28 



Wet the soil and plants thoroughly. A light 

 covering may be necessary. 



Incidentally, there is one way to play 

 safe. If you have cold storage available 

 order your plants shipped in March while 

 they are still thoroughly dormant. Even 

 moderate delays in transit won't hurt them 

 at that time and they will keep perfectly in 

 cold storage at 32 Degrees F. until planting 

 conditions are just right. If plants are dug 

 after they have made lots of foliage and pos- 

 sibly blossoms, they should not be held 

 more than a few days even in storage. 



U. S. Government and New York State 

 experiments have shown that anyone who 

 cannot normally set plants by April 15th, 

 could confidently expect much better re- 

 sults with stored dormant plants than with 

 freshly dug ones. 



WHAT IS THE BEST METHOD OF SET- 

 TING PLANTS? Any method is good which 



TOO SHALLOW 



JUST RIGHT 



TOO DEEP 



leaves the roots reasonably straight down 

 in the soil, spread some if possible, with the 

 soil pressed firmly against the roots and the 

 bud just at the surface of the packed down 

 soil. A good garden trowel is the best tool 

 for the work in small plots. Others are a 

 spade, dibble, paddle, a big spoon or in 

 larger fields a horse or tractor drawn trans- 

 planter. With plants that have very long 

 roots clipping them off to about 4 or 5 

 inches in length will make it easier to get a 

 good job of setting. It will not hurt the 

 plants. No matter how long or how short 

 the leaf stems, fruit stems or roots may be 

 at time of setting, the bud must be just at 

 the surface. (See picture). 



HOW FAR APART SHOULD PLANTS" BE 

 SET? In general, we recommend setting 

 plants 18 to 20 inches apart in rows 3Vi to 

 4 feet apart. This requires about 7,000 plants 

 per acre. (See table.) Somewhat closer 

 planting is satisfactory in small gardens 

 where space is limited, for the hill system 

 as with everbearers, or for late setting 

 where a good stand is uncertain. 



For the small garden order 7 plants for 

 each 10 feet of row you want to set or figure 

 1 plant for each 5 square feet. Thus for a 

 plot 10 x 10 ft. you would need about 20 

 plants. 



HOEING, CULTIVATING AND TRAIN- 

 ING. Frequent hoeing and cultivating make 

 larger, stronger fruiting beds and a better 

 crop of berries. The purpose is to keep 

 down weeds and grass and to keep the top 

 soil loose. Loose top soil helps conserve 

 soil moisture and makes it easier for new 

 runners to take root. Shallow cultivation is 

 best — 1 to 1 l h inches deep with the hoe or 

 slightly deeper with horse cultivator. 



There are three other important jobs to 

 be done along with the hoeing work. 



(1) Uncover the buds. At the first or 

 second hoeing any of the plant buds which 

 have become covered with packed or caked 

 dirt must be uncovered. Neglect in this is 

 often the greatest single cause of a poor 

 stand. The outside leaves may remain fresh 

 and green for some time but if the bud is 

 smothered the whole plant will eventually 

 die. 



(2) Cut off the blossoms at each hoeing. 

 The vitality necessary to mature a cluster 

 or two of berries is needed by the newly 

 set plant to make a strong, vigorous plant 

 growth. Blossoms may be left on vigorous 

 plants of Everbearing varieties after July 20. 



(3) Most of the training of new runners 

 is done at hoeing time. A well spaced mat- 

 ted row is the best system for getting the 

 largest crops of the best berries. It will not 

 pay to be too fussy about exact spacing dis- 

 tances but it should be kept in mind that 

 4 to 8 plants per square foot of fruiting bed 

 is plenty. An excess is no better than 

 weeds. Train the first strong, new runners 

 out like spokes from a wheel and root them 

 until a fruiting row 1 Vi to 2 l A feet wide has 

 been formed. When that has been done as 

 many as possible of the later runners 

 should be pulled off or cut off. 



