816 Agricultural Gazette of N.S.W. [Nov. 2, 1920. 



dug in, and where runners that are not required have rooted along the single 

 row, or in the matted row, these should now be thinned out. Where an old 

 plant is looking sick, and there is a healthy runner near, leave the runner 

 and pull out the old plant. Sometimes a lot of young seedling plants will 

 come up along the I'ows. These should be weeded out, as they will not develop 

 true to type, and may spoil the grower's stock. If a grower wishes to experi- 

 ment with them, with the hope of getting a good new variety, he should plant 



them out separately. 



Irrigation. 



There are many ways of applying water to the strawberry patch. Where the 

 land has a suitable fall it may be run in light furrows made on the top side of 

 the row with a Planet Jr. or with a common hand plough made by fastening 

 to a long handle a three-cornered piece of timber sharpened at the end 

 as shown in the accompanying figure. Throughout Ryde and Pennant 

 Hills, however, sprinkling systems are the most popular. Some growers 



use a stationary-pipe 

 sprinkler system, some 

 triple sprinklers attached 

 to the end of a length of 

 hose which can be shifted 

 about to any part of the 

 plot. One grower has a 

 The hand plough. service of pipes laid along 



every second row of trees 

 through the young orchard in which he grows his strawberries, and at every 

 second tree he has a standpipe about 6 feet high with a triple sprinkler on 

 top. This throws a fine set of sprays, which meet and cover the whole of the 

 ground, constituting the nearest approach to actual rain that I have seen. 



Another large grower has installed a stationary system of an improved type. 

 This consists of a service of plain pipes laid on the surface, with an inverted 

 T-piece put in as a coupler at every second length. Set in the T-pieces are 

 stand-pipes about 2 feet long, and to the top of these are attached bulb 

 sprinklers which throw a circular spray. These sprays meet, and cover the 

 ground evenly all over. It is claimed by the owner that the 2-foot uprights 

 are sufficiently high where only strawberries are to be watered — high enough 

 to allow the sprays to meet as they fall, and not so high as to cause loss of 

 water through evaporation. The main advantage this has over the ordinary 

 stationary pipe system is that no holes need be made in the piping for nipples, 

 and if the installation is not required after a few years the piping can be 

 disconnected and sold to the plumber for other purposes. 



Diseases and Pests of the Strawberry. 



Chief of the fungus diseases of the strawberry are black spot and mildew. 

 For these an early spraying of Bordeaux mixture is the best remedy. 



Red spider is another common source of trouble, many hundreds of 

 these small mites attacking the leaves on the under surface and sucking 



