A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 137 



days, if covered with the fine rich soil, and if carefully done 

 there need be no losses whatever. I asked my wife to see 

 whether she could find a missing one in a plantation of about 

 3000 plants. She finally thought she had found one that was 

 dead. But I opened the dead leaves, and showed her a green 

 leaf just started out. Where there is a runner attached to the 

 plant, carry it off to one side, but in a line with the row of 

 plants. Lay a lump of dirt on it and it will very soon be a 

 good plant itself. We frequently have two such young plants, 

 one carried to the right and one to the left ; and they are just 

 about as sure to grow as the mother-plant that was in the tube. 

 In fact, plants taken up in this manner will send out runners 

 within three or four weeks, and behave themselves very much 

 like spring-set plants ; and you have had the use of the ground 

 for a crop of corn or potatoes. Another advantage these tubes 

 give is, that enough rich soil or compost is carried from your 

 plant-bed or nursery to give the new plant quite a start. It 

 answers every purpose of potted plants, and yet you do it all at 

 one operation that is, you get your plants and set them out 

 and have it all done in one day. We have never found any 

 shading needful, even during the hottest summer day. Various 

 other plants can be worked in much the same way. In every 

 other respect I most thoroughly indorse friend Terry's instruc- 

 tions and methods. As he is a farmer it is more convenient for 

 him to enrich his ground by turning under clover, and planting 

 in the spring, while we as market gardeners prefer enriching 

 our ground with large quantities of stable manure, and putting 

 our plants out after our first early crops are off the ground. 



INSECT ENEMIES TO THE STRAWBERRY. 

 We have never yet found any thing on our grounds, in the 

 line of insects, injurious to the strawberry ; and for this reason 

 nothing has been said in the book in regard to insect enemies. 

 I am told that the white grub that preys on the roots of gra; s 

 is sometimes very destructive when strawberries are put on 

 ireshly turned sod. We have had no experience v ith it here. 



