A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE 27 



stand that you must be careful not to work land that is at all 

 heavy, for any crop when it is even a little too wet. It will 

 make it hard. What we want is a fine, mellow seed-bed, firm- 

 ly packed There is a difference between firm and hard. 



Now take a line and stretch through where you want the 

 first row. I have used common binding twine. You want the 

 line attached to a stake at each end, of course. I would put 

 the first row three feet from the edge of the plowed land. If 

 you put it too near the edge it will bother you to get through 

 with the cultivator. After the line is stretched in place, take a 

 sharp stick (I have used the end rod out of my lumber wagon, 

 which was just the thing) and draw a little mark right by the 

 side of the line, from end to end. Then take the line up, one 

 person at each end, and put it down four feet further in on 

 your piece of land. Next, in a few minutes' time you can 

 make a little marker, something like the one shown in Fig. 6, 

 with which you can go along the rows you have marked length- 

 wise, and make, almost as fast as you can walk, little cross- 

 marks, to show where to set the plants. 



FIG. 6. A MARKER FOR SPACING OFF ROWS. 



The first plants we set out we measured with a stick which 

 we carried along, to get them the right distance apart. This 

 was slow and bothersome. So my son went to the tool-house 

 and made a marker like the above, in about ten minutes, which 

 is still in u^e.* I set the plants two feet apart. The rows are 



*In regard to the use of the line-marker, etc., let me suggest that 

 market- gardeners have a plan which I think is much simpler. Iet your 

 line be of pretty good size say something like a small clothes-line. After 

 you have stretched it, walk the whole length by stepping the whole length 

 upon the entire line. This gives you a mark absolutely straight. In our 



