8 THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA 



boy strawberry and the Strawberry of Chili. " He advises 

 that the Virginian be grown : " It is most common and 

 perhaps most worthy of cultivation." The relative im- 

 portance of hay and strawberries is clearly defined by 

 Dean : "Our grass fields often produce these strawberries 

 in plenty, but it is better to have a spot of ground devoted 

 to the culture of them, as they will be much larger and 

 better flavored, and the trampling of the grass in the 

 mowing may be thus in some measure prevented." His 

 cultural directions, mostly quoted from Miller, are interest- 

 ing not only as a record of the approved methods of that 

 time, but also as evidence of the slavish copying of Eng- 

 lish methods which characterized the early years of 

 North American horticulture: 



" Lay the ground out into beds of four feet broad, with 

 paths two feet or two feet and a half between them, these 

 paths being for the convenience of gathering the straw- 

 berries and for weeding and dressing the beds. The plants 

 should be in the quincunx order, and fifteen inches apart, 

 so there will be but three rows in each bed. The plants 

 should never be taken from old, neglected beds, where 

 the plants have been suffered to run into a multitude of 

 suckers, or from any plants which are not fruitful ; and 

 those offsets that stand nearest to the old plants should 

 always be preferred to those which are produced from the 

 trailing stalks at a greater distance. 



"During the summer the plants should be kept clear 

 from weeds, and all the runners should be pulled off as 

 fast as they are produced. If this is constantly practiced 

 the plants will become very strong. Wherever the suckers 

 are suffered to remain they rob the fruitful plants of their 

 nourishment in proportion to their number. I have 

 known, where the old plants have been constantly kept 



