t of my survey. They had quite as many
weeds as myself, with the important difference that they did not seem to
mind much about getting rid of them. I presume their uniform success
had made them careless and lazy. Their hopes had been fulfilled, while
the consummation of mine was yet in the future.

The runner of a strawberry, when projected a certain distance, develops
at its extremity a tuft of leaves, and having done so, is impatient to
throw out roots immediately below the newly formed tuft. To promote the
formation of these, the surface of the ground should be made perfectly
loose and mellow, so that the rootlets may enter and descend with
facility, thenceforward to ramble in search of nourishment and moisture.
Thus cared for, and especially if sunk a little below the surface, and
held there with a spoonful of earth, the runners will put forth a mass
of snow-white roots with incredible rapidity. In a moist soil, or after
a shower of rain, they fasten themselves immediately; and thus ceasing
to be drains upon the parent plant, by living and growing from their own
daily enlarging roots, they will acquire a size and vigor to insure an
abundant crop the following season. The first joint being securely
rooted, the runner will go on lengthening into a succession of new ones;
and if each be promptly anchored like the first, they will become
contemporaneous bearers. As one plant will send forth many runners, the
careful cultivator can thus cover his ground with a profusion of the
thriftiest vines. But when the surface is permitted to remain hard and
compact, baked under the sun or trodden under foot, the delicate
rootlets are unable to penetrate the unfriendly mass. They are blown
about by the wind, useless exhausters of the parent plant; they change
color by exposure to the sun and air, and lose their power of extension.
Even under the softening influence of rain, which may enable them to
secure some feeble holding-ground, they rarely become vigorous plants,
while their multiplication is materially limited. If the surface be
overgrown with grass or weeds, the runners can gain no hold; and hence,
there being no new plants established, the succeeding crop will be
smaller than it might otherwise have been. The vigor of the plant thus
created from a runner is altogether dependent on the condition of the
surface over which it is first projected, and the promptness with which
it is enabled to throw out and fasten its roots in a