HOW TO CULTIVATE STRAWBERRIES. 249 



method of cultivation. I have tried almost every plan recom- 

 mended. Some of these methods of cultivating the strawl)erry 

 I will describe. 1st. The matted bed or annual system. (This is 

 sometimes called the Belmont system in Massachusetts.) The 

 ground being well prepared, the plants are set out in rows from 

 three to four feet apart, and from ten to fourteen inches in the 

 rows, as early in the spring as possible after the soil becomes dry 

 enough to plant. 



The weeds are kept down between the rows with a horse and 

 cultivator until the runners from the plants begin to spread ; the 

 ground is then levelled with a rake and the runners spread out 

 evenly over the whole ground, which will be entirely covered by 

 the first of October following if the season has been favorable. 

 The following spring, paths one foot wide are cut through the lot, 

 leaving it in beds about three feet wide. After the crop is taken 

 the lot is ploughed and used for some other crop. 



The advantages claimed are, first, a full crop ; second, that it 

 is less work to raise a new bed than to weed the old one, and 

 although only one crop in two years, it is more profitable. The 

 objection to this plan is the great expense of weeding, which 

 after the runners have commenced to grow, has to be done 

 almost entirely with the strawberry fork and the fingers. And 

 th€^ liability of having the plants too thick in the bed, which 

 would injure the crop even if they were thinned, for having 

 been grown thick they are not as strong and stocky plants as 

 they otherwise would be. And also from having only one crop 

 in two years. 



This method, however, is perhaps well adapted to varieties 

 like the Hovcy's seedling, that seldom have but one fruit-stem 

 to a plant, and therefore must be grown thick to secure a crop. 



2d. To plant in the spring in the same rows as the annual 

 system, except the rows are to be only three feet apart,- and the 

 plants allowed to cover a space one foot in width. This is a mod- 

 ified form of the matted bed system and is liable to the same 

 objections. 



3d. Single row or hills. This is setting out plants in the spring 

 in rows three feet apart and the plants from twelve to eighteen 

 inches apart in the row ; the runners are to be cut off and the 

 plants kept in hills. The weeds between the rows are to be 

 kept down with a horse and cultivator. 



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