LAYING OFF FOR STRAWBERRIES 



497 



ditches. A grade of six inches to the rod is practicable for hillside 

 irrigation, but of course only a small flow of water is employed. 



There are various ways of laying out strawberry beds and plan- 

 tations. Some give flat cultivation and lay out in single rows two 

 and a half to three and a half feet apart, and in some districts 

 flat culture is unquestionably the best. Others lay out in double 



Strawberry Field laid off in double rows. 



rows a foot and one-half or two feet apart, and between each pair 

 of rows the soil from the center is drawn up to each side, making a 

 low ridge or level a little higher than the surface on which the 

 plants are set. This levee serves as a walk between the beds and 

 holds back the water upon the bed when irrigated by flooding. An- 

 other, and the generally-adopted plan, is to have the plants in 

 double rows on a slight ridge, while between the beds is a furrow 

 which serves as a walk and for irrigation. This is accomplished 

 by throwing up the soil with the plow into ridges about two feet 

 wide, with a double furrow between. On the sides of these ridges 

 the plants are set, and often on the top of the ridge between the 

 rows of strawberries a single row of onions or lettuce, or some 

 other vegetable, is grown the first year. In irrigation the water 

 is drawn up from the trenches by the roots and by capillary attrac- 

 tion, and the upper surface does not bake as it would by flooding if 

 the soil be heavy. In hoeing out weeds and in fruit gathering, the 

 workman walks in the ditch and does not pack the soil around the 

 plant by tramping. This is the best method for laying out for large 

 plantations. The rows are a uniform distance apart across the 

 field, whether the space between be a ridge or a ditch. The method 



