426 AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 



In the bedding system less labor and care are required, pro- 

 vided they be given at the proper time. 



The beds should be annually renewed in the following man- 

 ner : 



At the ends of the rows, when first planted, set a small lo- 

 cust, or chestnut, or cedar stick, thrust into the ground to the 

 depth of a foot or more. If your bed is planted in early spring, 

 or even at any time before the middle of June, and well tend- 

 ed, being hoed often and carefully till they begin to run, and 

 afterward hand- weeded if requisite, and all runners that would 

 spread themselves into the paths cut off or turned in, the whole 

 surface of the bed will be covered before winter with strong 

 young plants ; the crowns of the parent plant, instead of 

 branching immediately around itself, as in the hilling system, 

 will have spread and planted themselves at a distance in inde- 

 pendent positions. In the following spring the bed will yield 

 its crop in season, and the mat of leaf-growth upon it will 

 keep the fruit clean. 



As soon as the crop is gathered, begin on one side, and find 

 by your mark-sticks where the old rows stand, and stretch a 

 line exactly midway between the first two of them, from end 

 to end of the bed ; then, with a spade or grass-edger, cut along 

 each side of the line so stretched, at two inches distance from 

 it, proceeding thus until you have gone over the bed, dividing 

 it into four strips of about eleven inches width, in which the 

 old-plant rows stand, and three strips of four inches, occupied 

 exclusively by young plants. If, on looking at it, you think 

 you would prefer to have five rows in your new bed rather than 

 three, though the latter is generally preferable, make another 

 cut along just outside of each old outside row, and you will 

 have a narrow rim of young plants standing on each side of 

 your bed. 



If you wish plants for enlarged plantings, you may pare off 

 with your spade, an inch or two deep, all the wide intervals, 

 and can choose out the young plants for resetting as you may 

 desire, or the plants on the wide spaces, instead of being pared 

 off, may be dug under if they are not needed for use, thus re- 

 taining them in the bed as specific manure for their successors, 



