STUAWUEKKIKS AND TIIKIU CTLTUKK. 



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climate is absolutely necessary ; and any system of culture wliidi precludes this, or 

 throws any obstacles in its way, is defective. If any one will examine Lis Strawberry 

 beds, he will find the plants along the outer edges of the beds, where the soil has 

 been kept clean and fresh by the frequent use of the hoe, vigorous and healthy, with 

 luxuriant dark green foliage, and large, fine fruit ; while in the interior of the beds, 

 where the plants have grown into masses, and covered all the ground, so as to prevent 

 its cultivation, they are yellow and sickly looking, and the fruit poor and worthless. 

 This we see in our own grounds, and everywhere that we find plants growing under 

 similar circumstances. Does not this show the necessity of cultivation close around 

 the plants ? No matter how deep we may trench the soil, or how unsparing we may 

 be with manures, or how copiously we supply moisture, this cultivation can not be 

 dispensed with, if we aim at producing fine fruits and abundance of them. " But," 

 says one cultivator, " by allowing the ground to be all occupied with plants, we save 

 all the labor which would be consumed in removing the runners, and we avoid the 

 necessity of applying a mulching to keep the fruit clean." Very true, you save some 

 expense; but what do you get in return? A crop of fruit not fit for the table — 

 small, insipid, and so dirty, if a heavy rain occurs about ripening time, that it must 

 be put through the wash-tub before it is placed on the table. It is possible that the 

 market grower may be able to produce berries of this kind at a less price per quart 

 than he could by a careful, cleanly, and thorough system of culture ; but then he can 

 expect to sell sucli fruit only when no better can be had. "We have some doubts, 

 however, as to the economy of bad culture in the long run. If a proper system were 

 adopted at the outstart, and followed up with regularity, it would not be found so 

 profitless or expensive. In this, as in every other kind of culture, a system is abso- 

 lutely necessary. A certain routine of operations which are easily executed if taken 

 at the right time, become burthensome when deferred ; and being so, they are not 

 unfrequently put off altogether. Precisely thus it is that Strawberry beds are neg- 

 lected, both in market gardens and private gardens, until they are grown wild beyond 

 hope of recovery. Now, we say to every one who wishes to cultivate Strawberries, 

 resolve at once upon abandoning the "lazy-bed" system; and if you cultivate but a 

 square rod, do it well. 



We advise planting in rows not less than two feet apart, unless ground be very 

 scarce, when eighteen inches might suffice, and the plants to be twelve to eighteen 

 inches apart in the rows. In extensive field culture, the rows should be at least three 

 feet apart, in order to admit the use of the plow and cultivator between them, or even 

 the passage of a cart to deposit manures or mulching material. The spade and wheel- 

 barrow are too costly implements for an extensive culture where labor is scarce and 

 high, as with us. From the time the plants are set until the fruit is gathered, the 

 runners should be cut away as fast as they appear, and the ground be kept clean of 

 weeds, and well worked. 



In the fall, or before the setting in of winter, a mulching of half-decayed leaves or 

 manure should be placed between the rows, coming close around the plants, leaving 

 the crown or heart uncovered. This mulching prevents the plants from being drawn 



