lant will grow; excessive water will destroy them. Set out
three or four rows of pistillate plants, and then one of the staminates,
or fertilizers. Some set them out in beds and allow them to cover the
whole ground, and cultivate by spading up the bed in alternate sections
of eighteen inches or two feet each year, turning under, in the spring,
that portion that bore fruit the previous season--which has long been
recommended by good authority. This was the lamented Downing's method.
We think rows preferable for this reason. The young plants formed by the
runners are less vigorous after the first; hence, the tendency is to
deterioration by this mode of culture. And this method does not afford
so good an opportunity for stirring the soil around the plants as
planting in rows; this stirring the soil is a great means of protecting
from drought, and securing the most vigorous growth. Deep subsoiling
between the rows early in the spring, or after fruiting, is valuable;
hence, we always advise to cultivate in hills two feet apart each way,
and renew them after they have borne two, or at most three crops.

Hermaphrodites are best for cultivation in beds. Many strawberry-beds do
well the first year of their bearing, but are almost useless afterward.
The cultivator says they all run to vines. In such cases, they overlook
the fact that the staminate plants grow altogether the fastest, because
their strength goes to support foliage in the absence of fruit, while
bearing vines require much of their strength to mature the fruit; hence,
if they are allowed to run together the second, or at most the third
year, the fertilizers will monopolize the ground and prevent fruiting.
This is the greatest cause of failure of a crop, next to a want of both
kinds of plants. This is the origin of fears of having land too rich. It
is said it all runs to vines without fruit; this is because the wrong
vines have intruded--the staminates have overcome the pistillates. We
reject the whole theory of the luxuriance of the vines preventing the
production of fruit. The larger the vines the more fruit, provided only
the vines are bearers, and not too thick: hence this invariable
rule--_always have fertilizers within five feet, and never allow the two
kinds to run together._ Manures should be applied in August, well spaded
in. Applying in the spring to increase the crop for that season, is like
feeding chickens in the morning to fatten them for dinner--it is too