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Show CULTURE OF STRAWBERRY Some Growers Favor the Hltl Systom as It Overcomes the Necessity of Mulching. Some of oru strawberry growers have come to prefer the ridge system of planting. They take an ordinary breaking plow and throw two furrows together. This makes a good wide ridge three and one-half to four feet apart. A roller or float is drawn over the ridges so as to make the tops flat and firm. Water is run into the furrows fur-rows between the ridges until the soil is soaked to the top. Then, two rows of plants are set on the top of each ridge. When the plants are set on the outer edges of the ridge, the rows are made about 12 to 15 inches apart and the plants may be set from 12 to 15 inches apart in the rows. The hill system Is thus favored, says the Denver Field and Farm. Growers who follow this plan say that it overcomes over-comes the necessity of mulching to keep the berries clean, as the water never makes the soil wet enough on the top of the ridges, where the berries ber-ries ripen, to soil them. Sometimes the runners are allowed to come together to-gether In the middle so as to make a solid matted row for the second bearing bear-ing season and for the third year a sort of renewal is effected by taking a single shovel and bursting out the middles so as to again make two single rows. Because of the extra dry condition of the top soil those who have planted thus far this month find it slow work which costs four or five times as much as it should if the ground were more moist, for the water is not yet running in the ditches. It requires more care in firming the soil around the roots instead of allowing the water to do it in the irrigation. When the ditches are opened and the water is running this trouble will be obviated. |
