CUL riVA TION. 1 4 1 



There are modifications of this system that are seen to 

 better advantage on paper than in the field or garden. 

 The one most often described in print — I have never seen 

 it working successfully — may be termed the " renewal 

 system." Instead of plowing the matted beds under, after 

 the first or second crop, the paths between the beds are 

 enriched and spaded or plowed. The old plants are al- 

 lowed to fill these former paths with new plants ; which 

 process being completed, the old matted beds are turned 

 under, and the new plants that have taken the places of the 

 paths bear the fruit of the coming year. But suppose 

 the old beds have within them sorrel, white clover, wire- 

 grass, and a dozen other perennial enemies, what prac- 

 tical man does not know that these pests will fill the vacant 

 spaces faster than can the strawberry plants ? There is no 

 chance for cultivation by hoe or horse power. Only fre- 

 quent and laborious weedings by hand can prevent the evil, 

 and this but partially, for, as has been said, the roots of 

 many weeds are out of reach unless there is room for the 

 fork, hoe, or cultivator to go beneath them. 



In direct contrast with the above is the " hill system." 

 This, in brief, may be suggested by saying that the straw- 

 berry plants are set out three feet — more or less — apart, 

 and treated like hills of com, with the exception that the 

 ground is kept level, or should be. They are often so ar- 

 ranged that the cultivator can pass between them each way, 

 thus obviating nearly all necessity for hand work. When 

 carried out to such an extent, I consider this plan more ob- 

 jectionable than the former, especially at the North. In the 

 first place, when the plants are so distant from each other, 

 much of the ground is left unoccupied and unproductive. 

 In the second place, the fruit grower is at the mercy of the 

 strawberry's worst enemy, the Lachnostcjiia, or white grub. 



