ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 183 



best if not the best strawberry in the world, especially for my 

 own eating. 



FIRMING THE; GROUND WHERE YOU WANT TO GROW CHOICE 

 VARIETIES OF STRAWBERRIES, AND WHERE YOU WANT 



TO GET BERRIES OF IMMENSE SIZE. 

 Front Gleanings in Bee Culture, Sept. 75, 1896. 



Somehow or other it seems almost impossible for me to 

 take a wheelride twenty miles from home without getting lost. 

 Daring this last trip I took a back road because it happened to 

 be better ; but it took me through a new part of the country. 

 There were no guide boards, and pretty soon I was at a loss to 

 know which way to turn to strike T. B. Terry's. I took the 

 wrong road, as it transpired, and by and by I was astonished to 

 find myself close to the home of Matthew Crawford. Just as 

 soon as he saw me and my wheel he expressed his pleasure by 

 saying he had something special he wanted me to see. Friend 

 C. has little beds for starting strawberries, and for his potted 

 plants, much like my own, except that they are only 4 feet 

 wide. He started this way, and has therefore got all his beds 

 made this width. Instead of having them in a compact group 

 he has them here and there in different points all around his 

 house. For potted plants waiting for orders he plunges them 

 into beds up to the brim, and then shades them with frames 

 covered with cotton cloth until they get " weaned " after being 

 detached from the mother-plant. Then choice varieties are 

 planted out in these same beds, making two rows lengthwise of 

 the bed. These rows are about 2 feet apart, and the plants 

 stand 6 inches apart in the row. By keeping the runners pinch- 

 ed off he 'gets enormous berries in these rich specially prepared 

 beds. 



We soon came to a bed containing about thirty plants. 

 These plants had a little more room, perhaps a foot apart. As 

 soon as I saw them I raised my hands in surprise, for they were 

 the finest-looking, rankest-growing strawberry-plants I ever 

 saw in my life. The runners that were just taking root here 

 and there were almost the size of leadpencils ; and the colors 

 of these great runners were almost as brilliant as the colors of 

 a ripening peach. 



" Well, I do declare ! Friend C., is this a new variety that 

 gives this enormous growth, or is it some special treatment? " 



