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to take from a field will depend on various circumstances. 

 Sometimes plantings will continue to yield well for three or 

 four years. Usually it will be found best to plow them up 

 after the second crop. At the south where fall planting is 

 successful, the tendency will be to take only one crop, thus 

 occupying the land only half the year, except so far as neces- 

 sary to grow plants for the fall setting. 



The advisability of keeping strawberries strictly in hills, 

 or of allowing them to make runners and form matted rows 

 is a question that has been widely discussed, and on which 

 opinions and practice still differ. The bulk of the testimony 

 seems to favor a narrow matted row, with the plants set 

 somewhat thinly, to either a wide row or hill culture. It is 

 safe to say that nine-tenths of the berries marketed in this 

 country, are grown in matted^rows, and this method is recom- 

 mended for all spring set plants. When planted in the fall, 

 most kinds make very few runners till after the fruiting 

 season, so that fall planting, practically means hill culture, 

 so far at least as the first crop is concerned. For this reason, 

 plants should be set closer in fall than in spring planting. 



Insects and Diseases. 



Strawberries are the favorite food plant of a long list of 

 noxious insects. Some attack the leaves, others the roots, some 

 bore into the crowns, while still others eat holes in the fruit 

 or injure it by sucking the juice, thus causing it to "button" 

 or dry down into hard unsightly knots. When berries are 

 grown continuously in large quantity in any neighborhood, 

 many of these pests are sure to become troublesome. So far, 

 there has been very little complaint of damage in this state, 

 and no detailed account of strawberry insects will be at- 

 tempted here. The best preventive measure is a quick 

 rotation of crops. The plan of plowing up fields when the 

 crop is gathered, and replanting in the fall, where this can be 

 successfully done, will prove very effective in controlling 

 many of these pests. For a full account of strawberry insects, 

 the reader is referred to Bull. 42, of the Florida station. The 



