92 Mississippi Valley Horticultural Society. 



Mr. Cook — I endorse everything the gentleman has said in re- 

 gard to the Monarch. In southern Kentucky it is certainly one of 

 the best ot our varieties. 1 wish to call the attention of the gen- 

 tlemen to the form of fertilizers to be used. Last year, from a sug- 

 gestion 1 saw in an Eastern paper, I procured some bone dust, the 

 best I could find in the Louisville market. It cost me some $34.00 

 per ton. Acting upon the suggestion I went to a neighboring 

 steam mill that burned wood and bought fifty bushels of ashes at 

 five cents per bushel. That made $36.50 for about two tons of 

 fertilizer. I mixed the bone dust and wood ashes, half and half 

 As I mixed I applied water. After this I put it in barrels. In a 

 few days fermentation set in ; the heat lasting two or three weeks, 

 and then it cooled oif. Then it was ready for use, and I used some 

 of it on some plants, mixing it thoroughly with the soil. I set the 

 plants out four feet each way. I tell you, Mr. President, you never 

 saw fruit superior to that raised under these circumstances. Our 

 soil is heavy, dark clay, very well adapted to the strawberry. The 

 people of the country said that forty or fifty years ago it was one 

 vast field of wild strawberries. It is the natural home of the straw- 

 berry, The Downer, Longfellow and Warren originated in our 

 neighborhood. There are wild strawberries around our fences now. 

 The fertilizer I have described is, in my judgment, superior to the 

 commercial fertilizers that we pay for at the rate of $50 or $60 a ton, 

 and mine didn't cost me $20 a ton. If we can mix our fertilizers 

 at such small prices let us keep our money in our pockets and not 

 squander it by buying these high-priced fertilizers, many of which 

 produce very questionable results. 



Mr. T. T. Lyon, of Michigan — In our State we have entirely 

 abandoned the Monarch of the West. There is another portion of 

 the subject I would like to hear discussed. We have the Wilson all 

 over our country. Out of the Wilson and some other varieties 

 growers can just make a livlihood, and the fruit they send to mar- 

 ket is in the way of other fruit. It seems to me that more can be 

 made by cultivation of strawberries in very narrow rows than can 

 be made by any system of broadcast culture, which always encour- 

 ages slovenliness. With the great majority of growers it is almost 

 impossible to keep the land in good condition, clear of weeds, and 



