106 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 



west. Of this we are fully persuaded, it takes the whole of the sea- 

 son to grow good fruiting- plants; there must be no delay in rooting 

 as soon as the plants are in condition. 



We commence preparing for strawberries by plowing the ground 

 deep in the fall, harrowing level and planting it to potatoes in 

 the spring, giving them the best of cultivation. Allow nothing to 

 seed on the ground. At digging time, leave all the small potatoes 

 on the ground. Give the ground a good dressing of well rotted 

 compost, composed of horse, cow and hog manure. Plow potatoes 

 and compost under deep, harrow till the soil is fine and level and 

 go over it again in spring with a heavy harrow with long, sharp 

 teeth, cut the soil fine and deep and smooth it over with a light har- 

 row. Plant about the 15th of May or as soon as the ground is warm 

 in rows four feet apart, plants frotn twenty inches to two feet apart 

 in the row^, every third row a staminate variety. Stretch a strong 

 line on one side of the ground the long way; stretch the line until it 

 is perfectly straight. At intervals of forty or fiftj'- feet along the line 

 place a small stone or some weight on the line to keep it in place. 



Use good plants from new beds; dig, trim and tie in bunches of 

 Hity; puddle the roots of each bunch in a mixture of clay and water 

 about the thickness of paint; heel the roots of the bunches in moist 

 ground, each variety by itself, marked with a stake with the name 

 of the kind. 



We plant in the following way: Use a sharp and bright spade; 

 place the edge near the line and press it down perpendicular six or 

 seven inches, work it back and forth two or three times and then 

 draw it out. In this way the holes are all made to receive the roots. 

 Another person sets the plants in the following wa3^: He takes a 

 plant in his left hand, spreads the roots like a flat broom and places 

 them in the hole, presses the soil about the lower parts of the roots 

 and then fills up to the crown and presses the soil lightly with both 

 hands. 



When our plants are set out they are all in little holes about five 

 or six inches in diameter and an inch and a half deep, and the crown 

 of each plant is an inch and a half below the surface soil. In this 

 way two persons should set out at least 6,000 plants in a day and do 

 it good. 



As soon as the plants make a good start, in place of cultivating 

 and hoeing, as is the usual custom, we draw with hoes an inch and 

 a half of soil from between the plants in the rows to the center of 

 the space between the rows. This leaves the soil between the rows 

 in the center three inches higher than it is in the rows of plants. 

 Cultivating with a horse commences soon after the soil has been 

 drawn between the rows, and is continued with about ten days be- 

 tween each cultivation, going each time the same way. The plants 

 being straight in the rows, the cultivator is run close to the plants, 

 and but little hoeing is required. But one tool with a horse is used 

 the first season, and that is a small iron cultivator in the shape of 

 the letter v; it opens and shuts with the aid of a thumb screw. On 

 the end of each tooth is a very small steel shovel. This cultivator 

 cuts the soil fine, loosens it below and does not hill up the plants. 



