42 STRAWBERRIES 
with a trowel, a spiked wheel being used to mark out 
the stations sixteen or eighteen inches apart, in rows 
about two and a half feet apart. 
Catch crops are frequently taken from between the 
strawberries during the first season, but where early 
-autumn planting takes place the order is somewhat re- 
versed, the catch crop being put in early—onions, for 
instance—in rows very wide apart, and the strawberries 
subsequently planted between them. Hand hoeing is 
necessary in such cases, but the cheaper method of horse 
hoeing prevails where strawberries alone are grown. 
Other items include autumn ploughing with a shallow- 
set mould-board plough, between the rows, as this 
earthing-up process protects the plants, and at the same 
time serves to carry off superfluous moisture. These 
ridges are levelled with the horse hoe in March or 
April, and another hoeing is given just before flowering 
and preparatory to laying down oat or barley straw (this 
goes farther than a similar weight of wheat straw) at 
the rate of from one to one and a half tons per acre, to 
keep the fruits clean. After the crop has been gathered 
the straw is raked up for other uses, dead foliage, old 
flower stems, and runners being trimmed off with a 
hook, raked out and burned. Where, however, there 
is a cattle-yard, straw and trimmings may well be raked 
out together, and used as litter. This is followed by 
horse hoeing, and, if necessary, an application of about 
twenty tons of manure per acre, or a few tons less on 
very good soil. 
The cost of production varies with soil and locality, 
but planting, with purchased runners, will cost £8 
to {10 per acre, while the annual cost of manuring 
and cultivating will reach another {Io per acre, and 
then there will be the cost of picking and marketing. 
Picking costs from 4d. to 6d. per 12 Ibs., or £3, Ios. 
to 45 per ton, according to the crop and size of the 
