20 Gardner E. Bunting, Grower of Fancy Fruits, Setbyville, Del. 
2. It creates and maintains a blanket of dust over the surface of the ground, 
retains moisture in the soil and keeps its temperature at a normal degree. 
3. It enables bacteria to secure ample quantities of air. 
4. It destroys weed seed while in the germinating stage; and this, by the way, 
is the best time to kill all obnoxious growths. 
5. It mixes the fertilizer with the soil, so that the bacterial germs may work 
up the fertilizer into available forms of plant food. 
It keeps the strawberry runners from overflowing into the space between the 
rows. 
The plants should be cultivated after each rain, as soon as the soil is dry enough 
to crumble, and should it remain dry the cultivation should be repeated every eight 
or ten days, thus replacing the old dust mulch with a new dust mulch. 
When the plants become large and begin to spread out it is a good plan to have 
the cultivator teeth that run next to the plants about two inches shorter than the 
other teeth. When arranged in this way the teeth will go deeplv enough to break 
the crust near the plants without cutting any of the roots of the plant. About 
twice each month a five-tooth cultivator should be run through the center of the 
space between the rows. It may go four or five inches deep and will loosen up the 
soil where the horse has tramped it down while doing the shallow cultivation. The 
work of cultivating is easy and inexpensive. One man and horse ea.sily may culti- 
vate four acres of strawberry plants a day. 
Number of Plants Required to Set an Acre of Ground at 
a Given Distance. 
Rows 24 inches apart, Plants 12 inches in row 21,780 
30 •' " 12 •' " 17,424 
36 ■' " 12 " " 14,520 
42 " " 12 " •' 12,446 
48 '■ ■• 12 '■ ■• 10,890 
24 •' " 15 ■• •• 17,424 
M) " "15 '• •■ 13,939 
36 " "15 " " 11,616 
42 " ■' 15 ■' " 9,953 
4.S " " 15 " " 8.712 
>4 " " l.S " " 14,520 
30 " "IS •■ " 11,616 
36 " " 18 " " 9,680 
42 " ■' 18 " " 8,287 
48 " " 18 " " 7,260 
24 " •' 24 " " 10,890 
30 " " 24 • " 8,712 
36 " " 24 " " 6,223 
4? •• " 24 " " 7,260 
48 " " 24 " " 5,445 
24 " "30 •' " 8,712 
30 " "30 " " 6,969 
36 " "30 " " 5,808 
42 •' "30 " " 4,976 
4» •• "30 " " 4,356 
