ABC. OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 31 



moist. Take the plants out of the pail of water, only as fast 

 as you are ready to set them. 



To find how many plants you want, you have only to mea- 

 sure one of the rows and divide the number of feet by two, and 

 then multiply by the number of rows. Or if you know the 

 amount of land, it will be easy to figure, as it will take about 

 35 plants to the square rod. If you set out 500 or 1000 plants, 

 and do it well, you will be likely to have a first-class backache 

 before you get through, not being used to such work ; but just 

 think of those 66 meals with all the great, large, delicious, ripe 

 berries you can eat, and push ahead, and do not slight your 

 work. 



Since writing the above I have been reading an article in 

 the Rural New Yorker, written by J. M. Smith, telling all 

 about how he sets out strawberry -plants. I was not surprised 

 to find that Mr. S. is extremely careful about how his plants 

 are set. He would not call what I have written over-particular. 

 He says: " There are but few things in either the marketer 

 home garden that are of more importance than setting out the 

 plants." He also says : "A few years ago, I lost heavily upon 

 some of my strawberry-beds, owing to some careless setters 

 who, when neither I nor my sons were with them, merely open- 

 ed the earth and laid the long beautiful roots about two or three 

 inches deep and covered them with earth. It came on very 

 dry, and I soon noticed that they were suffering more than 

 there was any apparent reason for, even though it was dry. In 

 fact, some of them were dead, and many more nearly so. Upon 

 examination I soon found the cause of the trouble ; but it was 

 too late to repair the damages, and the next season I suffered 

 the loss of hundreds of dollars through the carelessness of the 

 men who set those plants." You see the .men were too lazy or 

 careless to make the holes deep enough to put the roots straight 

 down, or nearly so, so that part of them would be in moist 

 earth in a dry time. Mr. S. speaks of another fatal mistake 

 neglecting to press the earth sufficiently close around the plant 



