How do you prune Strawberries to pre- 
vent exhaustion? — Having set the plants in the 
spring we cut the blossom buds off as soon as they 
appear, to prevent the plants from undergoing the 
exhaustive process of pollen secretion at this time 
before the roots have become established to sustain 
them as this greatly impairs their vitalitj'. 
Do you cut off any blossoms after the 
first year? — No, having bred the plants up to 
great vigor by selection and restriction and physi- 
cal culture and given them the first 5'ear to grow 
and develop their fruit buds, we now let tliem 
throw all their energies to the production of fruit 
for two or three years when their vitality is de- 
stroyed and we then plow them under and take 
new vigorous plants from the propagating bed for 
tlie new setting. 
What objection have you to the custom 
of taking plants from those set to fruit the 
previous spring from which the blossoms 
were removed and doing this year after 
year? — It is a law of nature that any faculty never 
exercised ceases to exist. If you pick blossoms off 
year after year the plants lose the habit of fruit 
production and then multiply themselves by mak- 
ing great numbers of runners or large bushes. 
You can only train them to fruit by allowing them 
to do so, but they must not be permitted to over- 
bear and exhaust themselves, hence the necessity 
of restricting the mother plant. 
Is not the largest plant with plenty ot 
roots always the best for planting?— No, not 
by any means. A big plant may be utterly desti- 
tute of fruiting vigor. If it is exhausted in seed 
bearing it will throw all its energies into making 
leaves and runners. It is like a barren animal 
which if well fed and stabled will grow large and 
fat, but this extra feed and care would not make it 
breed, but would rather increase the tendency to 
barrenness. So, in like manner giving a barren 
plant lots of manure and tillage will cause it to go 
on making large leaves, crowns, runners and roots 
but will not cause it to produce fruit; whereas a 
thoroughbred plant of the same size and rootage, 
when a runner is cut will build up new crowns and 
fruit buds. 
Why can you not take plants from along- 
side the matted row of beds set the previous 
year for the fruiting field?— These are the 
weakest plants as they are the last to form in the 
fall, and generally have imperfect buds which fail 
to develop in the spring, causing them to lose the 
habit of forming fruit buds. Their roots are gener- 
ally immature and being on the outer edges of the 
row are nearly always so weakened by freezing and 
thawing that it is difficult to make them grow 
which explains the long vacant places in the field. 
The good and bad plants cannot be separated, 
some being fruitful and some unfruitful greatly 
reduces the crop both in quality and quantity. 
How shall we make a practical test of 
this?— In your vineyard, blackberry, raspberry 
and strawberay fields select one row each and give 
them the same cultivation as the others but do not 
prune the bushes or cut off any blossoms. Let 
them bear all they will each year. Notice that 
after one very large crop they bear smaller berries 
and fewer in number, but the bushes continue to 
grow vigorously and the strawberries throw out a 
great number of runners but set little fruit. Now 
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