144 SUCCESS WITH SMALL FRUITS. 



pried out. Under this system, the ground is occupied to 

 the fullest extent that is profitable. The berries are exposed 

 to light and air on either side, and mulch can be applied 

 with the least degree of trouble. The feeding-ground for 

 the roots can be kept mellow by horse-power ; if irrigation 

 is adopted, the spaces between the rows form the natural 

 channels for the water. Chief of all, it is the most success- 

 ful way of fighting the white grub. These enemies are not 

 found scattered evenly through the soil, but abound in 

 patches. Here they can be dug out if not too numerous, 

 and the plants allowed to run and fill up the gaps. To all 

 intents and purposes, the narrow row system is hill culture 

 with the evils of the latter subtracted. Even where it is not 

 carried out accurately, and many plants take root in the 

 rows, most of them will become large, strong, and produc- 

 tive under the hasty culture which destroys the greater num- 

 ber of the side-runners. 



Where this system is fairly tried, the improvement in the 

 quality, size, and, therefore, measuring bulk of the crop, is 

 astonishing. This is especially true of some varieties, like 

 the Duchess, which, even in a matted bed, tends to stool 

 out into great bushy plants. Doctor Thurber, editor of the 

 "American Agriculturist" unhesitatingly pronounced it the 

 most productive and best early variety in my specimen-bed, 

 containing fifty different kinds. If given a chance to de- 

 velop its stooling-out qualities, it is able to compete even 

 with the Crescent and Wilson in productiveness. At the 

 same time its fruit becomes large, and as regular in shape 

 as if turned with a lathe. Many who have never tried this 

 system would be surprised to find what a change for the 

 better it makes in the old popular kinds, like the Charles 

 Downing, Kentucky, and Wilson. The Golden Defiance 

 also, which is so vigorous in the matted beds that weed^ 



