186 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. 



bnt one kind, and if this happens to be one of the varieties that 

 needs another kind to fertilize it, they fail, and think they cannot 

 raise strawberries. If they would get half a dozen different va- 

 rieties and set them out together they would have no trouble, even 

 if they did not understand it, and he thought they ought to be ad- 

 vised to do so. and not to depend on one alone. He had tried to 

 raise the Wilson year after year, but with poor success. Had 

 he set a number of kinds he would have come out all right. 



President Smith was sure that it could not have been the 

 Wilson Mr. Huyck had, for that variety of all others was the 

 most perfect in self fertilizing power, and that in hardiness and 

 fruitfulness was most reliable. 



Mr. Oliver Gibbs, of Minnesota, said that twenty-five years 

 ago he thought he understood strawberry culture and felt com- 

 petent to give instruction to others in regard to it, but the longer 

 he had been engaged in raising them the more he learned, and 

 the less he knew perfectly, the less inclined he felt to lay down 

 definite rules, or to give instruction for their culture without 

 first fully understanding the conditions in which they are to be 

 raised. He would relate something of his experience, but wanted 

 special attention given to the conditions mentioned, as he re- 

 garded the success he had met with was due to the adaptation of 

 the culture to these conditions. His soil was a sandy loam, with 

 a sandy subsoil, with a very slight intermixture of clay. The 

 method of culture that had succeeded the best with him, giving 

 the largest berries and the greatest quantity, is to cover the 

 ground very thickly with straw before setting out the plants, 

 putting on enough to prevent the growth of the weed seeds that 

 may be in the soil. This straw should be put on in the spring 

 after the ground had been thoroughly prepared, and had become 

 warm. About the time for setting out garden vegetables is the 

 best. Then he sets the plants, parting the straw and setting the 

 plants in the usual manner and drawing the straw close up 

 around the plant thus set. His experience had been that when 

 set in this way there was not as much care required in the setting 

 or for some time afterward. Occasionally a weed will push up 

 through the straw. These should be pulled by hand. When the 



