328 SUCCESS WITH SMALL FRUITS. 



soil. I grow successfully the Colonel Cheney, Triomphe de 

 Gand, Wilson, Charles Downing, Nicanor, Green Prolific, Mon- 

 arch of the West, Seth Boyden, but have discarded Jucunda and 

 Kentucky. I have the greatest success with the Cheney, 

 Charles Downing, Wilson, and Triomphe, in the order written. 

 I plant both in fall and spring, but prefer fall setting when it 

 can be done early and you have good plants, 



" I used to strike plants in three-inch pots, but h:\ve aban- 

 doned that plan, and instead, lay the runners as early as I can 

 get them (from ist to 20th July), and when well rooted, set 

 them out, with a ball of earth, from 15th to 20th August. If the 

 season is at all moist, so that the young plants make good pro- 

 gress before the frosts set in (about middle of October), I get a 

 good crop (half a full crop) the following summer. From plants 

 set in the spring, I take no fruit. With this exception, fall and 

 spring settings are treated alike. As the cultivation is all done by 

 hand, I have found that planting in beds of three rows each com- 

 bines the greatest advantages. The rows are 15 inches apart, and 

 the plants 18 inches apart in the row — in the quincunx form ; 

 each bed is separated from the rest by a path 30 inches wide. I 

 need not say that the soil has been previously well enriched— with 

 compost, generally, and well-decomposed manure. In fact, as I 

 usually plant on soil from which a crop of potatoes has been re- 

 moved, the ground has received two applications the year the 

 plants are set. As the Colonel Cheney is my favorite, in order 

 to fertilize it, I plant alternate beds of some good staminate va- 

 riety, Charles Downing, Triomphe, or Wilson. The cultivation 

 of the young plants the first season consists in cutting off any 

 runners that may form, and keeping them clear of weeds. 

 When well established, the beds are top-dressed with an inch or 

 two of old manure ; this feeds the plants, keeps the soil about 

 the roots moist, and acts as a mulch when the fruit sets, and 

 yields the following summer. The following spring and sum- 

 mer, nothing is done to these beds till after fruiting, except to 

 hoe out the weeds. After fruiting, a thorough weeding is ef- 

 fected, and the runners are cut every three weeks ; and before 

 the frosts set in, the beds are given atop-dressing of old manure. 

 After the second crop of fruit is taken off, they are weeded, 



