Propagation and Renewal 245 



time, each gang straddling a row. The mulch is cut into 

 the ground, so that it is unnecessary to burn or remove it. 

 When a plow is used, the furrows are thrown either toward 

 the middles or directly upon the rows of plants, covering 

 them completely with fresh soil. On light soils this is a 

 distinct benefit, but on heavy soils there is danger of 

 smothering the crowns. It is preferable to bar off the cen- 

 ter and one side of each row, so as to encourage the setting 

 of runners in land that was in cultivated middles the year 

 before. The next year this process is reversed. This de- 

 stroys the oldest and least valuable plants, insures the 

 production of runners from the younger and more vigorous 

 plants on the outside of the old row, and makes it possible 

 to keep the land in better condition. 



After the rows are barred off, subsequent thinning is 

 done with the plow, harrow or hoe. Some growers plow 

 across the rows, leaving the plants in squares which are 

 about a foot in diameter and sixteen to twenty inches 

 apart. Others harrow the rows lengthways or crossways 

 two or three times to tear up the weaker plants, level the 

 ridges left by the plow or disk, and draw fresh soil around 

 the plants that remain. Hoes are then used to thin out 

 the remaining plants so that they stand five to twenty-four 

 inches apart. Only the strongest plants are left and the 

 crowns of these are lightly covered with soil. The renewed 

 bed now looks much like a new planting ; in two or three 

 weeks it is impossible to distinguish between the two 

 except for the less regular alignment. Some who use 

 matted row training the first year use hedge-row training 

 subsequent years. 



In the Ozark district a one-horse turning plow is used 

 at right angle to the old rows, so as to leave the plants in 

 small blocks about eight inches wide and three and a half 



