VEGETABLE PLANTS. 83 



old to be of any value to transplant, or else 

 too weak and small. 



Growing plants and growing berries are 

 separate and distinct branches of business, 

 and cannot well be both done at the same 

 time in the same beds. Because a man 

 grows berries, it should not, therefore, be 

 inferred that he has young plants to spare. 

 He may have, or he may not. To pro- 

 duce nice berries, the runners should be 

 kept cut so that the old plant will stool 

 out and become large and thrifty. To pro- 

 duce good plants, they must be allowed to 

 run for one season only, on fresh soil, free from 

 weeds, where the young rootlets can readily 

 take hold. Strawberry plants are fit for set- 

 ting only during the season in which they are 

 formed, or early in the following spring. If 

 older than this, the roots become hard and 

 black, when it is with difficulty that they can 

 be made to live, and they are not at all likely 

 to grow thriftily. On the other hand, if too 

 young, or grown in old, crowded, or weedy 

 beds, the roots will be few and short, and the 

 plants generally too weak and feeble to do 

 well. The usual method for obtaining plants 

 is to keep the bed in condition for producing 



