Cultivation of Strawberries 195 



not know that all plants "have to be married" before 

 they can produce fruit or seed. 



Soil — Planting — Cultivation. — Strawberries may be 

 successfully grown on any good garden soil, but they 

 succeed best on a fertile, sandy loam containing an 

 abundant supply of humus. This should be deeply pre- 

 pared and liberally fertilized with thoroughly rotted 

 manure, phosphoric acid and potash. If wood ashes are 

 available they afford the best source of potash and in the 

 best form. There is no danger of applying too much 

 phosphoric acid and potash, but an excess of nitrogen 

 causes a luxuriant growth of vine at the expense of 

 fruitage. Fresh stable manure should not be used on 

 this crop in the South. 



In the private garden, a very small area will be suffi- 

 cient to supply the family. 



I prefer, if the plants are to be cultivated with the 

 hoe, to plant two feet each way and confine them to 

 single crowns. The runners and the new plants are 

 produced at the expense of the parent plants, and this 

 tax on the energies of the latter diminishes their capacity 

 for producing fruit. The bloom-buds are formed the 

 year before they develop, and hence each crop depends 

 largely upon the treatment which the plants receive the 

 year before. The removal of the runners, therefore, as 

 fast as they form, will increase the yield the next year. 



If the plants are to be cultivated with the plow, the 

 rows should be three feet apart and the plants set one 

 foot apart in the rows. 



In the South, the plants should be transplanted as 

 soon as practicable after the season's growth ceases — 



