THE PLANSBUSGH & POTTER CO. CATALOGUE. 
5 
do as well as with their first great effort, even with the best after-treatment, 
which consists in mowing down the foliage immediately after fruiting, forking 
and shaking up the mulch as evenly as possible, and burning the whole patch 
over as soon as dry enough to burn rapidly, thus destroying weed seeds or any 
insect pests or disease that may have got among them; afterward cultivating 
between the rows, and cross-harrowing. A drag with teeth slanting backward is 
best. A dressing of ashes, commercial fertilizer, or fine manure, may be applied 
and cultivated in, and in three or four weeks after fruiting, or sooner if it rains, 
if the job has been well done, the plants will be showing up green, and growing 
once again. 
Many of our customers who take much pride in growing the finest berries and 
biggest crops would rather buy their plants of us each season than disturb their 
fine new bearing beds, even for their own resetting; and such a one, in referring 
you to us, is more your friend than he who gives permission to dig the little run¬ 
out plants of an old fruiting patch. These plants are but the effort of the parent 
plant to reproduce itself before it dies. They are small and weak and lack in 
fruiting vigor, if not diseased. They are degenerate, and should be destroyed as 
weeds that sap the parent plant. 
Pistillate varieties have imperfect blossoms, and will not fruit unless these 
blossoms are fertilized by the pollen that is carried by insects or the wind from 
staminate varieties, which have perfect bloom, and are self-fertilizing. A good 
way is to set two rows of staminates and two of pistillates, alternate, or one of 
staminate and two or three of pistillates; but a greater proportion than this with 
imperfect bloom is hardly safe, especially if the blossoming season should prove 
cold and wet. 
The only best time to set strawberries is in the spring, when the plants are 
fully grown, matured, and dormant; when the soil is moist and cool and there 
is more favorable weather generally. 
Don’t order strawberry plants by freight. We would rather give extra plants 
for prompt delivery by express, for any difference in rate, than that our customers 
should receive them in any but the freshest possible condition. There is always 
danger of a possible hold over or delay en route. 
When the plants arrive, if your ground is riot ready, untie the bunches and 
heel them in, the plants just far enough apart for the soil to press about the 
roots of each. Water and shade them if necessary. As soon as the soil will 
crumble in the hand, fit the ground deep and fine and firm. A little extra work 
right here will pay you double later on. Mark out in rows three to four feet 
apart for the narrow or broad matted row system, or 24 to 30 inches check rows 
for hill culture, so as to cultivate both ways. 
We set our plants with spades and follow quickly with the horse and culti¬ 
vator, repeating the operation as many times throughout the season as is neces¬ 
sary to keep and hold the soil at all times loose and lively, hoeing among the 
plants nearly as often for the same purpose. Some growers advise setting the 
plants 15 inches apart for matted rows; but if the soil is in good heart, and it 
has been well fitted, and only No. 1 plants are used, this is pretty close for most 
varieties. We set 3 8 inches or more apart, according to the vigor of the variety, 
and seldom have a break in our rows in the fall. Sometimes a small spot will be 
drowned out ina wet season, or a white grub will eat the roots off from a few 
plants before we find him; but he seldom gets very far with us, for they are not 
long set before they begin to blossom, and these blossoms must be kept off or the 
plants will bear and exhaust themselves, and the young plants will suffer for it. 
When the fruiting stems have been pinched off, others that reappear throughout 
the blossoming season must also be removed making it necessary to go over 
some varieties several times. 
We do not clip the runners from our matted rows, but allow them to run and 
root freely as soon as they will; but it may be done until about the first of 
August, when they should still be able to make a good narrow matted row. In 
hill culture the runners are kept off the entire season, clipping them off with a 
sharp hoe when hoeing. With every runner removed a new crown is added to 
the plant until it attains a large size, when, to cover completely, would often 
require a bushel basket. The more vigorous the variety, the larger the plants 
may be made to grow. 
