102 Strawberry-Grovring 



a large acreage in the narrow matted row are able to keep 

 all the superfluous runners cut off during the growing 

 season, as this involves so much labor. Fall thinning is 

 the next best plan, if done with judgment. In dry seasons, 

 when the mother plants have set comparatively few 

 runners, fall thinning may not be desirable. In wet 

 seasons, when the runners are badly crowded, it may make 

 a decided difference in the crop. The thinnings that are 

 well rooted can be used for fall planting, or heeled in for 

 spring planting. 



Runner control in hills, hedge-rows and spaced rows. 



In those methods of training which attempt to maintain 

 a definite number of plants, equally spaced, the problem is 

 simpler. After the permanent plants are bedded, it is 

 necessary merely to cut off all other runners as they appear. 

 This is easy to advise but quite laborious to practice. 

 Most sorts throw out many runners throughout the season 

 and require almost constant attention. When plants are 

 fruited four or five years, which is quite common in hill 

 training, there are fewer runners after the second season. 



There can be no recourse to fall thinning in hill and 

 hedge-row training. If surplus runners are suffered to 

 remain, they defeat the chief object of these methods of 

 training, which is to have but few plants and remove these 

 from competition with others of their kind. When the 

 spaced row is full, alley plants can be cut off with a roller 

 cutter, and late-formed runners removed with an iron 

 rake ; but most of the surplus runners must be pulled by 

 hand. In most of Canada and northern United States 

 it is not necessary to remove runners formed after Septem- 

 ber first, as they are winter-killed. 



If runners are cut before they have tipped, the formation 



