Ctiltivation. \ \ \ 



or plowed. The old plants are allowed to fill these former paths with new 

 plants ; which process being completed, the old matted beds are turned 

 under, and the new plants that have taken the places of the paths bear the 

 fruit of the coming year. But, suppose the old beds have within them 

 sorrel, white clover, wire-grass, and a dozen other perennial enemies, what 

 practical man does not know that these pests will fill the vacant spaces 

 faster than can the strawberry plants ? There is no chance for cultivation 

 by hoe or horse-power. Only frequent and laborious weedings by hand 

 can prevent the evil, and this but partially, for, as has been said, the roots 

 of many weeds are out of reach unless there is room for the fork, hoe, or 

 cultivator to go beneath them. 



In direct contrast with the above is the ''hill system." This, in brief, 

 may be suggested by saying that the strawberry plants are set out three 

 feet more or less apart, and treated like hills of corn, with the excep- 

 tion that the ground is kept level, or should be. They are often so 

 arranged that the cultivator can pass between them each way, thus obvi- 

 ating nearly all necessity for hand work. When carried out to such an 

 extent, I consider this plan more objectionable than the former, especially 

 at the North. In the first place, when the plants are so distant from each 

 other, much of the ground is left unoccupied and unproductive. In the 

 second place, the fruit grower is at the mercy of the strawberry's worst 

 enemy, the Lachnosterna, or white grub. Few fields in our region are 

 wholly free from them, and a few of the voracious pests would leave the 

 ground bare, for they devour the roots all summer long. In the third 

 place, where so much of the ground is unoccupied, the labor of mulching, 

 so that the soil can be kept moist and the fruit clean, is very great. 



In small garden-plots, when the plants can be set only two feet apart 

 each way, the results of this system are often most admirable. The entire 

 spaces between them can be kept mellow and loose, and therefore moist. 

 There is room to dig out and eradicate the roots of the worst weeds. By 

 frequently raking the ground over, the annual weeds do not get a chance 

 to start. In the rich soil, the plants make great, bushy crowns that nearly 

 touch each other, and as they begin to blossom, the whole space between 

 them can be mulched with straw, grass, etc. The runners can easily be 

 cut away when the plants are thus isolated. Where there are not many 

 white grubs in the soil, the hill system is well adapted to meet garden 

 culture, and the result, in a prolonged season of large, beautiful fruit, will 

 be most satisfactory. Moreover, the berries, being exposed on all sides 

 to the sun, will be of the best flavor. 



In the South, the hill system is the only one that can be adopted to 



