18 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



place, in working from the side, about the size of this room, where in 

 wheeling the mulch in and spreading it we did not quite come together, 

 and there was just that patch that was not mulched. The part mulched 

 with clover chaff grew well, and everything went along finely for awhile, 

 but almost every blossom blasted; it made a great growth of leaves, 

 but no berries; but that little patch not mulched was full of berries. 

 My own practice has been to mulch nothing until after the fruit has set 

 and all danger of frost is over. Then I wheel the mulch in, the men get 

 down on their knees and put it under the berries to prevent sanding. 

 That is all the mulch I want now. 



Mr. G. H. Haight: I never grew any berries except for my own use, 

 but I have practiced mulching in winter and spring. All the benefit I 

 rec€;ived was to keep the berries clean and retain the moisture. 



Mrs. Perkins: Is there any danger of getting the soil too rich, of the 

 rains washing the clover into the soil, and thereby making a too vigorous 

 growth? 



Mr. Morrill: They might, but 1 have never heard of anyone getting 

 the ground too rich. I have been on Mr. Louden's place, the gentleman 

 who originated Jessie, and have seen there 160 to 200 varieties, on the 

 richest soil I ever looked at. Ditches four feet deep are in a perfect bed 

 of compost, and that has been loaded with fertilizers and stable manure 

 until it is the richest garden land I ever saw. It is at Janesville, Wis. 

 The vines have fruit stalks as large as a pencil, and I have seen berries 

 picked there, fourteen or fifteen to the quart. The vines stand knee high 

 to me. The foliage is enormous, and the fruit corresponds. I have no 

 fear of getting Michigan soil too rich. 



Mr. Hale: Did I understand you to say you had lost by spring culti- 

 vation? 



Mr. Morrill : Yes, sir, I have seen damage from that. 



Mr. Hale: Don't you practice any cultivation during the fruiting 

 season ? 



A. iS^ot until the crop is off. 



Mr. Dykeman: Is mulching of benefit for retaining moisture? 



A. That really was not my suggestion. I don't think it helps any in 

 that; simply prevents sanding. 



Mr. Rork: I wish to ask Mr. Morrill a question. You do not cultivate 

 any, you say, until after you have picked your crop? 



Ml'. Morrill: Then I plow it under. That is the easiest way I can 

 make money growing strawberries. 



Mr. Rork: I find that too early cultivation makes them susceptible 

 to frost, but I thought after frost was out of the way cultivation helped 

 preserve the moisture. 



Mr. Morrill: Sometimes you get in a position where you don't know 

 just the best thing to do. Cultivation also prevents radiation, and the 

 night maj^ come soon after when 3'ou can't get the radiation out of your 

 soil, owing to the mulch, and the crops are killed by frost. It is in a 

 worse condition for two or three days than if it had not been touched. 

 Another thing, the strawberry grows late in the season, and the last 

 thing it does is to fill the surface soil full of roots that are going to do 

 business. In cultivating, you are breaking off many of them, just as 

 they are starting in to do their work, and you are asking the plants to 



