STRAWBERRY 



213 



Well planted Strawberry 



given. Large fruits and a number of them may be had by 

 growing to the single plant, keeping off all runners and 

 relying on numerous fruit -crowns on one plant for the 

 crop of berries. Or Strawberries may be grown by the nar- 

 row matted -row system, in which the 

 runners, before rooting, should be 

 turned along the rows at a distance of 

 from 4 to 6 inches from the parent 

 plant. These runners should be the 

 first ones made by the plant and should 

 not be allowed to root themselves, but 

 " set in." This is not a difficult opera- 

 tion ; and if the runners are separated 

 from the parent plant as soon as they 

 become well established, the drain on 

 that plant is not great. All other run- 

 ners should be cut off as they start. The row should be 

 about 12 inches wide at fruiting time. Each plant should 

 have sufficient feeding ground, full sunlight, and a firm 

 hold in the soil. This matted- row system is perhaps as 

 good a method, either in a private garden or field culture, 

 as could be practiced. With a little care in hoeing, weed- 

 ing and cutting off runners, the beds 

 seem to produce as large crops the 

 second year as the first. 



The old way of growing a crop 

 was to set the plants 10 to 12 inches 

 apart, in rows 3 feet apart, and al- 

 low them to run and root at will, 

 the results being a mass of small, 

 crowded plants, each striving to ob- 

 tain plant-food and none of them succeeding in getting 

 enough. The last, or outside runners, having but the 

 tips of their roots in the ground, are moved by the 

 wind, heaved by the frost, or have the exposed roots 

 dried out by the wind and sun. 



Pot-grown Strawberry 



