70 A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 



the drills down to eight or nine inches in width, claiming that 

 all the large fine berries, or nearly all, grow on the outside of 

 rows, and therefore they might as well be narrow ; also that 

 the plants get more benefit from the tillage in the narrow rows. 

 In wide matted rows the soil could not be stirred around the 

 plants, or near enough to help them any, after the runners got 

 well started. From the bulk of testimony, probably the berries 

 will average somewhat larger in very narrow rows, unless the 

 wide ones are considerably thinned but, at least ; but I doubt 

 the yield per acre being as large. What I want is a large yield 

 per acre of large berries ; but we will come to that soon. Now, 

 on the other hand, growers were found who left their rows two 

 feet or even three in width, leaving just a narrow path to get 

 through when picking. 



Again, there is another method of growing which I have 

 spoken of before as hill culture. The plants are kept in hills, 

 or stools, by cutting all runners as fast as they appear. For 

 growing in. this way, the plants are set out from 12 to 20 inches 

 apart in the rows, which may be from 3 to 3> feet apart. It is 

 commonly stated that larger berries can be grown in hill cul- 

 ture, but not as many bushels per acre. 



Now after getting all this general information, I set out 

 our first quarter-acre in rows four feet apart, and intended to 

 keep them within two feet, leaving two feet for cultivation and 

 a path. But I found it hard to hoe up any plants that, could 

 possibly be left, and have even a very narrow path left between 

 the rows ; so from my tender-heartedness the rows were proba- 

 bly three feet wide, and from the same reason, along with some 

 greenness, they were terribly thick. And, to tell the truth, I 

 thought that, where my thickest and heaviest growth of vines 

 was, there I should get the most berries. Well, I did not, by 

 any means ; but we had taken such good care of them other- 

 wise that we had a very fair crop any way, and the size aver- 

 aged unusually large too. 



When we were picking, a friend called here who had had 



