A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 73 



in the spring as the ground was fit to work, and let the runners 

 grow as soon as the plant was able to throw out strong and 

 thriity ones in abundance, which was about the 20th of June. 

 We went over the piece two or three times, training the runners 

 a little, after they got well started, so they would as soon as 

 possible cover all the surface with plants. By the middle of 

 August the vines were a beautiful sight, about covering the 

 ground, and people began to stop and look at them and praise 

 them. We went through from time to time between rows of 

 different varieties, and cut the runners just enough so they 

 would not cross and get mixed. This after they had made such 

 a growth that we had stopped using the cultivator. Where 

 two rows were of the same variety we let them cover the ground 

 entirely between let them grow and run according to their 

 own sweet will. There was practically no ground on the half- 

 acre, except where the runners were cut off to prevent mixing 

 of varieties, that thiy failed to cover, with a little help from us 

 in the way of training. 



Aside from my experience, it seems as though this was the 

 natural way for strawberry-vines to grow. They are vines, run- 

 ning vines, and not bushes. They were just running in clover, 

 so to speak (literally as to their roots). But in the fall, Nature 

 had to be looked after a little, so that she should not overdo the 



for after their fruiting, cabbages and many other things can be put on 

 after. Bat I have been curious to know whether we should get less fruit 

 by letting the runners grow in the spring. On one occasion we had a nar- 

 row strip of very nice mellow ground along the outside row of berries. As 

 we wanted some plants, we let the outside row of Jessies (and this row 

 only), send runners over into this mellow ground. Then I asked the boys 

 to see how many less berries this outside row produced because it furnished 

 plants and berries both at the sam-- time. To my astonishment they said 

 it not only gave those great handsome plants, but it gave rather more ber- 

 ries than the other rows where the runners were carefully cut off In this 

 case the runners were all pulled over to one Mde in this bed of mellow 

 soil, and they were spaced by laying a handful of dirt on the end of the 

 runner. With this treatment the young plant was very quickly self-sup- 

 porting. Perhaps the reason why these plants bore just as well as or better 

 than those where the runners were picked off. was because the ground 

 was so very rich, and possibly this strip of mellow soil, extending clear up 

 >the row of plants, may have given this outside row more thrift and vigor. 



A. I. R. 



