METHODS OF PLANTING. 97 



quality of fruit potash and phosphoric acid instead of the ni- 

 trogenous kinds like stable manure, which tend to the large de- 

 velopment of leaf at the expense of the fruit. It must be borne in 

 mind, however, that large and perfect fruit cannot be produced 

 without a large development of perfect foliage; and the grower 

 must use good judgment in the application of fertilizing material 

 according to his soil. Fine ground bone and potash will be found 

 the best fertilizer that can be used under general conditions, add- 

 ing more nitrogen if the soil be very poor; or only applying 

 potash if the soil is already very rich in nitrogen. 



TIME OF PLANTING. The best time for planting is in the 

 spring. August planting is not to be recommended, unless one 

 has time to do the work more thoroughly than in the spring. 

 Fall set plants seldom make growth enough to give paying crops 

 the first season, and the plants start in the spring in a hard and 

 often weedy soil that is difficult to keep clean. When planted in the 

 spring the soil is light, loose and free from weeds, and the plants 

 make a strong, rapid growth, that will give the best crop that 

 can possibly be produced the following season. 



The best growers, who raise fruit for profit, never set their 

 plants in the fall, and the small cultivator can hardly expect to 

 improve upon their methods. It sometimes is advisable, when one 

 has no Strawberry bed in the garden, and is desirous of having 

 fruit at the earliest possible moment, to plant as early in August 

 as is possible, potted plants or well rotted layers with soil upon 

 the roots; but if the cost is reckoned against the value of the 

 fruit produced, it will be found a losing rather than a 

 paying operation. I would say, however, set Strawberry plants 

 in August or even later, rather than have 110 Strawberry bed in 

 the home garden. 



METHODS OF PLANTING. Of the many methods or systems 

 of planting and cultivation, I will mention only a very few that 

 are most generally in use. In the 



Hill System, the plants are set in rows two and one-half to three 

 feet apart, and one foot apart in the row, and all the runners are 

 kept cut, so that at the end of the season larg*e stools are produced, 

 the leaves of which touch together and only a space of about one 

 foot is left between the rows. This requires a large number of 

 plants from twelve thousand to fifteen thousand per acre and 

 much more care in cultivation, but the fruit is very large and of 

 fine qua-lit}', and brings the highest price. 



A modified form of this system is to plant two and one-half by 

 three feet, and during the early part of the season cultivate both 

 ways with the horse. When the runners begin to grow vigorous- 

 ly, the strongest are trained into the spaces across the widest way, 

 filling up so that they stand about one by three feet apart, when 

 all other runners are destroyed. In this way, between five and 

 six thousand plants are sufficient to set an acre, while the results 

 are perhaps equally satisfactory as by the full hill system. 



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