320 THE STRAWBERRY, 



has been properly prepared, the plants in good order, and 

 the work done reasonably well. 



The ground being properly prepared and made smooth 

 with a harrow, the planting should be in straight roAvs, 

 using a line, and may be done with a dibble, or by fur- 

 rownig the line liglitly with a shovel, or double mould- 

 board plow, and then draw ing the earth hi around the 

 plant, as it is placed, witli the hands. This gives oppor- 

 tunity for a better spreading of the roots, and in practice 

 has been found even more rapid than dibbling. 



In extensive field culture the system of rows is the 

 most advantageous, and they should be three and a half 

 to four feet apart, with plants one foot apart in the row, 

 to admit of the passage of the horse-hoe or cultivator 

 between them. 



The arrangement of plants in beds is a matter upon which 

 cultivators differ in opinion and practice. That which we 



regard as ofiering the 

 greatest convenience in 

 a garden plantation is 

 to divide the ground 

 into beds of four feet 

 wide, each of which may 



Fig. 158.— DIAGRAM OF STKAWBERRY- COUtaiu thrCC TOWS of 



BED. plants, the two outside 



rows six inches from the edge of the beils (fig. 158). 



The plants may stand twelve inclies apart in the rows, 

 or in the case of very strong growing sorts, such as Trol- 

 lope's Victoria and some other English varieties, eighteen 

 inches apart. Thus a bed twenty feet long and four feet 

 wide will contain forty to sixty plants. 



If the plantation contains several of these beds they 

 should be separated by Avalks or alleys of two feet in 

 width. 



These walks would enable the gardener to perform all 

 the labor the plants Mould req^uire, and gather the fruit 



