340 



GARDENING FOR THE SOUTH. 



good effects of applying the phosphates or lime, has not 

 been so apparent, perhaps, owing to there being enough 

 already in the soil. 



Propagation and Culture. — To raise the strawberry in 

 perfection, requires good varieties, a proper location, care- 

 ful cultivation, vegetable manure, mulching the roots, and 

 regular watering. 



We shall notice the varieties hereafter. The straw- 

 berry bed should be situated in the lowest part of the gar- 

 den, succeeding best on a bottom near some little stream 

 of water, where the soil is moist and cool. No trees or 

 plants should be allowed to overshadow it, to drink up the 

 moisture of the soil. New land is the best and the most 

 easily kept free from weeds. The soil should be dug at 

 least two spades deep, to enable the plants better to with- 

 stand drought. It is not required to be rich, unless with 

 decayed vegetable matter, as animal manures produce 

 only a growth of vine. 



Ifithe soil is poor, give it a thick coat of swamp muck ; 

 or wood's earth, and leached or unleached ashes, which 

 must be turned under. After the soil is prepared and 

 levelled, mark off your rows two feet apart. Plant there- 

 on, selecting the young, healthy runners from old stocks, 

 three rows of pistillates, then a path, then a row of a good 

 hermaphrodites, another path, and then six rows of pistil- 

 lates, and so on until the ground is planted. Let the 

 plants be fifteen or eighteen inches asunder. Choose 

 damp weather for the operation of transplanting. The 

 roots of the plant must be well spread out just as they 

 grow ; when transplanted, set them firmly and wash them 

 in with water like sweet potato slips, if the ground is not 

 moist. Cover the space between the plants, but not the 

 plants themselves, with a thin mulching of partially de- 

 composed leaves, straw, or decayed tan — the latter is ex- 



