38 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. Morrill: What do you consider the best method for cultivation? 



Mr. McCallem: I believe that has been pretty well demonstrated at 

 the experiment station. There are two crops that we are after when we 

 are growing strawberries, one crop of berries and the other crop of dol- 

 lars. When I am after dollars I prefer to have the berries in hills. I 

 am satisfied that we can not get, with most varieties, so large a crop nor 

 so good, under a good hill cultivation even, as we can under the narrow 

 matted row system. Mr. Taft, if you were going to set out strawberries 

 in hills, what distance would you put them apart? 



Mr. Taft: I have given that no particular thought. I think perhaps 

 as near as three feet, and perhaps a foot and a half in the row. I would 

 say, regarding fertilizers, no one can speak more highly than I regarding 

 wood ashes and ground bone. 



Mr. Gunson: Those who reported failure of certain kinds to develop 

 after they had reached certain stages, I would like to ask if these were 

 two-year-old plants or simply one-year-old. It would be almost impos- 

 sible for plants to develop before winter. I would like to ask what age 

 the plants were. That great observer, S. S. Bailey, says that the fruit 

 one year depends entirely upon the vitality of the bud. If we do not have 

 a bud, where are we going to get the fruit? It seems to me from that that 

 we would have to keep a growing bud through the summer. I would 

 like to say that in dry seasons (not at all the seasons we are having now, 

 by any means), but in ordinarily dry seasons, especially during the months 

 of July and August, with proper care, the strawberry often is likely to 

 grow its best, simply by using street sprinklers or tanks of that kind, if 

 it had to be done in order to get plants in good condition before winter. 



Mr. Brown: I am glad to see this point brought out. Those who wish 

 plants for greenhouse culture always have to select the crowns. I 

 wouldn't let a man select strawberry plants for me, because I should 

 want to see that the crown was well developed. 



The Chairman: I think Mr. Gunson asked whether it was the two- 

 year-old or the one-year-old plants, where the berries failed. 



Mr. Palmer: Mine were one-year-old plants, set last spring. 



Q. Did you have a satisfactory-looking field when winter set in? A. 

 Yes, sir. I was the only one who had a good set of Jessie and Bubach. 



Q. Did you have them on both sides of the road? A. Where I cul- 

 tivated the most I got the worst berries. 



Q. Didn't you think the extreme heat had its effect upon the berries? 

 A. That is just the thing I think was the matter. I believe that heat 

 had much to do with it. 



Q. Why would not water cool the soil? A. It was the atmosphere. 

 The fruit was really stunted then. It was all small fruit. 



Q. You found dry, heavy mulch there. A. This whole thing was 

 mulched through the winter. That might have dried it. Perhaps that 

 excluded moisture from the roots. I think it was due almost entirely to 

 the excessively high temperature. They seemed to be growing and doing 

 nicely, but then the thermometer ran up to almost a hundred. Then they 

 turned to dark yellow. 



Mr. Lowell: My experience is something similar to Mr. Palmer's. We 

 live in the same locality. Last fall we had a good crop. We kept the 

 ■weeds all down, and after we planted our strawberries we cultivated 



