Training the Plant 105 



season is dry, it may seriously weaken the layers, which 

 are partly supported by the mother plant long after they 

 are apparently well rooted. 



Summer pruning. 



Runner control has reference to the distance between 

 individual plants. This is spacing rather than pruning, 

 although the constant removal of runners from plants is, 

 in effect, severe pruning. Beyond this, pruning of the 

 individual plant is rarely necessary, except mowing the 

 old leaves after the crop is harvested, preparatory to a re- 

 newal of the bed. Yet there are occasions when summer 

 pruning is advisable, chiefly in regions having a mild 

 climate and where the fruiting season is prolonged. The 

 method practiced by the strawberry-growers of Mahablesh- 

 var, India, has been described by W. Burns.^ "The 

 cultivators have a curious and interesting practice of 

 reducing the vegetative growth of the plants in order to 

 promote flowering. This is done by taking off leaves and 

 their axillary undeveloped shoots twice a month." A 

 similar method is followed to some extent in southern 

 California. At intervals of a month or more the plants 

 are "cleaned up," being denuded of runners, and partially 

 defoliated. The check caused by this summer pruning, 

 and by the temporary discontinuance of irrigation, gives 

 the plants a brief resting period, after which they again 

 burst into blossom. 



In the coast region of Oregon, Washington and British 

 Columbia the mild climate and abundant rainfall are con- 

 ducive to a very luxuriant growth, and some growers 

 remove part of the leaves with a scythe in order to check 

 growth. About 1860 summer pruning was commonly 



» Agr. Jour, of India, Vol. IX, Pt. Ill (July, 1914). 



