ALLEN'S STRAWBERRY CATALOGUE. 



FIG. I. 



SET JUST RIGHT. 



FIG. 8. 

 SET TOO DEEP. 



FIG. 9. 

 SET TOO SHALLOW 



Figure 7 shows you a plant properly placed in the ground. The top of the 

 crown, where the leaves come out, should be just"! above the surface, after the 

 plant is set and the soil leveled down around it. The lines in these figures indi- 

 cate the surface of the ground. 



Figure 8 shows a plant set too deep. Earth over the'crown will usually kill 

 it, or at least prevent its doing well. Figure 9 shows a plant set too shallow. 

 The air can get to the roots and so can the sunshine, and the plant will not do 

 well under such conditions. The roots should all be in the ground. I do not sup- 

 pose anyone would set a plant quite so deep as in figure 8, nor quite so shallow as 

 shown by figure 9. I have exaggerated these cuts to make the lesson plain. Also 

 the leaves on the plants are a little more upright than you usually find them 

 when setting out. Ther often crinkle down so as to be in the way. Of course we 

 had to put them out of the way in these pictures so as to show you plainly just 

 how to do the setting. Do not make the holes except as fast as you want to set 

 the plants. So as to have the soil moist where the roots will touch. Take the 

 plants out of the pail only as fast as you want to set them. 



Early Spring, just as soon as ihe ground can be easily worked, is the 

 BEST TIME OF ALL THE WHOLE YEAR to plant strawberdes in any section where 

 there are extreme frosts in winter, especially if planting is to be done on a large 

 scale and plants have to be brought from a distance. How to plant will depend 

 largely upon local conditions, size and shape of the field, etc. In the small 

 family garden or city lot, where there is little chance to use horse and cultivf>tor 

 they may be planned one foot apart each way, in two or three rows, then leave a 

 space of three feet to furnish path during picking season. Planted in this way 

 all runners should be kept off the original plants, since for their best develop- 

 ment they require each about one square foot. 



For field culture mark out the rows 2i to 5 feet wide and set plants 18 to 20 

 inches apart in the rown. Then if we wish to follow the narrow row system we 

 let each plant strike a lew runners along the line of the row, and then, later in 

 the t-er.son keep all runners off; while if the broad matted row is wanted, all run- 

 ners are allowed to t:ike root and the cultivator narrowed up a little at each 

 cultivation during the latter part of the season, till we have matted rows of 

 plants two leet wide, with walk one foot wide between them. The narrow is 

 the more profitable of these two systems, yet the matted row is the most adopted 

 as many are of the opinion thac the more plants the more hemes. 



