(■.i.i-:anin(;s in m-.v. cn/rrRi- 



STRAWBERRY-GROWING, NO. 2. 



The beds I described in our previous issue 

 will |irohably b? used for ijrowing ])lants to 

 set out in the fields rather tlian for producinji; 

 fruit, although by far the finest fruit can be 

 secured by this same ])lan of sub-irritjation. 

 When your beds are all full of plants, as they 

 will all very quickly be providing you follow 

 up the work without any neglect, you will 

 probably need to set them out in the open 

 ground. This plot of ground, be it large or 

 small, should be thoroughly underdrained. The 

 objection to sub-irrigation in the open air, I 

 have already given. When you have potted 

 plants to spare, put them out in ground well 

 worked up and fertiliz m1, in rows 4 feet apart. 

 I would put tlie plan s about a foot apart in 

 the row. Run through them with your hand 

 cultivators or horse cultivatois, keeping the 

 ground constantly .soft and mellow, and free 

 from weeds. When runners put out, pot them 

 exactly as we described in the beds, using the 

 jadoo fiber described in our Sept. 1st issue, on 

 page 048. 



In order to facilitate cultivating, every time 

 you go to work potting plants, stretch a string 

 on each side of the row. Now, have this 

 string as near the mother-plants that are put- 

 ting out runners as you can, and have just the 

 young plants potted inside of the string, and 

 3-et arrange to have no two nearer than five 

 inches from its neighbor. We do this in order 

 that we may keep running the cultivator clear 

 up to the line made by the string. The space 

 between the plants mu.st be kept mellow, and 

 free from weeds, by some of the various hand 

 weeders. Below is a cut of an excellent one 

 for this puq:)Ose. 



er it shall be more valuable plants, or .■j.impl}- 

 grow big berries and more of them. By the 

 wav, perhaps I .should say that, while you are 

 gr(nving ])lants, all /'n(!/-s/c//ts shoidd be clip- 

 ped oiT. Von can not get th ■ finest plants if 

 you let the mother-plants that are .sending out 

 the runners bear fruit. 



We will .suppo.se, then, that you have in 

 vour sulj-irrigating lieds, and e\en in your 

 very rich beds in the garden, ke])t off all 

 l)los.som-buds. You have got to the ])oint 

 where you have hundreds or thousands of 

 nice .strong plants with great bundles of roots. 

 They ought to be potted transplanted ]:)lants. 

 What shall we do with them ? Well, in the 

 first place we want a piece of ground — the 

 nearer square the better, although this is not 

 particularly important. It should be at least 

 an eighth of an acre; but if you have not 

 that nuich we will try to get along with less. 

 Have it well underdrained, then work it up 

 fine and soft down 12 or 15 inches, or even 18 

 inches deep, if you can afford the expense. 

 If the patch is small, get some expert gardener 

 to spade it two "spits" deep, working in all 

 the manure meanwhile you can get hold of. 

 If you do it with horses, spread as nuich 

 manure on the ground as can possibly be 

 plowed under. Have a man follow the plow- 

 to pull the manure into the furrow ; and then 

 after the ground is plowed and harrowed, get 

 some fine manure that will not clog the cvilti- 

 vators, and work in a lot more in the surface. 

 Harrow it or cultivate it until it is fine and 

 loose; then roll it until it is level; and I would 

 take considerable pains to level it with a rake 

 and shovel before rolling it. 



In order to have surface drainage as well as 

 underdrainage I would have a good deep 

 ditch all around the piece, and haye the 

 ground slope gently from the center toward 

 the.se outside ditches. Never let the water 

 stand in puddles on your strawberry-patch. 



A HAND WEEDER FOR WORKING AMONG 

 STRAWBERRIES. 



Now, the above arrangement is all right for 

 growing fruit on the plan called the matted- 

 row system, only we avoid letting the plants 

 stand near together, on the plan that Terry 

 recommends. 



If you want to grow extra large nice fruit, 

 there is a still better way ; but there are sev- 

 eral objections to this " better way." First, it 

 is lots of work to do all the cultivating by 

 hand. Second, it is lots of work to keep the 

 runners off. Third, while you are growing 

 fruit you can not grow plants for sale ; and 

 where the plants are rare and valuable, this 

 is quite an objection. But, dear friends, you 

 must remember that in strawberry -growing 

 you can not grow the finest fruit and grow 

 plants for sale at the same time. In bee cul- 

 ture you can not get great crops of honey and 

 a great amount of increase of colonies in the 

 same season. You will have to decide wheth- 



« ■/.■■ n .•.■■* w-' a vy/ s Y// & •••" 



HOW TO PLANT STRAWBERRIES FOR HII.E 

 CULTURE. 



Now with some sort of marker mark the 

 plot, say from east to west, with marks as 

 near 21 inches apart as 3'ou can make it. Any 

 sort of mark that you can see plainly will 

 answer. We now want to set the plants 2 feet 

 apart in these marks; but you do not want 

 them to come in squares. Each row of plants 

 should "break joints" with the preceding 

 row; then any three plants in the plot will 

 stand in the form of a triangle ; and this tri- 

 angle will be 2 feet on each of its three .sides. 

 The diagram above will help us to get the idea. 



