAWBERRIES. 137 



cultivation is the attention necessary during the growing season Tor the removal 

 of the runners, although it is claimed by many that the yield of fruit is really 

 less than by other processes. Be this as it may ; when we observe that the cost 

 of cultivation is certainly not increased, but rather diminished, and that 

 replanting will only be necessary at intervals of three, four, or more years, 

 while the size and consequent value of the fruit is greatly increased; we can 

 hardly fail to reach the conclusion that the process is well worthy of trial. 



THE KEY. JOn]Sr KlSrOX's SYSTEM AND SUCCESS. 



Probably no one individual has done more to demonstrate the success, or 

 profitableness of this system of managing the strawberry than the Eev. John 

 Knox, late of Pittsburgh, Pa., now deceased. Mr. Meehan, the editor of the 

 Gardner's Monthly of Philadelphia, after an examination of his plantations, 

 writes as follows, of the success of Mr. Knox : " The great secret is his manner 

 of treatment: — * * * The plants are set in the spring, rather close in the 

 rows, and the runners cut back by hand. This cutting back is one great 

 secret. He has found tliat the production of runners and fruit are antagon- 

 istic forces. * * * Familiar as I am with superior fruit crops, I have never 

 known anything to equal this. The size of the berries was the largest that 

 any one ever saw, and might easily be mistaken by a near-sighted observer for 

 tomatoes. The interest of the matter, however, does not centre so much in 

 the large size of the berries as in the number of them. I have seen, probably, 

 as great a weight per acre on the grounds of Philadelphia growers, but nowhere 

 the same measure of large fruit. In most strawberry crops a few large berries 

 come at first, and a mass of small ones follow ; here there are comparatively 

 few of the latter, and the great advantage is that, while in times of abundance 

 the inferior ones glut the market, and are only sold at a loss to the grower, 

 the superior fruit is never abundant, and readily commands high prices." 



The Horticulturist for 1871, says: "Mr. Knox succeeded in making his 

 land, devoted to the Jucunda Strawberry, pay from $1,200 to $1,500 per acre, 

 and frequently sold fancy berries at the rate of one dollar per quart. * * * 

 These quart baskets often held but eighteen berries, or but nine to the pint. 

 From two and a half acres last year he realized, net, $3,600. He is the only 

 strawberry grower of our acquaintance who makes more money from the fruit 

 than from the plants from the same ground." 



We cannot better advise how to grow big crops of strawberries, than by 

 quoting a paragraph from the same article at page 03 : " Give room ; do not 

 plant too close together ; two feet apart is better than one foot. Two and a 

 half feet by one and a half to two feet is just right for field culture. Put a 

 good shovelful of manure under each plant at the time of setting. * * * 

 One grower plants two feet by one and gets two thousand quarts per acre ; 

 another plants two and a half by two, keeps the runners out, and gets four 

 thousand quarts per acre. The former cannot understand Avhy with twice 

 as many plants he gets only half the crop. We assure our readers, that 

 strawberries are, like the colossal asparagus — biggest where tliey have the most 

 room and best feed. A crop of one thousand quarts per acre will prove a fail- 

 ing business to any grower. It is better to reduce plantations one-half and 

 manure double. 



In the Small Fruit Eecorder will be found the report of experiments in the 

 hill system and the matted row system : ''1,500 plants of the Wilson's Albany 

 were kept in hills, the runners pulled off every time they appeared ; the other 



18 



