28 RENEWAL OF BEDS. 
the soil as close to the plants, as often, and as much 
as possible, only being cautious not to disturb the 
roots. 
RENEWAL OF BEDS. 
This should be done once in three or four years, 
and the same ground should be planted with corn or po- 
tatoes for one season, and receive an application of lime, 
ashes, and salt, as advised in the article on the prepa- 
ration of the ground, before it is again used for straw- 
berries. The bed might be made to bear well, by a 
careful renewal of the old plants by their runners, for 
ten or a dozen years, but this would require rather 
more skill in cultivation than most persons possess. 
Every year or two, if a strong runner has struck 
itself beside an old plant, we pull up the old plant 
instead of the runner, and are constantly thus renew- 
ing them. We always leave the best plants. The 
field cultivator has only to clean off the weeds, and 
prepare the soil in the spaces of three feet between the 
rows; allow the runners to cover that ground; then 
drive the cultivator or plough through, turning under 
the old row of plants; thin out his new ones to proper 
distances, and his system of renewal is complete. 
