Training the Plant 87 



the plants in line. Runners are layered all around the 

 mother plants, and spaced approximately equidistant, so as 

 to fully occupy the ground. If no runners are set from 

 these maiden plants, the result is "cart wheel training," 

 which was practiced by J. M. Smith of Green Bay, Wiscon- 

 sin, forty years ago ; the mother plant is the hub and the 

 runners radiating from it are the spokes. More frequently 

 two or three runners from each maiden plant are hand- 

 set, until the entire space between the mother plants has 

 been filled with layers about five or six inches apart ; after 

 this, all runners are removed. The result is a row twelve 

 to fifteen inches wide, the plants not aligned but quite 

 uniformly spaced. This is sometimes called a narrow 

 matted row, but is quite distinct from that method. 



Matted row. 



This differs from the preceding method in that the 

 runners are not bedded by hand ; for the most part, they 

 are allowed to form and take root at will and no attempt 

 is made to regulate the distance between plants. The 

 number of runners and the width of the row may be regu- 

 lated by the use of runner cutters or tillage tools while 

 they are forming ; or the plants may be thinned and the 

 rows narrowed after the runners have set. The most 

 vital point in strawberry training — the distance between 

 individual plants, is not regulated ; the runners mat or 

 root where they happen to strike. The matted row is 

 "wide" or "narrow." These are relative terms; gener- 

 ally speaking, rows under fifteen inches wide are called 

 narrow. 



There are gradations between the spaced row and the 

 matted row. Frequently the first runners may be set by 

 hand but subsequent runners allowed to root at will, up 



