A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 193 



plant gets strong; but this would deprive you of jour early 

 plants. 



If, then, we are going to make the most of these early 

 plants, how shall we manage to keep on cultivating, stirring 

 the soil, and keeping out weeds ? A problem besets us right 

 here that I have discussed many times in these pages. The 

 trouble is to find a man or boy who will put the runners in place 

 so as to have them crowd each other as little as possible, and at 

 the same time not get out into the row in the way of the culti- 

 vator. 



Well, now, I have hit upon a little device that has enabled 

 me to give my plants space in very good shape, and at compar- 

 atively small expense. When they began to put down runners 

 on the Brandywine and Wm. Belt rows, I called tw of my 

 good boys, Carl and George. We first stretched a string just 

 as near the row of plants as we could have it and still give room 

 inside the string to set all the runners. Then the boys were 

 given two trowels to break up the crust between the plants 

 where the cultivator could not go, and make it all mellow. 

 Then they put the runners down, placing a little dirt with the 

 trowel over and around the bud, making each plant go inside 

 the string. They thought I might give them a little more room 

 by putting the string further away ; but I told them we would 

 put it further off next time. They got them all in nicely, leav- 

 ing a space of five or six inches between every two plants. 

 Then they took a hand -hoe and cultivated the ground up soft 

 and fine clear up to the string. The string was then moved to 

 the other side of the row, or, rather, two strings were used, one 

 on each row of berries, leaving a path from 15 to 18 inches 

 wide between the two strings. Here the boys stood (or sat 

 down) while putting the plants in place. 



After the row was finished, of course so much walking on 

 the path would make it hard from the stamping. The boys 

 therefore always went through with their wheel-hoe, and fined 

 it up again. After the boys had finished their work, a nice 

 shower of rain came up, and every plant they had put down 

 was soon rooted, right where they put it. It was indeed a 

 pleasant sight to behold, especially as the edge of the bed where 

 the string was stretched was as straight as a line. A man could 

 go in with a horse (and, in fact, did go in with a horse), and 

 keep the space between the rows beautifully fined up and keep 

 down all weeds. 



You may say it is lots of trouble to put every runner down 

 by hand where you want a plant to grow ; but I believe it is 



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