SCIENTIFIC STRAWBERRY GROWING. 443 



gate, but if he simply sells his farm or dies, don't worry; nine times 

 in ten they will be there early with money to pay and generally with 

 plenty of blankets to protect their trees. They are always careful, 

 prudent men. 



We have known a "tree delivery" to produce, well — not a famine — 

 but a terrible failure of crops in that locality. After a time, you 

 will view these little peculiarities with charity. They are but 

 blemishes on the human character, which, once understood, can be 

 easily forgiven. 



In conclusion, when you can make 98 per cent, of your grafts 

 "catch" and make the slow growers keep up with the faster ones; 

 when you can dig nothing but straight, smooth trees, all six feet 

 high without scar or blemish; when you can give every man the 

 pick of your stock and have enough of that to go around; when you 

 can pack each man's goods first; in fact, when you can obtain per- 

 fect control of the laborer, the aalesinan, the transportation com- 

 panies and the elements, and can command a favorable dispensa- 

 tion of Providence occasionally as to the seasons, etc., then you will 

 know "how to run a nursery" and not before. 



SCIENTIFIC STRAWBERRY GROWING. 



C. D. CARTER, MICHIGAN. 



More frequent dry seasons call for a change of method in straw- 

 berry growing. In order to fight the drouth successfully and do 

 the cultivating with horses, set the plants 30 or 32 inches apart in 

 the row, and plow both ways. The rows must be straight, so that 

 the cultivator may be run close to the plants. Keep the entire sur- 

 face covered with a dust mulch. Growth will then continue through 

 a drought. 



In the winter, cover the whole space with a mulch. In spring make 

 a small opening over the crown of the plant with a pointed stick. 

 The leaves will grow up through this opening. The mulch can 

 then remain to prevent evaporation and to keep the berries clean. 

 In the hill the fruit will be larger, better colored and sweeter than if 

 grown in the matted row. Varieties like Haverland will have as 

 high a color -as Parker Earle. 



I have followed this plan for three years, and would no more think 

 of going back to the matted row than I would cut my hay with a 

 scythe. This system is made easily possible by the invention of the 

 automatic running cutter, which gathers up and cuts the runners, 

 leaving them about a foot in length. A new fruit stem will result 

 from every runner which is cut. I have counted as many as 32 fruit 

 stems on a hill from which the runners were cut the year before. 

 Less labor is required to get the patch in condition for succeeding 

 crops than by any other system. 



If ground is limited, set the rows 33 inches apart, and the plants 

 16^^ inches apart in the row, and cultivate one way. This plan will 

 require more hoeing, but the yield per acre will be 25 per cent 

 greater. Select varieties which send out runners freely. Keep 

 these cut off. Crowns from four to six inches across will result. 

 Two quarts to the hill is not an excessive yield, and the quality will 

 be first claBa.—Americaa Agriculturist. 



