2i8 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



at the right time. To commence with we must have good 

 plants, with full vitality ; to have these, care must be exercised 

 in the digging of the plants, trimming and preparing them for 

 setting out. Plants that are dug and exposed to drying winds 

 ten minutes, or even less time, are often much injured by such 

 exposure. In digging plants on my own farm, I usually trim 

 them in the field where dug, keeping right up to the fresh dug 

 plants, covering the roots of each bunch of lo, 15 or 25, with 

 earth, as fast as trimmed, and then gathering them up into boxes 

 or baskets, with scarcely any exposure to air. After they are 

 properly packed they may be sent almost any distance, or kept 

 in a cool place a long time without injury. For the strawberry 

 crop there is no danger of fitting the soil too thoroughly. I 

 mark out the field in any way that comes handy, in order tO' have 

 rows the proper distance apart (say 33^ or 45^ feet), according 

 to whether I want narrow matted rows or wide ones. I then 

 take a Planet Jr. cultivator, and follow the marks, going twice 

 if necessary, to fine the soil, then set in the center mark. By 

 this method the ground is so mellow that no dibble is required 

 in setting the plants. Care must be taken to have the crow^n of 

 the plants as near the level of the surface of the ground as 

 possible, if set too low, they are bound to make a poor growth, 

 and if too high, are liable to be pulled out by cultivator. It 

 may be rank heresy to say so, but I do not lay any particular 

 stress on spreading out the roots when setting the plants, but 

 I do insist that they shall be set with the roots fairly deep in 

 the soil, and the earth well firmed around them. A good rule to 

 follow and insist on, is that the plant must be so firmly set that 

 it cannot be pulled up by one leaf, that is, that the leaf will break 

 before the plant will start. Another important point is to set 

 as early as possible in the spring; you can't set too early after 

 the ground is fit to work. The ground is cool at that time and 

 the plants will start without any check, when if set late and dry 

 weather comes on a poor stand of plants is sure to result. 

 Within a very few days after setting, the weeder, or any good 

 curved tooth implement, should be used, going lengthwise of the 

 row right over the plants ; it will seem at first that you would 

 ruin the plants, but if plants are properly set. not one in a lOO 

 will be injured. The first time over it is well to have some one 

 follow the weeder and set in plants where any are pulled out, or 



