ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 99 



good many berries, and he let them have the last pickings on 

 the old patches at a reduced price. But still the last time I 

 heard friend F. talk at an institute on this subject, he seemed 

 almost converted to the plan of leaving his berries to bear but 

 one season. At any rate, he spoke of that as " probably the 

 best way. ' ' I think he would be more positive where one grows, 

 say, only part of an acre a year, and that is the class of grow- 

 ers I am writing to. 



Mr Adams, of Wisconsin, when I was. there, left his beds 

 to bear two years. He says they will not produce as well the 

 second year, but that the second crop costs him but little more 

 than the picking. His land must be quite free from weeds 

 and grass. My friend Sisson, of Pennsylvania, says he lets his 

 berries bear two years. The first jear they are kept in hills, or 

 quite narrow rows. After the fruit has been picked he plows 

 the soil away from the rows on each side, leaving a strip only 

 about eight inches wide. This plowing buries the mulch and 

 vines so that they soon decay. Meanwhile he cleans the little 

 eight-inch strip that was left, with hoes. After two or three 

 weeks, the soil plowed up in the middle between the rows is 

 worked back by the use of the cultivator, and then the runners 

 are allowed to spread and form a matted row. Mr. S. is an ex- 

 cellent cultivator, and when berries are left to bear two seasons 

 perhaps his plan is as good as any. The weak point is, that 

 the parent plants that send runners out to make his matted 

 rows are old, exhausted plants, which Mr. Smith would think 

 not capable of producing the most vigorous of runners. Of 

 course, heavy manuring, and his most excellent tillage, would 

 somewhat balance this. He will get a large crop, any way. 

 But couldn't he get a larger one? 



I have had much to say about friend Smith, of Green Bay. 

 Let me now tell you just what he did the year before I was 

 there, which was a very dry year too. I saw 3^ acres in his 

 40-acre garden, that yielded $2215.24 from strawberries. I 

 looked over his sales and tcok the figures right from his books, 



