Strawberries. 321 



General Culture. After a plantation is established, weeds 

 should be kept down rigorously. Runners should be removed as 

 fast as they appear, serious neglect in this particular being likely 

 to ruin a plantation, and in any case when runners are allowed 

 to grow they do so at the expense of the following season's 

 crop. At all times during spring and summer, except when a 

 mulch prevents, the surface soil should be kept in a loose 

 condition by frequent stirring with hoe or cultivator ; this will 

 promote root action and ensure vigorous growth, the crop of 

 the following season depending on the growth the plants have 

 made in the previous year. After the fruit has been gathered 

 and the runners removed, all the torn and withered old foliage 

 should be carefully cut away, and with the litter and any other 

 rubbish on the field, gathered together in heaps and burnt. 

 In the autumn a mulch of rich compost or well decayed manure 

 is given, and on large plantations a plough is then run between 

 the rows, which puts the plants on ridges and keeps the roots 

 well drained; in the spring a horse-hoe is used to level the 

 ground again. Where horse labour is not used, digging between 

 the rows must not be permitted, but in the winter a light forking 

 over, about Sin. deep, will sweeten the soil and leave a friable 

 surface to facilitate the work of hoeing. After the spring 

 hoeing is done a mulch of long manure or clean straw is laid 

 along the sides of the rows and between the plants to keep the 

 soil from splashing on the fruit during heavy rains. 



Strawberries do much better when grown by themselves, in 

 an open situation away from bushes and trees, but sometimes 

 they are grown between rows of young gooseberry and currant 

 bushes, where they succeed fairly well for two or three years, 

 until the bushes grow large and shade them ; thus, they enable 

 the grower to pay expenses until the bushes become remuner- 

 ative. A plantation will usually bear well for three seasons, 

 and it is even possible under good management to take fair 

 crops from plants which have been established ten or twelve 

 years. But it is very inadvisable to let them crop for more 

 than three seasons, and many good growers turn the plants in 

 directly they have borne two crops, and find this the most 

 profitable method, the second crop usually being the heaviest 

 the plants will bear. 



