How to Start a Strawberry Bed 
G ETTING READY.—Some wise person lias said 
that a child’s education should begin a couple 
of centuries before he is born. This idea finds appli¬ 
cation in the growing of strawberries. For not only 
should flic* land have been in sod. comprising a clean 
growth of clover (free from such pests as thistles, 
witch grass, dandelions and all such persistent rooted 
weeds), but this soil should have been well turned 
under and cultivated cleanly for two years. This 
may seem a long bill of requirements. Rut the fact 
is the strawberry must haA'e exclusive possession of 
the ground to do its best, and the task of giving 
clean culture in the face of constant struggle against 
a\ eeds is too hard for the aA r erage person. 
PRECEDING CROP.—Starting, then, with a clean 
sod, what, crops should follow? T have found corn 
and potatoes to be excellent crops: we will say corn 
the first year with frequent cultivating, and the 
and consistent management requires that provision 
be made to keep the crown from protruding above 
the surface. 
HEAVING.—This tendency for the strawberry 
plant to work out of the ground arises from two 
causes. Tf set into newly worked land this settles: 
and again, especially when the hill system is used, 
the filling of the ground Avith the root builds the 
piant upward into the air. The tendency of repeated 
freezings is to lift the plant, but this is especially 
the fact when late Fall planting is practiced. 
PREPARING THE RENNERS.—Now comes the 
question of how to have runner plants ready in July 
of sufficient growth, so that the remainder of the 
season and the added s : ze that the plant always takes 
on in the Spring before berry growth suspends plant 
giowtli will carry the crop. The ordinary runner 
plant does not till the bill. By an ordinary plant I 
pulverized. Now when the runners are ready to take 
root spread this material over the runners and apply 
liquid manure. The urine of animals is good, but 
should be reduced by several times its bulk, or else 
applied at same time of watering with hose. The 
past season I improved upon this method by placing 
a layer of this rotted sod to the depth of •! in. along¬ 
side of my plant-producing rows previous to runner 
development, and then treating as a hove. The result 
was that I had plants so large and so well equipped 
with roots that it was impossible to shake out this 
black earth, some of which would carry a quart in 
size to the transplanting rows. 
ECONOMY OF LABOR.—In c aning to the ques¬ 
tion of mode of setting plants let me lirst say that 
economy in labor of eulth’ation is paramount. Car¬ 
rying over the bed for successive years of fruiting 
calls for much labor in lighting weed growth at the 
EE v | Kg 
Jnxiflc a Rim wherry Packing Shed in Southern. Illinois. Fig 278. 
ground Fall-plowed, ready to plant to potatoes the 
Spring following. Now the big idea is to have straw¬ 
berry plants in place by midsummer, these to become 
full-sized plants by the Spring following, and thus 
avoid a whole year devoted to growing the straw- 
lurry bed. as is commonly practiced; a long and 
tedious job entailing much lighting of Aveeds, not the 
least of which are the plants' own runners. 
TIME OF SETTING.— In practice, the happiest 
results have followed the setting of the plants before 
digging the potato crop. Where this is attempted 
potatoes should have been put in quite deep, so as to 
avoid extremely high lulling. The plants are then 
set during July, in the space midway between the 
rows. The earth may thus be drawn towards the 
plants Avhen digging takes place, an operation which 
tends to counteract the tendency of the strawberry 
to work upward, giving harmful exposure to wind 
and frost. The life of a strawberry, like that of a 
tree, is neither in the root nor top, but in the awn; 
mean such as come on after the bearing bed has 
given its crop and then turns its exhausted forces 
into the growth of runners. 
FRUITING AND PLANT PRODUCTION.—We 
must separate the two functions of fruiting and 
plant production. The up-to-date strawberry grower 
has his two distinct strawberry patches, the one to 
glow his plants not being allowed to fruit. Wo Avid 
pick off all the blossom buds from the latter, force 
the plants' growth in every way, and thus by having 
plants better than any potted plant sold in recent 
year: we are enabled to have our fruit'ng plants of 
the enormous order by the time blossoming time 
comes. Low to get these plants is the problem. Two 
years before the plants are wanted, or the Spring 
our sod is turned under, we will make a heap of 
these sods a few feet in diameter and several sods 
deep, turned bottom up and allowed to rot one sea¬ 
son. The following year this heap may be worked 
over, and by the time wanted will have become finely 
best. It is axiomatic that the narrower the row of 
plants the easier accordingly will be the task. Sup¬ 
pose that the enterprise is on such a scale calling 
for horse and cultivator between rows. We shali 
then, even under the hill system, crowd the plants 
together in the row. making a continuous row rather 
than distinct separate hills. In Florida the plants 
are given Avide space, which plan is necessary in 
consideration of the purely sand soil, so that plants 
may draw freely for nourishment and moisture in 
all directions. But in the North, and Avith the in¬ 
tensive mode of management we are projecting, a 
high state of fertility and an adequate supply of 
moisture, especially during fruiting, are understood. 
The moisture comes from the subterranean supply, 
and is carefully conserved by surface culture, large 
humus content of.soil or mulching, or else artificially 
supplied. 
SINGLE IIILLS.—To sum up. our method of set¬ 
ting plants is single hills crowded close together into 
