A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 197 



ty of your soil. That is the way we do in all outdoor farming 

 and gardening, but it is a bad way nevertheless. A small quan- 

 tity of manure will do a tremendous lot of fertilizing in grow- 

 ing plants if we never permit the fertility to be leached away 

 and washed away by excessive rains. 



Well, after you get your sub-irrigating strawberry -bed, "3 

 by 6 feet, to working nicely, you are .ready to try a larger one. 

 Your bed may be 6 by 6 feet, so as to take 2 sashes, or it may 

 be 6 by 12 so as to take four sashes ; or you may have it 6 by 

 50 feet so as to take 14 sashes. That is the size of bed we use 

 in our high-pressure gardening. I would not have it more than 

 50 feet long, because vou have to carry the sash so far when 

 you pile them up at each end of the bed. You will find cuts 

 of these beds in our tomato-book. 



"But can we not," somebody is always inquiring, "prac- 

 tice sub-irrigation outdoors?" We can ; but a heavy rain is 

 sure to fill up our beds and necessitate drawing off the water. 

 It works all right in a greenhouse where you have control of 

 the water supply ; but I do not know how sub-irrigation can be 

 made a success in the open air unless you arrange valves to be 

 opened to let the water off when there is too much of it ; and 

 the water that comes out of these valves will show by its color 

 that it is carrying away the fertility of your manure. And is 

 not this an objection to all kinds of underdraining ? Yes, my 

 friend, it is an objection ; but it is much better than to have 

 the plants drownel by a surplus of moisture. These water- 

 tight beds are expensive, I know ; but for high-pressure garden- 

 work they are almost a necessity. When you have them nicely 

 arranged you can push strawberry growing or any thing else 

 right through the most severe drouth ; and with the sashes put 

 over your plants, you have nothing to fear in the way of frosts. 

 I supp3se, however, such arrangements will be particularly 

 used for supplying yourself with extra-strong vigorous plants 

 to put in the field, say during August and September; and if 

 the plants are of some new variety that commands a high price, 

 you can push your propagation without regard to what the 

 weather may be. 



Taese plant beds should stand exactly level. If they do 

 not, the water you introduce through the tiles will settle to the 

 lowest point, and you want it disseminated equally all through 

 the bed. With beds say 50 feet long or less, two lines of tiles 

 should run the whole length of the bed. These are laid in ce- 

 ment, and the joints closed half way up the diameter of the 



