212 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 



a plantation would be little or no trouble. When once started 

 it would choke out every weed that attempts to grow. 



SUB-IRRIGATION FOR STRAWBERRIES; AI,SO SOMETHING ABOUT 

 POTATO VINES FOR MULCHING STRAWBERRIES. 



At this date, June 26, right here, we are having a pretty se- 

 vere drouth, and it comes almost right in the midst of our straw- 

 berry crop. It affects us worse because the ground was packed 

 down so hard by our excessive rainfalls that it cracks open and 

 (Joes much damage except where the surface has been fined up 

 by cultivation. Our choice strawberries that were planted out 

 late last fall, and which are in narrow rows, we have cultivated 

 and fined up the space between the rows, so as to obviate the 

 drying and cracking, at least as much as we could without in- 

 terfering with the mulch. The mulch of straw and potato-tops 

 is not sufficient to prevent damage entirely. Our berries are 

 drying up, the greater part of them, and look as if they had 

 been cooked. Had the soil been worked up down deep after 

 the heavy packing rains, the damage would be but slight. In 

 fact, corn and potatoes planted in well pulverized ground after 

 the rains are not suffering perceptibly. We have just had an 

 opportunity of testing the benefit of water in one of our sub-irri- 

 gating beds. It is planted to strawberries, but no water was 

 turned on during the spring. I purposely left the bed until the 

 berries began to be small and dried up somewhat. Then we 

 turned on water until it came up from below, so as to dampen 

 perceptibly the surface. 



In 48 hours the whole aspect of the bed was changed. Ev- 

 ery green berry began to fill up and expand wonderfully. 

 Those that had begun to shrivel, plumped out, looked very 

 glossy and juicy, and they were juicy too, I tell you. 



There has been considerable said about selling strawberries 

 at the low price of 4 and 5 cts. a quart. Well, that is pretty low; 

 but if we had our beds so arranged that we could water them 

 from below, letting the water gradually rise up until it comes 

 just near enough the surface, I do not know but we could do a 

 pretty good thing by selling water at 4 or 5 cents a quart. 

 Choice varieties like the Brandywine, Wm. Belt, Marshall, and 

 others, bring 6 and 7 cents a quart sometimes 8. 



By the way, the latest berry to ripen on our ground this 

 season is the Champion of England. I think the location of the 

 bed, however, helped to make it late. It was on the north side 

 of a grapevine-trellis, and protected from the sun pretty well all 

 through the day; then it was mulched with potato-vines last 



