196 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 



and make the plant take root in the center of the pot. This en- 

 ables yon to move your young plants without having them stop 

 growing. On page 131 is a cut of a potted plant when the roots 

 have filled the pot so that it needs to be taktn out and given 

 more room. 



! - What is meant by " pot-bound " is letting the plant remain 

 until the roots have so filled the pot that they become cramped 

 and stunted. If you start plants in pots you must be sure to 

 take them out before they become pot-bound. The plant, with 

 all the soil adhering to the roots, is easily removed from the 

 pot by turning it over and striking the edge of the pot a smart 

 blow on some solid body the edge of the tub, for instance. 

 When your plants are ready to come out they should be put out 

 in a similar tub, and placed at least three or four inches apart. 

 If you want them to bear fruit they should not stand nearer 

 than six inches. If you are going to keep the runners off, and 

 grow them in hills, they ought to be planted as much as two 

 feet apart. The largest and finest berries are grown by the hill 

 system. This has been fully described. 



Now, in the above you have the whole thing in a nut-shell. 

 Sub-irrigation is certainly the way to grow strawberries. The 

 objection to it is the expense of having water-tight beds. You 

 can probably make a wooden box much cheaper than a tub ; 

 and if you are going to make a box it ought to be large enough 

 to take for a cover a common-sized hot-bed sash, the regular 

 run of these being 6 feet long by 3j ftet wide. This box can 

 easily be made sufficiently water-tight of lumber well nailed 

 together ; but it is generally considered cheaper to take less 

 pains with the lumber and the carpenter work, and make the 

 joints tight with water-lime cement. 



There are many opinions in regard to the depth of soil 

 needed to grow plants ; but I believe four or five inches is deep 

 enough. Perhaps you had better have six inches of soil and 

 manure. With the glass sashes I have spoken of you can pro- 

 tect the plants from frost, and have strawberries one or two 

 months earlier than you can get them in the open air. The 

 sash can also be used to keep off surplus rain when observation 

 shows you there is enough in the bed. For a bed 3 by 6 feet 

 you will want at least two tiles one in opposite corners ; and 

 if you expect to neglect your bed, and let it get full of water 

 during some heavy rain, you will need a hole bored down close 

 to the bottom, with a cork to stop it up. But I do not like this 

 arrangement. Whenever you let water off because you have so 

 much as to drown the plants, you are leaching away the fertili- 



