THE QUARTER ACRE STRAWBERRY PATCH— II. 



BY T. C. ROBINSON, OWEN SOUND. 



Fig. 2313 



Cultivation comes next. Some skilful 

 growers say "begin the same day you 

 plant, if the ground is dry enough," for it 

 seems to start the plants into immediate 

 growth. If not just then, as soon after as 

 possible start cultivator and hoe close 

 around every plant, or, best of all, loosen 

 the soil with a hand rake. Keep the ground 

 clean all summer. Don't wait for the weeds 

 to start. To kill them before you can see 

 them is by far the easiest way and pays the 

 best. So long as the ground is loose on the 

 surface, and the weather dry, the plants will 

 do well without further cultivation. But as 

 soon as a shower come the land settles, and 

 the weed seeds sprout ; so that as soon as 

 the weather gets dry enough, cultivator, 

 hoe or rake must loosen up the surface 

 again, or the plants will suffer. This is the 

 great rule in strawberry culture. But it is 

 not for the strawberry alone. The straw- 

 berry does not need it any more than vege- 



tables do. It is the one sure rule in grow- 

 ing a hoed crop of any kind. 



Training. — Now for the training. This 

 really involves a judicious sort of pruning. 

 To get a large crop of fruit we want large 

 plants and lots of them, and we want them 

 well equipped with fruit-buds. These fruit- 

 buds must be formed the summer and fall 

 before fruiting ; and the plants must have 

 sufficient room and close cultivation in order 

 to form them. Now most varieties, if allow- 

 ed to grow unchecked, will use the sap, 

 which we want to go to elaborate fruit-buds, 

 in producing runners and young plants, and 

 it will throw out these runners so as to root 

 the young plants in the way of the hoe and 

 cultivator, and especially so as to crowd 

 each other. As a result, the matted row 

 will contain a crowded mass of little plants 

 which cannot be kept clean, and cannot pro- 

 duce more than one or two small fruit stems 

 per plant. These will all push at once, or 

 nearly so ; and hence there must result 

 finally an inferior crop of small berries, all 

 ripening within a few days causing an embar- 

 rassment to pick, a glut in the market, a drop 

 in prices — and then — nothing more ! To 

 avoid such disaster, we resort to pruning and 

 layering. Cut off the first two three runners, 

 which are apt to be weak. The benefit ot 

 this will speedily appear in vigorous growth 

 and size of plant. Then when good stout 

 runners start out vigorously, select four of 

 them to complete the plantation, and keep 

 all the others cut off the whole season. 



Now for Layering. — Consider where we 

 want the plants — out of the way of the 

 cultivator and far enough apart to admit the 

 hoe. I have fixed upon the double row as 



