Strawberry Culture. 269 



not merely around the crown. It need hardly be said, that the 

 soil, when moist, but yet crumbly, is in exactly the right con- 

 dition for the operation of setting plants. Where only shallow 

 marks, no deep furrows are made to indicate the rows, the 

 planting may be facilitated by the use of a gardener's trowel, or 

 one of the improved dibbers illustrated on page 43. 



TREATMENT AFTER PLANTING. Now comes the tug-of-war. 

 Weed growth must be prevented all through the season, and to 

 do this the cultivator should be started soon after planting, and 

 used at short intervals pretty much during the entire season. 

 Weeds appearing in the rows are to be pulled up by hand, or cut 

 out with the hoe. 



Spring-set plants should not be allowed to fruit, as this 

 would be a great strain on them so soon after the check received 

 by the rough treatment of transplanting. The little labor 

 required in picking off every fruit-stalk as soon as noticed, and 

 the exercise of a little patience on the part of the grower, will 

 always be well repaid in increase of crop the year following. 

 The whole vital force of the plant is thus thrown into vigorous 

 growth of the plant itself, and the production of runners. 



The amateur frequently, and the market grower rarely, 

 practices what is known as the " stool " or hill method, which 

 consists in growing large individual plants or " stools," and pre- 

 venting the full development and rooting of runners by their 

 early and careful removal. This method requires much atten- 

 tion, but gives fine plants, and very large and perfect fruit, but 

 not so much of it as can be produced by the so-called matted- 

 row system. This is the one commonly practiced by market 

 growers, and the more popular everywhere. The runners are 

 allowed to strike root on a strip from one to two feet wide. As 

 the season advances the cultivator has to be gradually narrowed 

 down until, at last, we have a strip of cultivated ground only 

 about two feet in width. The cultivator should also be run in 

 one and the same direction, not back and forth between each two 

 rows, so that the runners will not be disturbed or torn out more 

 than necessary. 



This frequent stirring of the soil by means of hoe and 

 cultivator serves another good purpose, and performs a most 

 important office. The strawberry succeeds best when the soil 

 is moist. In rare cases only can irrigation be made use of. 

 Usually we have to depend on moisture already stored up in 

 the soil, and supplied by rains. The underground-reservoir is 

 always well filled during winter, and all we have to do during 

 the growing season is to prevent waste by over-rapid evapora- 

 tion. Of the means at our command to retard this evaporation, 

 mulching with a few inches of mellow soil is probably the simplest 

 and most inexpensive, and, I believe, also the most efficient We 



