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Show STRAWBERRY ONE OF BEST FRUITS Plants Are Easily Handled and Can Be Purchased at Small Cost From Nurseryman. REQUIRE VERY LITTLE SPACE May Be Grown In Hills or in Narrow or Wide-Matted Rows Give Fie-quent Fie-quent Cultivation and Hoeing Hoe-ing During Season. IPrepared by the United States Department of Agriculture.) Strawberries are so easily handled and require so little room, that If only one of the small fruits ccm he grown they should be the one selected. select-ed. New plants may be purchased at small cost from a nurseryman, or perhaps per-haps may be obtained from a neighbor. Strawberries may be grown In hills or In narrow or Wide matted rows, says the United States Department of Agriculture. For very small areas, plants -set in hills close together will no doubt produce the most and largest fruit, but will require more care than matted rows. For hill growing, set the plants one foot apart In the row and have the rows just far enough apart to cultivate easily, say from two to three feet ; or set rows a foot apart In double rows and have a space of two or three feet between the double rows. Keep all runners cut off and give good cultivation, cultiva-tion, so as to make extra strong plants. Some of the choicest varieties for hill culture are the Marshall and Chesapeake Chesa-peake of the single crop kind and the Superb and Progressive of the everbearing ever-bearing varieties. The everbearing varieties will no doubt be most satisfactory satis-factory for hill culture. Starting for Matted Rows. To start matted rows, set the plants 18 Inches apart in rows from three to four feet apart. For a narrow matted row, train the first runners along the row, covering about a foot in width, and cut off all later runners. From four to six new plants from each plant set will make a narrow row. For wide matted rows, save enough new plants to make the row two feet wide, or more, as desired. Do not let the plants crowd each other ; have them four to six Inches apart. Set strawberry plants early In the spring, If possible, so they will get the benefit of spring rains and make a strong early growth. Trim off the dead leaves and all but one or two of the live ones and cut the roots to about ' ' Everbearing Varieties Are Most Satisfactory Satis-factory for Hill Culture. four inches long. Spread the roots somewhat and set the plants just as deep as they were before they were dug. Be especially careful not to set them deeper and do not get earth over the growing tips, for this will probably kill the plants. Give newly set strawberries frequent cultivation and hoeing during the entire en-tire season to keep down the weeds and make strong plants for fruiting the next year. Pick off all blossom hnrlo CL-hlh niinonr pvr'PTil in the case of fall-hearing varieties, on which blossoms may be left after August 1 to fruit In the fall. When the ground freezes cover the plants or the entire bed with about fvo Inches of straw or other vegetable matter free from weed seeds. Coarse strawy manure, with the fine portions shaken out, is excellent for this purpose. The object ob-ject of this winter covering Is to keep the ground from freezing and thawing with each change in temperature, tempera-ture, because this freezing and thawing thaw-ing will slowly lift the plants out of the ground. Nitrate of Soda Helps. In the spring when the plants begin to blossom spread nitrate of soda along each side of the row, using one" pound to 80 feet of row. If the ground has not been mulched, cultivate and then mulch with vegetable matter between the rows, so as to conserve the moisture from the spring rains. If the bed Is to be saved for another year, rake off the mulch as soon as th.e crop is gathered, nnd hoe or pull out the older plants, leaving only enough of the younger ones to send out runners to make a new nnrrow or wide matted row. as desired. Old beds may be cleaned up, as Just nentloned, by hoeing or plowing the pi'ces between rows nnd leaving the om -e-t plants In the row. It Is gen- illy host, however, to start a new j i' ory second year. |