6 
R. M. KELLOGG'S GREAT CROPS ON 
with weak and sickly plants from stock 
exhausted as before explained. They are more 
profitable because they throw their whole 
energy into making runners. A heavy fruiter 
throws its strength into the formation of fruit 
buds and makes comparatively few runners. 
More New Seedlings 
are destroyed by allowing them to overbear in 
their infancy than from any other single cause. 
When Wilson's Albany had set its first fruit if it 
had been allowed to overbear and runners sent 
out from these plants, do you suppose it would 
have revolutioniy.ed strawberry growing as 
that variety has done? Not at all. In all 
probability it never would have been beard 
from. Fortunately it fell into the hands of a 
man who knew just how to handle and 
strengthen it, and the world at large has been 
the gainer by his care and forethought. You 
will also observe that plants which have never 
been seminally exhausted except with a very 
few free-growing varieties, 
Will Not Produce Runners, 
more than are required for fruiting, and only 
need thinning where they happen to get thrown 
together too closely by the cultivator. On the 
other hand, plants which have once been 
allowed to be thus exhausted will throw their 
energy into runners and foliage, and the 
amount of labor required to keep them pro- 
perly thinned is very great. 
The Propagatino Bed 
is of the utmost importance. It is almost im- 
Ijossible to maintain full vigor and purity of 
plants when taken indiscriminately from be- 
tween the rows of a fruiting field. The plants 
for setting the propagating bed should always 
be taken each year from plants selected from 
the fruiting field as explained in the first 
article, that we may know that it is a strong 
fruiter, and the greatest pains should be taken 
to encourage every good quality and discour- 
age objectionable points, that every berry 
should be aw perfect as possible, and all blos- 
soms should be picked off as they appear. The 
cost of plants is a very small part of the expense 
of growing a bed of strawberries, and if your 
plants have ceased to bear from two to four 
hundred bushels per acre after having been 
carefully cultivated, you should secure pure 
plants from some one who has them, or at 
least enough to start a propagating bed of the 
varieties you intend to grow. 
The scil should be a sandy loam, made rich 
and worked very deep to give the roots thfr 
best chance possible, and where they will have 
plenty of moisture. If the whole bed is taken 
up every spring, there is no danger of white 
I grubs, as the foliage will not become thick 
j enough to attract the beetles till after they 
have laid their eggs. 
Mixing Plants. 
! They mix the same way corn and oats would 
I mix if turned into a bin. They never lose their 
individuality, no matter how long they are 
j allowed to run together. The operation is only 
mechanical. If the seeds in the fruit are 
' planted from beds mixed in this way you 
would have entire new plants. Of course they 
would retain some of the cliaracteristics of the 
1 parent plant,, but you would stand less than 
one chance in five hundred to get an improve- 
ment on our old established varieties. 
Shipping Plants. 
The distribution of plants has been greatly 
facilitated by the reduction of postage to eight 
cents per pound and low rates offered by 
express companies, especially on dozen and 
hundred plants. Spagnum moss does not per- 
mit the roots to dry up or in any way lose their 
vitality, but they can be sent to any part of the 
country with perfect safety. As soon as pos- 
sible after the receipt of plants drop them in 
water, not too warm, for a few minutes and 
then, if you are not ready to set out at once 
where they are to remain, bury their roots in 
moderately moist earth and see that the dirt 
comes in contact with every root. 
Don'1 soak the ground and then let it lay and 
i bake. Keep the plants shaded. They should 
I be set in the place they are to occupy as soon 
as possible, as the roots will commence growing 
and the plants checked by again taking up and 
resetting. They should not be allowed to 
' remain in the bundle very long for they will be 
liable to heat, nor should the roots be allowed 
to get dry under any circumstances. The nat- 
ural place for the roots of plants is in the 
ground and you must see that they get there 
as quickly as possible. 
