60 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. Steeke: Deep planting comes from the old practice of using the 

 white shoots. 



Mr. Edmistox : It might be better to plant a little thicker and then thin 

 out the seedlings; but Mr. Garfield's distance apart is not too great. Not 

 as good, strong plants can be got from division of old crowns as from use 

 of seedlings. At five by three feet apart the roots will soon fill the whole 

 space between the plants and most of the space between rows. It makes 

 not much difference how deeply the crowns are set, as they will rise and 

 get as near to the surface as it is natural for them to be. 



Prest. Lyon: I have had experience with several of the so-called varieties, 

 but found them all the same. 



Mr. C. B. Stowell of Hudson: I raise asparagais in rows four feet apart, 

 the plants twelve to fifteen inches apart in the row, and the crowns not 

 less than three inches below the surface. I iTse salt each alternate year, 

 400 to 500 pounds to my half acre. During the growing season I use a 

 cultivator or double-shovel plow between the rows; and a heavy drag, two 

 ways, in the spring before growth starts. Every other year I use stable 

 manure, and burn off the dead tops either in fall or spring — preferably the 

 spring — sometimes putting on a load or two of straw before burning. Next 

 fall I shall put on three or four inches of coarse manure, to retard the 

 starting, as there is more loss by frost than profit from early cuttings. 



Dr. Owen : Frost not only hurts the growth which is above ground, but 

 checks the growth below. 



SMALL FRUITS FOR PROFIT. 



The secretary read the following paper, by Mr. J. N. Stearns of Kalama- 

 zoo, upon "The Management of Small Fruits for Profit." 



" One great mistake I have frequently made, is trying to get too many 

 crops of small fruit from a single planting, and I find this one of the 

 hardest mistakes to correct. 



"When we have gone to the expense of fitting and planting a plat for 

 strawberries, raspberries or blackberries, the temptation is strong to continue 

 this plantation as long as there is any show for a fair crop, and we let this 

 temptation influence us when oiir experience and better judgment teach 

 us it is not a profitable thing to do. 



"I am satisfied that, in the long run, it pays best to fruit a strawberry 

 plantation but once, planting a new plat on new ground every year, and 

 for this there are several reasons. First, we get much finer fruit the first 

 crop, and fine fruit is what helps to built up a good reputation for your 

 business, which an inferior crop, from a second or third season's picking, 

 might go far to destroy; secondly, we are much more liable to breed injur- 

 ious insects, by continuing an old patch in fruitage ; and thirdly, it is but 

 little more work to plant and care for a new plantation, than it is to 

 properly clean out an old one after fruiting. 



" I would advise, for field culture of the strawberry, that jDlants be set 

 3| feet apart each way and cultivated both w^ays, gradually narrowing the 

 cultivator as the hills spread. Give thorough cultivation as long as weeds 

 grow, and mulch as soon as the ground is frozen hard. 1 find greatest 

 profit in late varieties, holding them back in spring by leaving mulch on 

 as late as it can be safely done. Assort in picking, putting nothing but 

 No. 1 fruit in first grade. Watch closely that no picker squeezes or 

 bruises the fruit in picking. With the above management, I never 

 have had occasion to complain of unprofitable prices. 



