320 THE STRAWBERRY. 



has been properly prepared, the plants in good order, and 

 the work done reasonably well. 



The ground being properly prepared and made smooth 

 with a harrow, the planting should be in straight rows, 

 using a line, and may be done with a dibble, or by fur- 

 rowing the line lightly with a shovel, or double mould- 

 board plow, and then drawing the earth in around the 

 plant, as it is placed, with the hands. This gives oppor- 

 tunity for a better spreading of the roots, and in practice 

 has been found even more rapid than dibbling. 



In extensive field culture the system of rows is the 

 most advantageous, and they should be three and a half 

 to four feet apart, with plants one foot apart in the row, 

 to admit of the passage of the horse-hoe or cultivator 

 between them. 



The arrangement of plants in beds is a matter upon which 

 cultivators differ in opinion and practice. That which we 



regard as offering the 

 greatest convenience in 

 a garden plantation is 

 to divide the ground 

 into beds of four feet 

 wide, each of which may 

 Fig. 158. DIAGRAM OF STRAWBERRY- contain three rows of 

 BED. plants, the two outside 



rows six inches from the edge of the beds (fig. 158). 

 The plants may stand twelve inches apart in the rows, 

 or in the case of very strong growing sorts, such as Trol- 

 lope's Victoria and some other English varieties, eighteen 

 inches apart. Thus a bed twenty feet long and four feet 

 wide will contain forty to sixty plants. 



If the plantation contains several of these beds they 

 should be separated by walks or alleys of two feet in 

 width. 



These walks would enable the gardener to perform all 

 the labor the plants would require, and gather the fruit 



/2/T? 



