MICHIGAN STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 49 



ical form of earth, covering the root with a trowel, etc. This 

 may be very well where a small patch of a few yards only is 

 to be planted, but is too slow a process where a large number 

 of plants must be inserted in a short time. A dibble that 

 will make a hole the size of a fifty-cent piece, is the best 

 instrument to use in planting. If the soil be dry, some one 

 should go ahead of the planter, making holes and filling them 

 with water. The planter should follow with another dibble, 

 putting in the plants and pressing the earth quickly around 

 the root by another insertion of the dibble after the plant is in, 

 care being taken not to cover the eye, which, in strawberries, is 

 very near the root. None but strong young plants should be 

 used. My observation is that it is not the old root of the plant 

 that grows. This is useful to hold the plant to the ground, 

 but it is the new roots which strike out all around the plaut 

 soon after planting, which become the main support of the 

 growing vine. This is why we claim the spreading of the old 

 root unnecessary. Having the plants firmly set is of much 

 more consequence than any theoretical arrangement of the 

 old roots, and this can be secured most readily by one stroke 

 of the dibble on one side of the plant, pressing the earth 

 towards it. By this process a large number of plants can be 

 put in in a day, and if the ground be moist and fine, as it 

 should be, the new roots which strike out just above the old 

 ones will spread in their natural form and sustain the plant 

 in its future growth. August planting can be made success- 

 ful in this manner, no matter how dry the season, if careful 

 hoeing and cultivation be attended to. 



If, in extending a strawberry plantation, a suflBcient number 

 of plants cannot be secured, or if the beds from which the 

 young plants are to be obtained are required to bear fruit, a 

 large number of good plants can be raised by commencing a 

 nursery bed for plants early in the season, say in May, in some 

 shady place where water is at hand. The method is to prepare 

 a small bed by digging, and then thoroughly drench it with 

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