STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 25 



rows, fifteen or eighteen inches apart each way, then leave a 

 space three and one-half or four feet, and then set another dou- 

 ble row, and so on until the plantation is finished, and allow the 

 plants to fill the intermediate space and about one foot on each side. 

 This allows much of the work to be done with a horse and cul- 

 tivator. For setting, select nice thrifty plants of the previous 

 year's growth, and never set plants that have borne fruit. 



It pays well to pick off all the blossoms the first season and 

 give the plant the entire strength and growth within itself. All 

 weeds should be kept down and the young plants encouraged to 

 their best. In the fall the spaces left vacant for cultivating 

 should receive a dressing of manure, and the plants are best to be 

 covered with leaves, clean straw from bottom of stack, bagasse 

 from cane mill, ^r brush from the woods. The latter, where con- 

 venient, is the best protection of all. In the spring, after the 

 ground is done freezing and the plants have started, remove the 

 covering and go over the bed and destroy every weed and grass 

 that has heretofore escaped notice; and it will pay to scatter 

 over the bed a coating of fine manure, that of neat cattle be- 

 ing the best. Go over them frequently, to destroy all the weeds, 

 but disturb the roots as little as possible until after the fruit is 

 gathered. 



After the fruit is gathered go through all the spaces that were 

 left vacant, and with spade or fork dig them deeply, rake down 

 level, putting them in fine condition for the runners to make 

 new plants, and with a spade dig out the old plants of last year, 

 leaving about two feet between what is left to facilitate passing 

 through and cultivating. If the weeds are kept out and an oc- 

 casional dressing of manure given, the bed will last about three 

 years, when the whole bed should be plowed under, and a crop 

 or two of something else should be taken off before the ground 

 Is again irsed for strawberries. Unless this course is pursued it 

 will pay the farmer better to set a bed every spring in rows 

 about two feet apart, keep them clean and let them run at will, 

 and the next season after the crop is off, dig or plow 

 them under. This method requires two plots, as it is too late to 

 set plants after the picking season. The first crop is always the 

 best, except with the Charles Downing, and old beds are usually 

 very troublesome to keep free from weeds and more liable to be 

 troubled with the ' ' white grub. ' ' The hill system is not as 

 safe in this State, and not as well adapted for farmers. 

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