32 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 



roots. After all this, my friends, it must certainly be your own 

 fault if you do not set your strawberry-plants so that they all 

 grow finely.* 



CHAPTER VI. 



ABOUT CULTIVATING AND HOEING CUTTING BLOSSOMS 

 AND RUNNERS OFF, AND PLACING RUNNERS. 



There is just one secret about taking care of a strawberry- 

 patch easily ; and that is, never let any weeds see daylight. 

 Do this, and the work will always be pleasant and profitable, 

 and it will not take .a great deal of time. I think it was Mr. 

 Putney who said first, "It is cheaper to hoe three times than 



*In regard to the careful setting-out of plants, last spring I was visit- 

 ing a strawberry-grower in Leelanaw Co., Michigan, who grows several 

 acres every year He was just setting ut a piece of four acres. His 

 method of marking the ground will be described in the latter part of this 

 book ; and his way of setting the plants in the ground impressed me very 

 favorably. The tool used for making the holes was a long handled round- 

 pointed spade, such as we see in common use among laborers who handle 

 dirt. The point of the spade was pushed down vertically, right along the 

 line on the spot where the plant was to be set. The dirt was then pulled 

 away from the line so as to leave a perpendicular side of fresh earth a 

 sort of half-circle, say six inches deep, and nearly a foot across. A plant 

 was then taken from a bucket of water, the roots spread out fan-shaped, 

 and held up against this perpendicular wall of fresh earth until some of 

 the dirt that had been scooped out had been pushed back against the root 

 of the plant. The operator then pressed the dirt down with his foot, tight 

 up against the roots. The proprietor (Mr. James Hilbert, Bingham, 

 Mich.), nade the holes with the spade, and kept his eye on the setters to 

 see that every plant had the roots properly spread out so as to be evenly 

 distributed along this vertical wall of earth, and then he watched to see 

 that every man firmed the dirt aronnd the plant with his foot. I think 

 there were about half a dozen in the crowd setting plants, and the pro- 

 prietor's eye was on almost every plant in the whole 28,000 while they 

 were being set out. I have seen the plants several times this summer ; 

 and although a severe drouth followed not long after the setting, there is 

 scarcely a plant missing out of the 28,000. They were set in April ; and at 

 this writing, Sept. 16, almost every plant has a nice family of liitle plants 

 scattered to the right and left. You will notice this plan of setting the 

 roots along a straight line enables us to cultivate within an inch of the 

 roots that is, shortly after they are set out without injuring them. Of 

 course, the ground was kept constantly stirred so that no crust should 

 form after a rain, or no such success could have attended planting so 

 large a tract as four acres, almost without the loss of a plant. But the 

 next chapter considers the matter of cultivating. A. I. R. 



