Training the Plant 95 



Spaced row and hedge-row. 



The effort to effect a compromise between hill and 

 matted row training has resulted in hedge-row and spaced 

 row training. There is little difference between the triple 

 hedge-row and the narrow spaced row, except as regards 

 alignment ; the results are identical. A special advantage 

 of the hedge-row is observed in harvesting the crop ; most 

 of the berries lie in windrows so that the pickers are 

 not obliged to hunt for them and can pick more, and 

 there is less danger of bruising the fruit. The hedge-row 

 admits of tillage very close to the plant. Hedge-row 

 training requires constant attention to the bedding and 

 removing of runners; this makes it expensive. If the 

 runners are allowed to mat before bedding the few that are 

 to remain, it is diflBcult to get a satisfactory row. The 

 single hedge-row is open to the objections that have been 

 raised against hills as regards winter injury and drouth 

 resistance. Hedge-row training is suitable for the more 

 intensive types of field culture and the production of fancy 

 berries. 



The spaced row is more economical to form and to main- 

 tain than the hedge-row, and the yield is larger. One of 

 the first to use the spaced row was J. M. Smith of Green 

 Bay, Wisconsin, about 1875. 



BEDDING THE RUNNERS 



In hedge-row and spaced row training, the runners 

 are set by hand. Even in matted rows often it is advisable 

 to bed the first set of runners that are allowed to remain. 

 The strawberry plant tends to throw out most of its run- 

 ners from one side, in the same direction that it was 

 attached to the mother plant. By bedding runners 



