170 



ineiit &r depressed. One should also note whether the berry 

 is firm and resists crushing in fingers, and after crushing 

 whether it is juicy or dry and mealy. Also note whether 

 the berry is free from a hard core, and whether it is sweet 

 and sprightly or flat and insipid. 



The first season it is well to allow all of the fruit to re- 

 main on the vines as it ripens so that one may judge of the 

 productiveness of the plant, and the length of its fruiting 

 season; whether all on the cluster ripen at once or come 

 along one at a time ; whether the first or king berry is very 

 large and those following very small, or the first and the 

 last nearly of the same size. 



Symbols should be used to designate special features 

 common to all. For foliage the writer used X, XX, XXX. 

 For size and strength of blossoms for the staminate varieties 

 B, BB, and for the pistilate P, PP, and for the most promis- 

 ing plants after fruiting season C, CC, CCC, CCCC. 



As the runners develop one should note the length and 

 thickness of runner wire. Just before they begin to strike 

 root one should set pots and as many as possible should be 

 taken from each. This allows one to know the relative value 

 of each as a plant maker. 



Before the roots push through the pots into the ground, 

 the runner wire should be cut and pot removed to a partly 

 shady place so that they will not dry out, and where they 

 can stand until the ground is ready for setting out into little 

 groups. Each variety in a group by itself is now planted 

 in sections of three rows each — the distance between rows 

 being fifteen inches, and the distance between sections two 

 and a half feet. The paper pots are removed from the ball 

 of earth and planted fifteen inches apart in rows, so that 

 the plants now stand in the sections fifteen inches each way. 



It is well to set them out into these sections as early as 

 possible so that the roots will strike deep, and thus prevent 

 heaving out of the soil during the winter. They should be 

 carefully mulched as soon as the ground freezes. 



When the plants begin to grow the following spring, 



