THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



109 



whicli ripens up all within a few days, 

 and consists at the last of an immense 

 number of berries pi-ematurely ripened 

 and exceedingly small from lack of 

 moisture ; hence the market is suddenly 

 glutted, and the price reduced for good 

 fruit, and the later run of small berries 

 rendered almost unsalable at any price. 



" The Hill System" is almost un- 

 known in some localities, thoiigh prac- 

 tised in other places for a long time. 

 According to it the plants are set from 

 a foot to 18 inches distant, in rows two 

 to three feet apart, and all runners cut 

 off before they take root and the whole 

 sui'face mulched ; no '-'hilling-up," please 

 — the only " Hill" is a hill of growing 

 leaves and fruit. The three drawbacks 

 to this system are strongly insisted on 

 by large planters : — 



1st. So much trouble to keep run- 

 ners off. 



2nd. Danger from plants heaving out 

 in winter. 



3rd. White grub, it present, makes 

 such noticeable blanks in the rows. 



The advantages, however,are claimed, 

 by all who appear to have fairly tried 

 both plans, to greatly counterbalance 

 the drawbacks. They are : — 



1st. Large berries. 



2nd. Large crop. 



3rd. Long season of ripening. 



4th. Certainty of crop in dry seasons. 



5th. Twice as many paying crops of 

 fruit from the same plantation — the 

 net result claimed being a much larger 

 margin of profit than by the other sys- 

 tem. 



Naturally the advantages and draw- 

 backs in each system vary relatively on 

 different soils, with different vaxieties, 

 and especially in different seasons. 



On light sandy soils, where weeds 

 sprout and runners root with great fa- 

 cility, and where drouth soonest shows 

 itself, the evils of the Matted Row, and 

 the advantages of the Hill system are 

 relatively greatest. On my land of this 



nature I find, with lurking wii-e-grass 

 and sprouting thistle-roots, I can only 

 hope for about a fourth to a third as 

 much crop in the Matted Row as what 

 I may confidently count on if the run- 

 ners are kept off. We cut them off with 

 a well-sharpened Dutch or " push" hoe, 

 which we also use to cut the weeds close 

 around the plants, and we think the in- 

 crease in crop pays us five times over for 

 the increase in labor and for the mulch- 

 ing. But on heavier soils, where weeds 

 and runners do not root so readily, where 

 moisture is more abundant, and where 

 single plants that happen to lack miilch- 

 ing are certain to be heaved out to 

 their destruction, the " Matted Row " 

 will not be left so far behind. 



With some varieties only the " Hill 

 System " will succeed at all. The 

 Sharpless, for instance, Tnay be profit- 

 able with some men in " Matted Rows," 

 but I would like to see the men, and 

 the rows too ! So also the Jersey 

 Queen, and indeed most of the large 

 varieties must have the runners kept 

 off to yield a profit. But Manchester, 

 Crescent, the brave old Wilson, and a 

 few others, are so persistent that they 

 will not refuse a lot of berries, in spite 

 of grass and weeds, in worse than 

 " Matted Rows." In very moist sea- 

 sons the Common System may seem 

 fully as profitable as the plan of keep- 

 ing runners off. But when the rain- 

 fall corks up a week or two before the 

 berries color, and holds up till the crop 

 is done, then the difference is felt with 

 a vengeance. Then the price running 

 up and the berries running down make 

 a vexatious fix for the man of " Mat- 

 ted Rows " — vexation not lessened by 

 the quickness to run out of even his 

 little berries. Last summer made a 

 case in point : how many growers 

 would have exchanged their matted 

 rows for my Bidwell hills, yielding 

 over two hundred bushels per acre — on 

 light land, in a four weeks' drouth — 



