AUTUMN WORK AMONGST STRAWBERRIES.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 351, 16 March 1889, Page 5

AUTUMN WORK AMONGST STRAWBERRIES.

It is very true, as observed by an American writer, that in the autumn the straw berry plantation is apt to be foi gotten, as though it requited no looking a # ter for months to come. At this time ot year, when the strawberry season is over, few people think of the important work ot securing a ciop by 6-eting that the giound is clear and open before the autumn rains, and by saving to the plants the material thrown away in their efforts to extend themselves by runners. If these are nipped off a* they appear, the leaves of *>iie plant become large and thick with the retained mateiial, and the crowns with their fruit buds greatly multiplied. The same care does the same service for raspberry plants. Their natural impulse is firdfc to multiply progeny — the reds by throwing up sprouts from ohe roots, and the caps by forming new plants at the tips where these touch the earth. The hoe, used in time, checks this wa-te of the reds, and scissors will speedily stop the ardour of the capo, and both will use the saved material (prepared sap) to form and rill out buds from which next yetr'a fruiting shoots w ill issue. Hoeing of strawbeiry beds is as essential now as is the hoeing of summer plants in October or November.