62 



SMALL FPvUIT CULTUPJST. 



runners to take root. In this manner the same beds are 



cropped for ten or fifteen years. 



It is not the fancy improved varieties that are treated 

 in this manner, but the older kinds, which are but a slight 

 improvement upon the common wild berry. The forego- 

 ing method of cultivation is certainly not to be recom- 

 mended, but I have mentioned it because there are proba- 

 bly as many acres of Strawberries grown and treated in 

 this manner as are grown under any other system. Our 

 eastern cities, particularly Xew York, Philadelphia and 

 Baltimore, have been supplied almost entirely, until Avith- 

 in a very few years past, from these half cultivated fields. 

 We must conclude that such a method of cultivation is 

 profitable ; if not, it would have been abandoned long 

 ago, although it is apparent that those who follow this 

 system are not afflicted with the spirit of progress. 



BIENNIAL SYSTEM. 



Another m^ethod which has of late years become very 

 popular is that of planting in beds, say two or three rows 

 in each, placing the j^lants about eighteen inches apart 

 each vray, and then leave paths of about two feet. The 

 plants are hoed and all weeds destroyed as they appear. 

 The runners are all allowed to grow, and the entire sur- 

 face is covered with plants, except a path of about two 

 feet in width between the beds. These beds are allowed to 

 produce two crops, and then the plants are plowed under 

 and some other crop grown on the land for one or two 

 {seasons, when it is again planted Avith Strawberries, if de- 

 sirable. This is probably one of the very best systems in 

 vogue. The first crop is sometimes the best, but usually 

 the second is considered as the main one. 



It is much less trouble to plant a new bed than to clean 

 the weeds out of an old one; besides, a first rate crop can 



