PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL MEETING 91 



«se it in tlic sprinp:. I would corlaiiily want it in tlie fall. I would com- 

 l)Ost it with otliei' manures. It is excellent niaunre. One bushel of it 

 will go as far as a big wagon-load of anything else, but the trouble is it 

 is too strong any way that you can dilute it, A good way is, if you can 

 get muck that is in proi)er condition — do not get sour muck — or compost 

 it with other manure. If 1 could not get anything else I would take 

 common dirt, and I would hoe it over, mix it thoroughly, get it fine, and 

 put it on some time before planting. M}' object in ])utting it on before 

 is to hnxQ the rain dilute it with the soil itself. If you put it on in 

 the fall you should hoe it in and let it lie there. I do not put any manure 

 on in the spring. We are drawing a large qliantity now, from Chicago. 

 We have drawn out this fall on 26 acres. We had IM acres last year. 

 We will have 8 or 10 acres more. We init 1h(> manure into a spreader 

 and spread it all over the ground evenly. In the spring we will mix it. 

 I go over my ground about sixteen times in fitting it for strawberries. 



Mr. Brook : Do you rake the straw off or leave it on the berries in the 

 tipring? 



Mr. Kellogg: I have adopted a plan where we have so large an 

 acreage. If I were fruiting all of that I would cover the rows over. Then 

 in the spring, as soon as the ground is dry enough, I would cultivate 

 very shallow, not deep enough to touch the roots, not over an inch, and 

 then I would just rake the straw off over the edge. One of the meanest 

 things to do is to carry a man a lot of strawberries and fill his teeth 

 with sand. The way to take them to your customers is to take them clean 

 and nice, so they will eat thi-ee or four quarts instead of one. Go to 

 work and grow fruit of all kinds so that people will eat it — everlastingly 

 eat it. If you raise a low grade of berries in a low matted row without 

 being properly fertilized and fed, a man eats a little dish of them, but 

 he never passes his plate back, and of course you will have a glutted 

 market. I sav there has not been a time this vear when a man who 

 went into the market with real good berries could not sell them and 

 get money out of them. But there are a few little things of that sort 

 that you must do right. Go to the horticultural meetings and find out; 

 that is the wav I do. 



Mr. Brook: Just one more question: This hen manure of which I 

 speak is composted with swamp muck. 



Mr. Kellogg: Well, that is all right. 



Mr. Brook : And w^orked into the soil at different times. 



Mri Kellogg: Yes, different times, that will do. 



Mr. Brook: If worked into the surface soil or below the surface soil, 

 will there be an}' element of fertility lost after it is in the soil? 



Mr. Kellogg: No, sir. The soil will absorb the nitrogen, and that is 

 the value of the hen manure — the nitrogen in it. 



Mr. Pitt: I would like to ask Mr. Kellogg what is the trouble with 

 strawberries when they grow very large vines, but do not bear any ber- 

 ries? 



Mr. Kellogg: My friend told you about that. You take an old, ex- 

 hausted hevrj plant that is run out and has lost its fruiting, breeding 

 stamina, and you will not get any good berries. The plants are incap- 

 able of bearing fruit. In growing fruit the plant is simply breeding, and 

 it will breed itself to death; and after it has bred itself to death it will 

 make foliage, but has no stamina to produce fruit. Now, all this fruit 



