THE HEDGE ROW. 
This is a photograph of one side of a section of liedge row of our pedigree plants in fruit, show- 
how the berries literally pile up. Rich ground. Thoroughbred Plants and good tillage breed "Big, Red 
Berries" and big, red berries breed enthusiasm, and enthusiasm breeds cash and cash makes the mare 
go. 
THE WIDE MATTED ROW. 
The rows are made four feet apart and 
plants about 24 inches apart. As the runners 
form the cultivator is narrowed up, always go- 
ing in the saine direction so as to throw them 
around to fill in the row and generally leaving 
it about 30 inches wide with an alley about 18 
inches wide. This system has been handed 
down to us by our granddaddj'S and is still in 
quite general use. It is perhaps best on very 
poor land or where you have reason to believe 
there are white grubs. 
My objection to it is that the plants are lia- 
ble to form too thick and it is a serious task 
to thin them out because it injures the plants 
which are to remain. The crowded leaves turn 
their edges up so they do not have full expos- 
ure to sunshine. There are too many stnall 
berries and for want of air and sunshine they 
do not have quality. A small berry has as 
many seeds as a large one and since it is the 
pollen and seeds that sap the vitality of the 
plant, one big crop uses them up so the second 
and third crop cannot amount to tnuch. Of 
course, the berries are very uneven in size and 
do not look well in the box. The pickers in- 
jure the leaves more or less in pawing them 
over in hunting for the berries and as a rule 
the last berries will be too small to pick. 
In nearly every case where the plants are 
quite thick, fully a half or a third of the ber- 
ries will be left as too small to put in the box, 
and these continue to take the resources of the 
plant. I quit the full mated row business 20 
years ago. 
SETTING PLANTS. 
The plants sent from this establishment are 
not only scientifically grown but scientifically 
26 
drilled to bolt the outrigger on. I prefer to 
bolt it to a wheel hoe frame because I can con- 
trol it much better and make it dodge in and 
out to get the runners. I use it this way alto- 
gether. Use a file to keep the disc sharp. 
There seems to be an instinct in plants to send 
the runner out in an open space where they 
will get air and sunshine and so you- will see a 
very large majority go across the alley so the 
cutter will get nearly all of them and the bal- 
ance can be cut out with a hoe while you are 
weed fishing. 
The cultivator can be made to cover almost 
the entire surface making hand work about as 
small as possible. The dust mulch can be 
kept on the surface so all the water is breathed 
away by the plants. The plants will not get 
too large so as to crowd into the center. The 
leaves form an oval ridge giving perfect expos- 
ure to sunshine, while the alley between the 
rows gives ample root pasturage. 
The berries will all be large and even in 
size so they look very beautiful in the box. 
There are so few small ones that it does not 
pay to sort them. The pickers can make more 
money picking at a cent a quart than two 
cents in wide matted rows where they have to 
spend much tiine in hunting through a mass 
of foliage. The berries just lie in wind-rows 
along each side and about all a picker has to 
do is to examine their ripeness. 
The narrow matted row is the next best. 
The row is allowed to fill in so when full it 
will not be over a foot wide. Plants must not 
be allowed to set so thickly as to exclude sun- 
shine from the "crown. Then all the runners 
are cut for the rest of the season. The rows 
should be three feet apart and plants about 30 
inches in the row. A sharp pointed hoe is 
best for working around among the plants. 
