STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 43 
As our success depends to a great extent on the mode of culture adopted, it 
may be well to consider the methods of some of our leading growers: 
Mr. Knox, the ‘‘Strawberry King,” of Pittsburg, was very successful, and 
his plan was to set the plants eighteen inches apart each way, cut off all run- 
ners and cultivate with the hoe, keeping the ground mulched after the first sum- 
mer. He took from three to five crops from the same bed and his berries were 
of the very best. From a single picking of the Jucunda, he sent a hundred 
bushels to New York and the same quantity to Philadelphia, which brought 
him fifty cents a quart at wholesale, besides retailing a large quantity in Pitts- 
burg the same day. His soil was heavy clay, and very rich. His mode was es- 
pecially adapted to the foreign sorts, and his greatest success was with Jucun- 
da, Triomphe de Gand, Trollope’s Victoria, and Kittley’s Goliath, all foreign. 
The objections to it are that a great amount of labor is required before any re- 
turns come in, that plants in hills are more lable to be winter-killed and that 
when the ground is occupied for several consecutive years, the enemies of the 
strawberry—which are more numerous now than in Mr. Knox’s day—are mul- 
tiplied. 
‘Peter Henderson, of New York, cultivates with remarkable success as fol- 
lows: Ground that has been heavily manured for previous crops is well prepared 
in August, three inches of well rotted stable manure worked into the surface, 
and potted plants of the large varieties are set two feet apart each way. They 
receive the best of care, every runner being cut off, and the whole bed carefully 
covered in the winter. After bearing in June they are plowed under. The 
finest fruit is grown in this way. 
Mr. Henderson has an army of skilled workmen ; his work is done in the best 
manner, and his home market is the best in the country, and extra fine fruit 
brings a great price. While his plan may be a success with him, there are but 
few men over the country who would find it profitable to put 400 loads of ma- 
nure and 11,000 potted plants to the acre. 
We often see it recommended, especially for garden culture, to lay the ground 
off in beds four feet wide, with paths a foot wide between, and set three rows of 
plants on each bed, one foot apart in the row, keeping allrunners off. This 
would require about 25,000 plants to the acre, and a great amount of work to 
accomplish what can be done much cheaper. 
The plan most common on the light sand of New Jersey, where such im- 
mense quantities are grown, is to have the rows four feet apart, and set the 
plants twelve inches in the row, let them run, and cultivate with a horse, nar- 
rowing the cultivator as the strips of plants get wider. This, however, leaves 
the plants so thick that they can not properly develop, and the best fruit is nev- 
er produced in this way. 
J. M. Smith, of Green Bay, Wis., is certainly one of the most successful 
growers in the west. His plan is as follows: 
‘Mark off the bed in rows two feet apart, and set the plants from twelve to 
fifteen inches in the row. Let each plant send out six runners, forming 4 semi- 
circle on each side of the parent plant, and about six inches from it. This will 
leave an alley one foot in width to walk in. Cut off all other runners, and keep 
the whole season’s growth in these plants.” 
This will necessitate a good deal of labor, but if the season shouid be moist, 
and the ground deep and rich, an immense crop would be produced. On the 
other hand, if there should be but little rain, or if the ground should be only 
