R. M. KELLOGG'S GREAT CROPS 
8 
short roots would wilt and fail for this want 
of nutriment and iuffer complete exhaus- 
tion. 
Still more important in the matted 
row one-half the number of berries are too 
small to pick, but each one loaded with 
seeds, are left on the vines to rot and take 
the strength and sap the life of the plant, 
but in hill culture the berries are all large 
and picked just as soon as ripe, thus reliev- 
ing the plant so there are only a few seeds 
ripening at any one time. 
The exhaustive process does not be- 
in till the seeds begin to ripen. A green 
erry does not exhaust the plant any more 
than the foliage. 
Let me repeat. In the matted row 
hundreds of little berries are ripe on the 
vines at once, where thev remain for days 
while on the big "hill plant" all the ripe 
berries are picked every day. In the one 
case hundreds of seeds are ripening on each 
plant at once; in the other only a few, a 
strain which the plant is abundantly able to 
undergo. 
HALF MATTED KOW. 
The next best thing is the Half Matted 
Row set in rows three and a half feet by 
eighteen inches apart, if the weeder is used 
or 42x30 inches, so as to cultivate both ways 
with Planet Jr. Proceed the same as for 
hill culture until the close of the summer 
drouth or last of July. The plants now 
have large crowns deeply rooted and will 
send out big stocky runners. They spread 
out just right and take root quickly. As 
Figure ii. 
soon as they have made one plant, take the 
Planet Jr. runner cutter (fig. 11) and run 
along each side the row before the cultiva- 
tor, clippmg off runners so as to leave the 
row about ten inches wide. 
New crowns will form and by the time it 
freezes up they will be twice as large as 
those rooting early and battling with the 
drouth, and warring on other plants for root 
pasturage. 
Objections to Matted Row. I have 
reference here to the matted row grown 
without restriction of runners, as ordinarily 
done. The runners start as soon as plants 
begin to grow, and the summer drouth 
comes on soon after. In cultivating they 
are thrown around and twisted into strings 
so that the embryo plants are often left 
bottom side up and others entangled so 
they cannot get to the ground to root. 
Tliey will not root if the top of the 
ground is dry, and they will thresh around 
all summer till the fall rains begin. These 
runners take the entire strength of the 
mother plant so that no new fruiting crowns 
will form on it, and the first of November 
will find it the weakest plant in the row 
when it should be the strongest. The roots 
do not enlarge bi cause the runner leaves 
do not seem to effect its rootage the same 
as its own foliage. 
A plant in respiration, for all plants 
breathe through their leaves, gives ofif an 
immense amount of water, several times 
