200 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 



the ground slope gently from the center toward these outside 

 ditches. Never let the water ttand in puddles anywhere on 

 your strawberry- patch. 



::^^^^^%: 



A ~ B 



HOW TO PI,ANT STRAWBERRIES FOR HII<I, CULTURE. 



Now with the marker described on page 136, mark the plot, 

 say from east to west, with marks as near 2i inches apart as 

 you can make it. Any sort of mark that you can see plainly 

 will answer. We now want to set the plants 2 feet apart in 

 these marks ; but you do not want them to come in squares. 

 Each row of plants should "break joints " with the preceding 

 row ; then any three plants in the plot will stand in the form 

 of a triangle ; and this triangle will be 2 feet on each of its 

 three sides. The diagram above will help us to get the idea. 



You will see by the diagram that each rjlant is the center 

 of a circle of six plants. The plants are equally distant from 

 the center one and from each other, like the cells of a honey- 

 comb, if you choose. 



There are two reasons for planting in this way. When the 

 plants are large and bushy, they entirely cover the ground 

 much better than if they were planted in squares, and each 

 plant has all the room it possibly can have. Second, you can 

 cultivate them from right to left and diagonally two other ways 

 see marks made by the cultivator on the left hand side of the 

 cut above. With this arrangement every runner is to be clip- 

 ped off just as soon as it can be seen. The plants are to be 

 pushed into fruit-bearing. They are to make fruit and noth- 

 ng else ; and if you have never tried the experiment you will 

 be astonished to see the size and beauty of the fruit grown in 



