046 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1. 



bound. The plant, with all the soil adhering 

 to the roots, is easily removed from the pot by 

 turning it over and striking t.ie 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 run- 

 ners cut off, and grow them in hills, they 

 ought to be planted as much as twofeet apart. 

 The largest and finest berries are grown by 

 the hills system. This has been fully describ- 

 ed in our strawberry-book. 



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 

 3 >^ feet wide. This box can easily be made 

 sufficientl}' water-tight of lumber well nailed 

 together; but it is generally considered cheap- 

 er 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 live inches is deep enough. 

 Perhaps j-ou had better have six inches of soil 

 and manure. With the glass sashes I have 

 spoken of }-ou can protect 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 'A by (i feet 

 you will want at least fico tiles — one in oppo- 

 site 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. When- 

 ever you let water off because you have so 

 much as to drown the plants, you are leach- 

 ing away the fertility of your soil. That is 

 the way we do in all outdoor farming and gar- 

 dening, but it is a bad wa}- nevertheless. A 

 small qi:antity of manm-e will do a tremendous 

 lot of fertilizing in growing 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 (3 by 6 feet, so as to take 2 sashes, or 

 it may be (> by 12 so as to take 4 saiHies; 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 you 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 in- 

 quiring, "practice 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 suc- 

 cess 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 ob- 

 jection; but it is much better than to have the 

 plants drowned by a surplus of moisture. 

 These water-tight beds are expensive, I know; 

 but for high-pressure gardenwork 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 suppose, however, such 

 arrangements will be particularly used for 

 supph'ing yourself with extra-strong vigorous 

 plants to put in the field, say during August 

 and September ; and if he tplants are of some 

 new variety that commands a high price, you 

 can push your propagation withoiit regard to 

 what the weather may be. 



These plant-beds should stand exactly level. 

 If they do not, the water j-ou 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 

 cement, and the joints closed half way up the 

 diameter of the tile. With this arrangement 

 the water may be introduced, say, at each end; 

 and you will in time moisten the soil equally 

 the whole length of the bed. Now-, while the 

 bottom of the bed is on a dead level to facili- 

 tate even watering, the sashes should have an 

 incline when placed on top of the bed, so as 

 to carry off the rain water; therefore the north 

 side of the bed should be an inch or two high- 

 er than the south side. 



OXVDONOR, EIvECTROPOISE, AND OTHER I^IKE 

 HUMBUGS. 

 One of our readers a.sks us if the New York 

 and London Electric Association, with its 

 electro-magnetic hair-brush and comb, and 

 other things, is after the same stripe as the 

 Oxydonor. We sent for one of their circulars. 

 Just half a dozen lines of their claims tell very 

 plainly where they belong. And let me say 

 in general, when you get hold of any circular 

 containing such unmeaning harangues, set the 

 party down at once as a fraud, without read- 

 ing any further. One of their traps the)' 

 claim will cure cold feet, and they start out 

 with the following: "We will answer the 

 question in simple language. In the first 

 place, the human body is an electric battery, 

 the upper half being positive and the lower 

 limbs negative." Exceedingly ''simple,''' is 

 it not ? Electricity is getting to be a matter 

 of every-day fact to too great an extent for 

 anybody of intelligence, or even good average 



