JULY: THIRD WEEK i8i 



and any that show the slightest trace of blight or leaf spots 

 should be removed; it is better if all such plants are im- 

 mediately discarded. 



In setting the plants, three things should be kept in mind: 

 Set on a freshly prepared surface; get the plants in firmly; 

 cover them well up to but not over the crowns. If irrigation 

 is available get the soil fairly moist before planting, then 

 give a thorough watering after the plants are in. 



Getting Plants for the New Bed 



To root your own supply of plants, select only good 

 healthy vines, and work the ground into good condition, 

 just as the runners start, so they will have a congenial 

 place in which to establish themselves. The first or tip 

 plants from the runners and the first one or two runners 

 thrown out by the plant are usually the strongest and are 

 ready the earliest. 



To get ideal plants — those which with proper care will 

 give a full crop of the largest berries the first spring after 

 planting — buy or root for yourself potted plants. These 

 cost more and are a little more trouble to get or to produce, 

 but they are worth the difference. Good potted plants of 

 the standard varieties cost about three cents apiece. To 

 produce them from the old bed all that is required is a 

 supply of small pots. The soil is made mellow, as for or- 

 dinary layer plants, the pots are filled with earth and sunk 

 to the rims, and the runners are held in place over them with 

 small stones, small twigs or clothes pins, so that they will 

 not be blown out of position. 



"Matted Row" vs. "Hill" System 



In planting for the matted row, the rows are marked off 

 two or three feet apart and the plants are set from twelve 

 to eighteen inches apart in the rows. When new runners 

 start these are rooted between and to the sides of the original 

 plants until a solid mat some fifteen to eighteen inches 



