238 Strawberry-Growing 



South than an annual; the plants occupy the land but 

 six to eight months, commonly from September to March. 

 After the crop is off, part of the bed may be barred off, 

 hoed and cultivated, not to fruit another year, but to 

 grow plants for setting a new bed. 



Between the large annual cropping belt of the North 

 and the small annual or semi-annual cropping belt of 

 the far South is a region in which strawberries are 

 grown in narrow matted or spaced rows and fruited for 

 two to seven years. It includes the states of Kentucky, 

 Tennessee, the northern parts of Georgia, Alabama, 

 Mississippi and Louisiana and the states of Arkansas and 

 Missouri. Most of the plantations in this territory are 

 fruited two or three years ; in the Ozarks, they may stand 

 five to seven years. Similar conditions prevail in Col- 

 orado, Montana, Idaho and other mountain states ; there 

 the second crop usually is heavier than that of the first 

 or any subsequent years. 



On the Pacific coast, where strawberries are grown 

 mainly in hills or hedge-rows, seldom in matted rows, the 

 plants are fruited three to five years. Twelve-year-old 

 plants sometimes are reported as bearing well but are 

 rarely as profitable as those under five years old. In the 

 Hood River and Yakima valleys the third and fourth 

 crops are best; after that the plants begin to decline. 

 This diversity of practice in different parts of the conti- 

 nent results from the varied conditions noted in the follow- 

 ing paragraphs. 



FACTORS THAT DETERMINE THE LIFE OF A PLANTATION 



The number of crops that it is advantageous to take 

 from one setting depends on the location and its climate. 



