WINTER PROTECTION. 43 



preparation of tlie ground, before it is again used for 

 strawberries. The bed might be made to bear well, '*■ 

 by a careful renewal of the old plants by their run- 

 ners, for ten or a dozen years, but this would require 

 rather more skill in cultivation than most persons 

 possess. 



Every year or two, if a strong runner has struck 

 itself beside an old plant, we pull up the old plant in- 

 stead of the runner, and are constantly thus renewing 

 them. We always leave the best plants. The field 

 cultivator has only to clean off the weeds, and prepare 

 the soil in the spaces of three feet between the rows ; 

 allow the runners to cover that ground; then drive 

 the cultivator or plough through, turning under the 

 old row of plants ; thin out the new ones to proper 

 distances, and his system of renewal is complete. 



WINTER PROTECTION. 



Our experience is in favor of a slight winter protec- 

 tion. It costs comparatively but little time or expense, 

 on the approach of severe winter weather, to hastily 

 scatter a thin coat of straw or old leaves over the 

 plants ; and they come out in so much better condition 

 in the spring, and even the hardiest kinds bear so 

 much better crops for it, that we never neglect it. 

 Like mulching, almost any thing free from weeds, that 



