234 Strawherry-Grmoing 



to be planted in the field. Nurserymen ship them without 

 pots; the ball of roots is wrapped in paper and moss. 

 The nursery price of potted plants is $2 to S4 a hundred, 

 which is ten times the price of strong layer plants for spring 

 planting; to this must be added heavy express charges. 

 For home use, good results are secured by cutting rich 

 thick sod into pieces four or five inches square and sinking 

 these, grass side down, beside the mother plants. One 

 runner is rooted in each sod. Old berry boxes are used, 

 also. 



Potted plants are too expensive to be practicable com- 

 mercially. They are rarely used except in the gardens of 

 northern amateurs. Potted plants are highly advertised 

 by nurserymen and seedsmen ; sometimes it is stated that 

 "a year is saved," since the plants will "bear a full crop 

 the following spring." This is only a half truth. A 

 potted plant may bear as many berries as the average 

 runner from spring-set plants; but since potted plants 

 make few if any strong runners, the yield to the acre is very 

 much smaller, unless the plants are set six inches apart 

 each way in spaced rows, which is expensive. Potted 

 plants either should be set so close as to occupy the 

 entire ground, or set at the usual distance and vege- 

 tables grown between the rows both in the fall of the 

 first year and the following spring. For those who need 

 not consider expense, potted plants offer a means of 

 securing maximum returns from a small space in the 

 home garden. Under high culture they give fancy ber- 

 ries, but few of them. 



Cuttings^ or summer bedding. 



For summer and fall planting in the North, plants 

 grown from cuttings are much cheaper and about as satis- 



