STRAWBERRY. 225 



cause may be greatly lessened if the plants are not set out until 

 late in the spring, after they have partly recovered from the 

 trouble. Cases have occurred where all the plants set early have 

 died from this cause, while those from the same bed set out late 

 have done well. 



Methods of planting. There are several methods of planting 

 strawberries. Two ways are mentioned here, and they may be 

 modified as the good judgment of the planter suggests. 



The hill system. This system is especially adapted to the 

 home garden. By it the fruit is grown to a larger size than in 

 the matted rows, but not so much is produced. It consists in 

 setting the plants at about one foot distance in rows two and one- 

 half or three feet apart, and keeping all the runners cut off. 

 Managed on this plan, the plants become very large, have many 

 crowns, look neat and pretty, and produce a good amount of ex- 

 tra choice fruit. The objection to it is that it takes three or four 

 times as many plants to set out as are needed where the matted 

 row system is followed, and the crop is not so large. For these 

 reasons this system is seldom followed by commercial growers. 



Matted-row system. All large strawberry growers pursue 

 very nearly the following plan: After the land is prepared in 

 the spring it is marked out with a corn-marker, four feet one 

 way and two feet the other, and the plants are set at the inter- 

 sections. The horse cultivator is run both ways until the plants 

 commence to make runners rapidly (about the middle of July), 

 when it is run only in the four-foot intervals. The runners are 

 then pushed together by the cultivator, thus forming a bed or 

 matted row, which by autumn will be eighteen inches wide. The 

 ground between the rows should be worked as often as once in 

 ten days, and after each rain, throughout the growing season up 

 to the last of September, after which cultivation should cease for 

 the year. Keep the soil loose and be sure the bed is free from 

 weeds on the approach of winter. For some varieties two feet 

 apart in the row may leave larger gaps than the runners can fill, 

 but almost any of our commercial kinds will easily fill up even 

 larger vacancies. Such varieties as the Dunlap will easily fill up 

 intervals of three feet in rich soil. The runners should stand 

 about six inches apart in the bed by the first of September, after 

 this number is secured all others should be destroyed as weeds. 



