SMALL FRUITS AND HOW HE GROWS THEM 
runner cutter, is a steel disk ten inches in diameter 
■with leaf guard and out rigger for attaching it to 
the cultivator. Price $1.75. 
The advantages of growing in hills and 
hedge row are that each plant has plenty of light 
with space between the rows for abundant root 
pasturage. Nearly the entire surface can be 
stirred with the cultivator and kept covered with 
the loose earth mulch so plants are never injured 
by drouth and all weeds destroyed with the least 
possible amount of handwork, and cutting runners 
with the wheel requires very little time. 
When the runners are cut the plant not 
only makes new crowns and buds but it makes 
more roots and sends them down deep and far out 
in search of food to bring their great berries to 
perfection. 
The plants produce heavy crops for several 
years without re-setting because they have plenty 
of roots to sustain them. There are no more seeds 
in a large berry than in a small one and in this 
way nearly every berry grows to a large size so 
that they are picked as soon as ripe; and as there 
are only comparatively few seeds maturing at any 
one time exhaustion in seed bearing is in a great 
measure prevented; and thus the bed can be fruited 
three or four years without re-setting 
Rollins Runner Cutter and I>eaf Guard. 
THE HAI^F MATTED ROW. 
This is the next best way to grow berries. 
Make rows tliree and one-half feet apart and set 
plants 18 to 24 inches in the row according to 
variety and fertility of soil. Keep off all runners 
until about the first of July so as to subdue weeds 
and get plants well established. Then let runners 
start and form a row one foot wide and after this 
use the rolling runner cutter and clip off all run- 
ners at fast as they come out into the alley taking 
care not to let plants set closer than eight to ten 
inches apart. You will then have a large beautiful 
row in the fall. 
We have for sale Plant Setters and Rolling 
Runner Cutters. 
Runner Cutter on Cultivator. 
Excelsior. 
THE FUI,I, MATTED ROW. 
Probably three-fourths of all strawberries are 
grown in this way, but progres.sive fruit growers 
are fast finding out that it is a mistake. It is only 
justifiable when the land is too poor to grow them 
m other ways. Make rows four feet apart and set 
plants 18 to 24 inches in the row. Let the culti- 
vator go in the same direction every time so as to 
throw the runners around without tangling them , 
and as they root narrow up the cultivator. 
The objections to the the full matted row are 
that when the row is full a strip of ground some 
twenty inches wide is left which cannot be culti- 
vated. The crust forms over this excluding the air 
from the roots and soil and the water draws up to- 
the surface so the roots are dried out and injured. 
If the top of the ground is dry the runners will not 
send down their roots but continue to live on the 
mother plant, forming several plants on the same 
runner which blows around in the wind and does 
not take root until the fall rains come, and then it 
has no time to make and perfect its fruit buds and 
roots and so the next season cannot bring its berries 
to full size and maturity. ^ 
If the ground is rich the plants will mat so 
thickly that sunlight is excluded from the lower 
foliage and the crowns. Fruit buds which will not 
fonn in dense shade will be lacking. Many of the 
berries are too small to pick and rot on the vines 
and sap the vitality of the plant, thus preventing 
the better berries from growing to full stze. 
I urge all my customers who want to make a 
reputation for growing fine, large, even sized, beau- 
tiful berries to adopt the first two methods. 
SETTING PI,ANTS. 
The great point is to have the roots straight and 
separated from each other and imbedded in soft 
mellow earth so that new feeding roots can start 
out in every direction without any hindrance and 
thus secure a vigorous growth at once. 
The Spade is quite generally used, but in the 
hands of a careless man it is about the most vilian- 
ous tool ever used for the purpose. The first objec- . 
tion is that when forced uito the ground, moved 
back and forth and sideways it makes a glazed sur- 
face and when closed by the foot in the ordinary 
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