A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 195 



you make a success of this small scale you can easily enlarge it 

 as much as you choose. Perhaps the present month of Sep- 

 tember is as good a time to start as any, for we can now lay the 

 foundation for great bushy plants to furnish us quantities of 

 immense berries next spring. For sub-irrigation you must have 

 some sort of bed or box that will hold water ; and you can 

 start the business very well with a large-sized common wash- 

 tub, if you do not like to go to the expense of making a water- 

 tight box. A tub would be rather deeper than is necessary, but 

 it will illustrate the plan. Provide some good finely sifted gar- 

 den soil enough to fill the tub a third full. Then get some old 

 well-rotted manure, old enough so you can work', it through a 

 coarse sieve. Such a one as is used for screening coal ashes, 

 will answer very well. Have equal parts of garden soil and 

 sifted manure. A little clean sand and some swamp muck will 

 help make a nice compost if you have materials handy. Set a 

 common drain-tile on end at one side of the tub, and fill it with 

 the compost. Now you want a strawberry-plant. The plant 

 should be a young one ; but if you can not find a young one, 

 almost any strawberry-plant will do. But I would start with a 

 potted plant (see cut, p. 131) of one of the very best of the new 

 varieties, because it is just as easy to propagate high-priced 

 plants as low-priced ones. Set the plant in the middle of the 

 tub. Let your tub stand where it can get both rain and sun ; 

 but should there be a very heavy rain so as to endanger filling 

 the tub with water so it rises above the soil, the tub must be 

 covered that is, when the soil is wet enough. If it does not 

 rain, paur water into the tile until it rises and stands say two 

 or three inches below the surface of the soil. This water un- 

 derneath will always keep your soil damp enough. But do not 

 water your bed every day. Air through the soil at intervals is 

 as important as water at intervals. 



If the weather should happen to be dry and warm, evapo- 

 ration will take away the water until it sinks in the tile almost 

 to the bottom of the tub. When it gets down say within an 

 inch of the bottom, then fill it up to within an inch or two of 

 the top ; then let it gradually sink down again. If you have 

 rain every two or three days you will not need to water your 

 little bed at all. But keep watch of it, and do not let the 

 plants get drowned by too much water, nor dried out by lack 

 of water. When the plant gets to growing vigorously it will 

 put out runners. Spread these out like the spokes of a wheel, 

 and let them take root. But a better way is to plunge a li tie 

 pot, say two inches in diameter, down to the surface of the soil, 



