THE STRAWBERBY. 181 



The beds may be made either in April or in 

 August. There is no doubt that young runners 

 planted as early as August 15th and carefully 

 nursed, not allowing any new runners, will make 

 such strong and fat crowns as will give even 

 larger berries the following June, than can be 

 obtained by any other plan. The yield of the 

 field will not be so great as if planted in the 

 previous spring. But the.yoimg plants have the 

 advantage of freshly ploughed ground and fresh 

 fertilizing, at the season of most active growth ; 

 they are not weakened by making offsets, but 

 develop to the utmost, as individual plants. It 

 is, therefore, no surprise that our prize fruit 

 comes from August planting. All this is possi- 

 ble. Yet it remains true that spring is generally 

 regarded as the best time for making new plan- 

 tations. "With less care, the plants are more 

 certain to live ; the beds become weU filled, and 

 a full crop is obtained in the following season. 

 There are advantages in both plans, and circum- 

 stances must determine which shaU be followed. 

 For small garden beds a common practice is 

 to lay out beds four feet wide and plant three 

 rows a foot apart, the two outer rows being six 

 inches from the edge of the bed. The plants 

 may be a foot apart in the rows. Thus a bed 

 100 feet long would require 300 plants. To 



