A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 77 



ing between my strawberry -rows. But Mr. Farnsworth's soil 

 is very ligbt and sandy, and would not pack like mine ; per- 

 baps not so as to injure it at all. " Circumstances alter cases," 

 again. 



Tbere is still another way of growing strawberries. Tbis 

 is tbe way Mr. Little, of Canada, tells of it, in a late number 

 of tbe American Farm and Horticulturist; 



"Tbere are different modes of planting and cultivating 

 the strawberry ; but very few have adopted the best. The most 

 careless way is to allow the junneis to fill the beds and form a 

 dense mass of plants." (I agree so far.) " Another mode, a 

 compromise between good and bad, is the matted-row system, 

 the plants growing thickly in the row, but admitting cultiva- 

 tion between." (O. K. again. ) " A still better way is to keep 

 the plants in stools, with the runners cut off, which gives fine 

 berries and abundance of them." (Sometimes, if one has the 

 right variety, and no worms to trouble the roots when they are 

 kept in bearing two or three years, as Mr. L. suggests. ) " But 

 there is a still better mode, costing less to keep in perfect order, 

 than the matted bed or matted rows, or rows in stools with cut 

 runners" (Has friend L. forgotten that there is " no excel- 

 lence without great labor? ") " This is the check-row system. 

 Set the plants in squares, or in rows both ways, say two feet 

 apart." This, it is claimed, gives a chance to cultivate both 

 ways, and reduces the amount of hand labor required. It is a 

 question in my mind whether the amount of hand labor is re- 

 duced, and it would take twice as much cultivating. Rows two 

 feet wide would be too narrow for my horses to walk in. It 

 seems to me that I would make the squares three feet, and let 

 several plants f trm in each one. I once heard Mr. Ohmer say 

 that, if he were intending to set out 20 acres, he would put 

 them all out this way. But I did not intend to discuss Mr. 

 Little's plan, oaly give it to you. Mr. Little knows a great 

 deal more about berry-growing than the writer of this. Mr. 

 Hale, of Connecticut, I think, grows berries on about the same 



