32 



a considerable percentage of cheap plants offered every year on the 

 market and taken from old fruiting beds are these two-year-old, worth- 

 less stock. 



The simplest and surest way of getting plants is to take them from 

 the sides of the fruiting rows. Each plant sends out runners doi'ing 

 the year which form new plants at each joint. If these new plants 

 become estabhshed in deep, rich soil, they will make strong roots and 

 crowns. The strawberry grower, thus carefully selecting along his 

 own strawberry rows, can secure such plants as he desires. These 

 plants may be taken out in spring just at the time of transplanting. 



Fig. 1. — A New Strawberry Field in a Clearing in the Woods. 



We have found it rather better, however, to take them up during the 

 fall and heel them in. Small beds are especially prepared for this pur- 

 pose in deep, well-drained soil. These are covered with loose, dry 

 mulch during the winter, and the plants are taken out in prime condi- 

 tion at transplanting time in the spring. 



A word should be said also about the use of potted plants. These 

 are largely advertised every fall and are very interesting to amateurs. 

 Any one who has a few small flowerpots (2i or 2^ inches) at his dis- 

 posal may grow these plants for himself. The pots are buried in the 

 soil beside the fruiting rows in the latter part of June or the first of 

 July. Each pot is filled with soil, and a young strawberry plant, 

 still attached to the mother plant, is set into the buried pot. Plants 

 so treated should form large, strong crowns by the last of August. 

 They may then be severed from the mother plants and transplanted 



