Training the Plant 89 



heaving than matted row or spaced row plants. Large 

 plants with many crowns are not anchored as deeply and 

 firmly in the soil as small plants. If fruited more than one 

 season they tend to rise out of the ground, because new 

 roots start higher on the stems ; this favors injury from 

 heaving. In a matted row, the roots permeate the entire 

 surface soil and hold it so that there is less heaving. 

 Plants in the matted row protect one another to some 

 extent. The regions in which hill training is common 

 have a mild climate and deep freezing is unknown. The 

 more severe the climate the less advantageous it is to grow 

 large, isolated plants. Plants in hills suffer more from 

 frost than plants in matted rows, as the blossoms are not 

 as well protected by the foliage. In a mild, humid climate 

 which is conducive to a rank growth of weeds, even during 

 the winter, as on the North Pacific coast, hill or hedge- 

 row training is most practicable because it permits tillage 

 close to every plant. Conversely, in the semi-arid sections 

 of North Dakota, where there is no water for irrigation, 

 hedge-row training is practiced so as to be able to till 

 most of the ground. Hill plants suffer more from drought 

 than hedge-row or spaced row plants. This is partly 

 because they are rooted higher in the soil; but chiefly 

 because a single hill plant, bearing a quart of berries, 

 requires as much water as a dozen smaller plants occupy- 

 ing the same area, but cannot get it as readily since its 

 roots are not so well distributed. Still another climatic 

 influence is observed in Florida and the southern part of 

 the Gulf states. There it is necessary to isolate each 

 plant in order that the low winter sun may strike all 

 around it, and color the berries, which ripen very slowly at 

 that time of the year; in matted rows the fruit ripens 

 very poorly and moulds. 



