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drawn out of the soil. No fruit should be allowed to ripen on the 

 newly set plants the first season. 



Distance for Planting. 



There is a great diversity among practical growers in the dis- 

 tance at which the plants are set, and also under different condi- 

 tions. On a very rich soil the plants may be set further apart 

 than on thin soil, and it may vary under these conditions from one 

 by three feet to four by five feet, using from twenty-five hundred 

 to seven thousand plants per acre. In the garden where the soil 

 is not very rich and where the plants are grown more or less in 

 the hill or wide-distance matted row, even less than the smaller 

 number may be set. 



Method of Training. 



Two general methods of training are practised, the hill and 

 matted row, both of which are varied by different commercial 

 growers, and admit of greater variation in the garden than in the 

 field. The close matted row is where the runners are allowed to 

 grow over all the space except where the cultivator runs between 

 the rows. The modified or wide-space matted row is where only 

 a limited number of the runnei's are allowed to grow, each plant 

 having from four to six inches space for development. By the 

 hill system the plants, put out in the spring, are not allowed to set 

 any runners. The advantage of the first method is that the plants 

 serve to protect each other during the winter, and a very large 

 crop is often produced ; but the plants do not have a chance to 

 fully develop, and the fruit will be of small size and inferior 

 quality. In the modified or wide-space matted row each plant 

 has space for perfect development, and the crop is large and of 

 fine quality. This method is especially adapted to the home 

 garden. With the hill system, no runner being allowed to grow, 



