192 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 



be a standard tool with many strawberry-growers ; in fact, they 

 may be used with melons, squashes, etc., and very many other 

 kinds of vegetable-plants where there happen to be hills miss- 

 ing. Take a plant or two from a hill that has it to spare, and 

 fill out the vacancies. With strawberries it is very useful for 

 removing plants where there are too many, and taking them to- 

 a part of the row where there are vacant spaces. 



GROWING STRAWBERRY-PLANTS. 

 From Gleanings in Bee^Culture, Aug. /, iSqj. 



I have before explained many times why it is that a well- 

 rooted young plant in July is worth ever so much more than 

 one later. It is a good deal like the old adage 



A swarm of bees in May 

 Is worth a load of hay ; 

 A swarm of bees in June 

 Is worth a silver spoon ; 

 A swarm in July 

 Is not worth a fly. 



But the way honey has been coming this summer, and that, 

 too, during the last part of July, makes me inclined to think 

 that a swarm of bees in July might this season be worth con- 

 siderable after all. Well, a strawberry- plant put out in July 

 may make two good plants in August ; four in September ; eight 

 by October, and sixteen by November. If you have the plants 

 in beds, and put on sashes, you may make thirty-two by Christ- 

 mas. Again, if you keep off all runners, and just make the 

 plant grow big and stocky, you may get a whole quart of ber- 

 ries from a plant that has not been located even one year. For 

 the reasons just given, viz push plant-rearing during this month. 

 In fact, we have been shipping plants at a lively rate every day 

 for several days back. Now, how shall we manage to get good 

 stocky plants with the least expense and trouble ? There is no 

 better way to start them than the way laid down in the straw- 

 berry-book. Set out your plants in the spring in good rich 

 ground well fined up, in rows four feet apart, the plants being 

 two feet apart in a row. By July, if you have done your part 

 with the cultivator and weeder and hoes, the plants will be set- 

 ting considerably. Some say, keep the runners off till the 



