62 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 



CHAPTER X. 



HOW MARKET-GROWERS MARK OUT MAKING PLANTS GROW 

 RIGHT AI,ONG IN DRY WEATHER TlI^AGE TOOI^S AND HOW 

 TO USE THEM A STRAWBERRY HARROW WORK BRINGS 

 THE BERRIES. 



Most growers who set out only a quarter or half an acre cf 

 strawberries will hardly be able to do better in the way of mark- 

 ing out and setting than to use a line, spade, and trowel, as 

 spoken of in a previous chapter. I know some who set a good 

 many more than that, who set by a line, as they consider it so 

 important to have their rows straight. Where berries are grown 

 on a large scale they are sometimes put in in a faster manner ; 

 but I would do my best, and let speed be a secondary matter. 

 If you happen to have an Aspinwall potato-planter you can 

 dispense with the line and spade, however, and still do as 

 straight and perfect work. I used this tool for marking out 

 my half-acre, last year and this year. The coverers were taken 

 off, and the plow set to run nearly five inches deep. This im- 

 plement can be driven so as to make furrows almost perfectly 

 straight, and just the right depth. They are narrow, and just 

 the thing. Some of the dirt falls back into the furrow ; but it 

 is loose, and quickly thrown out with the trowel, where the 

 plant is to be set. We mark but two rows at a time, leaving 

 the team standing on the planter, so as to have the ground 

 fresh and moist to set the plants in that is, if it is a drying 

 day. The plants, of course, are all set out on one side of the 

 mark, or furrow, so as to keep them in line. After marking 

 with the planter we walked through with the hand marker, 

 shown in Fig. 1, and scratched on one side of the furrow where 

 the plants were to be set. So well pleased have I been with 

 this way of opening a furrow, that, if I grew berries by the 

 acre, and had no use for a potato-planter, I would either make 

 a marker something after the same plan, or buy the necessary 



