196 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



the best in most cases. First choose one 

 pair of runners to complete the old row. 

 Lead one runner out towards the nearest 

 plant in the row on one side, drawing a little 

 furrow with a stick to keep it from getting 

 blown out of place, and lead the other 

 runner out in the opposite direction. When 

 this is done with every plant allowing 

 each runner to form just two plants, all 

 the rows will be full of plants about eight 

 inches apart. 



Now lead out to one side the other pair 

 of runners to form a second row about eight 

 inches from the first row. You need not 

 wait till the first lot of rows are finished be- 

 fore starting the second lot. Each runner 

 to be layered had better be done as soon as 

 it is ready. The process of forming young 

 plants will be greatly hastened by placing 

 moist earth over the runner close around 

 where the roots of the little plant are to 

 strike out — if the runner is strong enough. 

 But beware of putting earth over a young 

 budding runner, or it will die. When a 

 couple of leaves as large as a fifty cent piece 

 have formed on the runner, it is old enough 

 to be covered on the side next the parent 

 plant. Now when this layering is all done, 

 your rows will be arranged in couples with 

 paths of about twenty-eight inches between 

 each couple and the next, and your quarter 

 acre should contain ten or twelve thousand 

 plants, everyone of which can easily be kept 

 clean with little or no hand weeding, which 

 is the great object. Of course runners will 

 start to grow from the young plants as they 

 form and afterwards. They must vigorously 

 be removed if the best results are wanted. 

 Do not be tempted to train out a third row 

 on the other side of each original row unless 

 you want to shorten the fruiting season in 

 order to produce a great rush of berries at 

 first. This would be an advantage with, the 

 very early sorts. Michel's Early, possibly 

 Crescent, and especially Excelsior, will pro- 

 bably be decidedly more profitable grown in 



triple rows eight inches apart, with paths of 

 twenty inches between triplet and the next ; 

 because they come in just when prices are so 

 high. Often the grower will make more 

 money out of half a crop of these early 

 varieties than of a full crop of later ones. 

 Then when they have done their best, and 

 the berries run down in size to mibbins, the 

 wise cultivator will clip off all the rest of 

 the fruit unripened so as to throw the re- 

 maining strength of the plants into foliage, 

 new root-growth and fruit-buds for next 

 year's crop. Some early varieties thus 

 treated in triple rows, followed by later 

 varieties in double rows, will spread the 

 fruiting season over a month on level soil, 

 while if the early sorts can be set on a south- 

 ern or south-eastern slope on light land and 

 the late ones on a northern slope on clay 

 loam, abundance of fruit may be gathered 

 for six weeks. But the slopes must not be 

 steep. 



Yield. — How much should such a planta- 

 tion yield ? The yield will vary, not only as 

 to careful treatment, soil, fertility and 

 season, but also as to the age of the plants. 

 With fair treatment the same plants will 

 fruit three years in succession. The first 

 crop should be over 1,500 quarts in a fair 

 season ; the second about 3,000 ; the third 

 about 1,000 ; but on rich soil in good 

 seasons, careful treatment might produce 

 twice as much in each case. 



The best tool for working between the 

 plants is a "push hoe." Get one made to 

 order as I did if you can't find what you 

 want in the shops. A piece of cross-cut saw 

 blade about five inches long and two inches 

 wide fastened by two rivets at the middle of 

 one side to a single six-inch shank of ^ inch 

 steel attached to a good long rake handle — 

 this can easily be fashioned by any machinist 

 or good blacksmith for sixty or eighty cents. 

 Let the shank be curved so that when yon 

 stand upright and hold the end of the handle 

 in one hand, with the arm stretched down- 



