A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 225 



MARKING OUT THE GROUND FOR STRAWBERRIES AND OTHER 

 GARDEN CROPS. 



A great many people grow strawberries who do not keep a 

 horse ; and there are other people, who have a horse part of the 

 time; and, in fact, wherever a man can take the place of a 

 horse in any operation of gardening, especially in small gar- 

 dens, it is oftentimes exceedingly desirable to do so. The pic- 

 ture below tells how this may be done where only a mark is 



MARKING OUT THE GROUND BY MEN OR BOYS INSTEAD OF 

 HORSES. 



needed, not a furrow. The cut and description first appeared 

 in that old standard periodical, the Country Gentleman, as long 

 ago as 1864. 



It consists of a light pole with trace chains suspended from it, at dis- 

 tances for each row, or 3 or 3^ feet apart, as may be desired. Two men 

 take the pole near each end, and one of them, acting as a guide, and rang- 

 ing accurately, they walk forward, dragging the chains in the soil, mak- 

 ing a fine smooth line for each chain. The figure represents only five 

 chains. Six or seven may be employed without inconvenience, and the 

 field marked off with great rapidity. Two men, or a man and a boy, will 

 mark 2% acres in walking a mile. 



Permit me to suggest that, especially for strawberry-work, 

 the machine may be made very much lighter, and equally ef- 

 fective, by using only a few links of the chain to drag on the 

 ground, and connecting the chairs to the pole by means of a 

 cord or wire. The cut above was intended for marking potato 

 ground ; in fact, it is almost the only marker used in the Trav- 

 erse region in Michigan, where they plant almost entirely with 

 the hand potato-planter described in our new book, the ABC 

 of Potato Culture. They usually mark both ways, as the po- 



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