TRANSACTIONS OF ALTON HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 291 



has given me the greatest satisfaction. For Wilson and Downing berries, 

 shipped last spring, on the same day, to the same house in Chicago, I 

 received for the Wilson fifteen cents, and for the Downing thirty cents. 

 But one thing I wish especially to say to all who have made new 

 plantations of strawberries, and that is, they need your attention now. 

 The snow and sleet of winter have packed down the mulch where it was 

 heavy upon the crawns of your plants, and they will soon be smothered 

 and killed if that straw or mulch is not lifted from them. Simply uncover 

 the crown of the plant, and all will be well. There is a better stand of 

 plants at this time than usual ; I have lost scarcely five per cent. But 

 let no one neglect to lift the mulch, and give the plants a chance to 

 breathe. Soon it will be time to remove the straw and cultivate lightly 

 with a square-tooth cultivator in the rows, and with a hoe-fork between 

 the hills, and then replace the mulch, pushing the .same well up to the 

 plants. After fruiting, cultivate and mulch heavily. I always have a pile 

 of straw to which I can go, in anticipation of a drought coming on. 

 You can not succeed in growing strawberries without this care. 



Capt. Hollister — Do you think irrigation is practical in our 

 Western country, as is recommended in some other localities ? 



Capt. Ste\Vart — No, sir ; I think good cultivation and the use of a 

 mulch, as I have always advised, will give satisfaction, and is less 

 expensive than irrigation. 



Dr. Hull — But we hear that in Colorado they are beating the world 

 in their large yields of strawberries, by irrigation, and by this means they 

 lengthen the strawberry season to three months. I have sometimes 

 thought it would pay us to irrigate. 



Capt. Stewart — There is no doubt that irrigation would increase 

 largely our crops. The strawberry needs a great deal of water. But the 

 question is, will it pay? I do not know, after all, if it would not pay. 

 Still what I say is, we can grow satisfactory crops by cultivation and by 

 mulching. And for us this seems most practical. 



Dr. Hull showed a very neat model of his improved curculio catcher. 

 It is strongly made, light, and can be rapidly handled by one man, the ope- 

 rator going through the orchard as fast as he can walk, stopping but a 

 moment at each tree, with an ever forward movement and never a turn- 

 ing back. The thing needs but to be seen to be appreciated. 



At this stage of the proceedings, lunch, brought in baskets, was 

 spread, and there were taken up of fragments more than the said baskets 

 full, which shows how liberal the provisions were. 



