412 



Strawberries. 



Transplanting. Early in the spring is the best season for setting 

 out strawberries. If the work is done well they will bear a mode- 

 rate crop the same season, and a heavy one the next. The best 

 plants are the well-rooted runners from last autumn. They should 

 be well taken up, so as to secure all the fibres, lifting the roots out 

 with a spade and shaking the earth carefully from them ; if pulled 

 severely by the hand the roots will be torn off. The older and dead 

 leaves should be cut off from the plants, and the roots trimmed to 

 about two and a half inches long. For ordinary field culture they may 

 be set out with a dibble (Fig. 450), care having been previously taken 



Fig. 450. Strawberry plant set out -with 

 a dibble, or in the common "way. 



Fig. 451. Strawberry plant set out by 

 spreading the roots. 



to immerse the roots in mud to prevent drying. But for more finished 

 or for garden culture, it is better to spread the roots out like the 

 frame of an umbrella (Fig. 451), and set them in a hole broad 

 enough, with a small mound in the centre, on which the spread 

 roots rest, and form a cap, as shown in Fig. 452. 



Fig. 452. Hole for setting the spread roots of a strawberry plant. 



Next to early spring the best season at the North for transplant- 

 ing is just after the crop has been gathered, during the period of 

 suspension in growth which occurs at that time. The plants will 

 immediately take root, become well established before winter, and 

 bear a good crop the following season. As the weather is often 

 quite dry and warm at this time, precaution must be used to prevent 

 the plants from perishing by drought. All the leaves, except the 

 small central ones, should be cut off, the roots kept wet, and care- 



