98 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 



CHAPTER XV. 



SHAU, WE LET OUR BEDS BEAR MORE THAN ONE YEAR? 

 MR. SMITH'S GREAT YIELDS, AND TWO OF THE SECRETS 

 SOME FIGURES ON THE COST OF GROWING BERRIES. 



You will learn, from the first part of this book, that the 

 writer thinks it best to plow strawberry-vines under after they 

 have borne one crop. One gets the finest fruit and the largest 

 crop the first year. It seems to be but little more work, if any, 

 to set out a new bed than to clear up and care for an old one. 

 Keeping a bed more than one year in bearing gives all injurious 

 insects a better chance to multiply. Some must be set out 

 every year, any way, in order to have proper plants for setting. 

 Do not be so unwise as to set plants from an old bed. On this 

 point Mr. Smith says : " If we allow a strawberry-plant to bear 

 fruit, and then plant the weakly, dwarfed runners that it pro- 

 duces, we can not hope for a healthy, vigorous continuation of 

 the variety." 



Mr. S. has grown the Wilson since 1861, and has found no 

 berry yet that can go ahead of it for market. He plants but 

 once on the same ground, using only healthy, vigorous runners 

 (or new plants) from plants that have not borne fruit, and con- 

 siders this one great secret of his success. So if you let a bed 

 stand more than one season, at least set out a few plants each 

 year so as to keep vigorous and proper plants for setting. 



There are quite a number of our best growers who agree 

 with me in regard to keeping a bed in bearing only one year ; 

 but there are also some who do not. You shall have both sides. 

 Mr. W. W. Farnsworth has kept his bed in bearing two years. 

 I asked him if the second crop was not mostly smaller and in- 

 ferior fruit. He said they got some choice fruit at the first 

 pickings, and the berries ripened somewhat earlier than on the 

 newly set plantations. Further, his pickers always wanted a 



