The Strawberry Book. 31 



CHAPTER V. 



ON PROPAGATION. 



VERY few cultivated plants of any value can rival the 

 strawberry in the ease with which they may be propagated. 

 A strawberry vine, as soon as it gets well established, be- 

 gins to throw out runners, each one of which may take 

 root and send out others to multiply in their turn. This 

 occurs in open culture, where I have known a single plant 

 of the Agriculturist variety to make two hundred and thirty- 

 two in the course of the season. 



In rich soil, rows of vines set in April, three feet apart, 

 with the plants nine inches asunder, will cover all the inter- 

 mediate space with a close carpet of vines before fall. With 

 new and rare varieties the artificial aid of a hot-bed or frame 

 maybe called into use, and then the multiplication of vines 

 goes on very rapidly. I know a gardener who obtained 

 in a certain spring, when Hovey's Seedling was new, six 

 plants of that variety, and got from them, by autumn, a. 

 bed of fifteen hundred. The various kinds differ much in 

 regard to the number of runners they send out. In the 

 same soil La Constante would put out comparatively few 

 runners, the Jucunda a moderate number, while some of 

 our native kinds would produce myriads. A sprinkling 

 of ashes now and then stimulates plants to produce run- 

 ners in large numbers. 



Generally the runners will root themselves, and fasten 

 upon the soil ; but with new and choice kinds it pays very 

 well to assist nature a little by pressing the end of the run- 



