470 BOAKD OF AGRICFI.TnRF. 



Mr. Burton: What 1 moan is this. I do not think it is necessary to 

 set the plants closer than three feet, for I find they always close up, and 

 the plants that grow there are better than the ones I might plant. 



Mrs. Fawcett: That is all very well sometime.*?, but suppose you plant 

 three feet apart and a couple of plants should die, and your plants are 

 eight or nine feet apart, and you can not get runners enough to fill their 

 place. The profit in strawberries is in having a row very perfect, with 

 no breaks. I find it is bettor to plant a little closer. 



Chairman Latta: May there not be something in the soil which 

 governs the extent of running? 



Mrs. Fawcett: A great deal depends upon the soil. 



Mr. Ritterscamp: And there may be something in the variety of plant. 

 Mr. Burton may have plants that have a tendency to make more. The 

 Pride has a tendency to make more plants, and the Crescent and many 

 others would make more than the Clyde and Bubach. 



Chairman Latta: Then you favor a thicker setting than Mr. Burton 

 practices? 



Mr. Ritterskamp: That is according to the variety. The Crescent will 

 make six plants where the Clyde makes one, or the Bubach either, I 

 set farther or closer according to the variety and the natural tendency of 

 the plant to send out runners. We like the Crawford very much; but 

 right now I should hke to ask Mrs. Fawcett in regard to the shading of 

 the Bubach. Do they turn purple -with you as they do with us? We 

 find they are apt to turn purple and get mushy and soft. 



N 



Mrs. Fawcett: We never found them that way. We are very fortu 

 nate in being able to ship them to a close point like Indianapolis, where 

 they arrive the same day they are shipped and can be immediately placed 

 on the market. 



Mr. Ritterskamp: Do you pick in the mornings and ship in the after 

 noon? 



Mrs. Fawcett: We pick all day sometimes. Pick in the afternoon, 

 too. And I remember one day when it rained very heavily in the morning 

 and a wind came up and blew everything dry, we went out in the after- 

 noon and picked. We never pick the berries when they are wet. 



Chairman Latta: Will Mr. Ritterskamp state his experience? 



Mr. Ritterskamp: I am using nitrogen as manure, and it seems to 

 make the berry softer than on new spil; and I find that the Bubach, 

 within an hour after picking, will turn a slick, ugly purple, somewhat 

 similar to the Snyder blackberry. I pick them early in the morning. 



