134 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 



When your plants are well rooted in the ground, instead of in 

 the pots, you are ready for my invention. 



Provide yourself with several sheets of extra heavy IX tin, 

 size 14X20 inches. Get a tinsmith to cut each sheet into six 

 pieces, exactly alike, as indicated in the cut. 



Each of these pieces will be about 10 inches long by 4> 

 wide. Have the tinsmith roll them, locking the joints so as to 

 make a tin tube or cup, without top or bottom, as shown. 



If you wish to try them first, you can make only a dozen, 

 but for practical work you ought to have a hundred or more. 

 Set these transplanting-tubes in a tray, something like the one 

 shown below. 



SHAU,OW BOX FOR HOLDING TRANSPLANTING-TUBES. 



Put about two boxes of tubes on a wheelbarrow, and go to 

 the patch of plants we have been talking about. Remember, 

 you can do your transplanting right in the midst of the most 

 severe drouth. You do not need to wait for rain at all. If the 

 ground should be very hard, however, it will be convenient to 

 have water near by, to moisten it, so the tubes may be pushed 

 down easier. If, however, the ground where the plants are 

 growing has been thoroughly cultivated, this will not be neces- 

 sary. To use them, gather up the leaves of the plant ; and if 

 a runner extends beyond it that has not rooted itself securely 

 in the ground, gather this up also with the leaves. Push the 

 tube over the leaves, and then force it into the ground so as to 

 cut off all attached runners, and down into the soil perhaps 

 half its depth. By tipping and turning it you will easily see 

 when it is deep enough to take up the plants, roots and all. 

 You should push down about half its depth ; and if the plant 

 is a good strong one, you will see the roots protrude through 



