34 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



than with us at South Haven, the Wilson is generally grown in hills. I think 

 it less adapted for hill culture, however, than many other varieties. 



METHODS OF CULTURE. 



The Secretary read the following paper from Hon. Parker Earle, the straw- 

 berry king, of Illinois : 



" Here is how we do it. We plant in the spring, and largely of Crescents, 

 setting three rows of them to one of some fertilizing variety, as Sharpless or 

 Sucker State. We cultivate clean all summer, in matted rows, keeping the 

 rows entirely distinct. We mulch in the late autumn with wheat straw, cover- 

 ing the middles heavily and the rows lightly. Never take it off. Next : The 

 tarnished plant bug ruins ninety per cent, of all varieties, except Crescent, and 

 sometimes half of them. We pick every day — seven days in the week. It is 

 wicked to work so hard, but we cannot harvest strawberries for shipment long 

 distances without doing just this thing. We use quart boxes five inches square 

 by two and a half inches deep, and twenty-four quart crates. We don't use the 

 Michigan box, which is nearly as deep as it is wide, and looks small and carries 

 badly, and would not use them if furnished free. We don't use sixteen quart 

 cases, which are as high as wide, and which no fellow ever knows or cares how 

 to set down, bottom, side or top up. We don't itse this package, and I wish you 

 Michigan people would abandon such an ill-looking, bad package. Your ber- 

 ries would bring more money in our style of package and it costs no more. 

 Finally we ship in refrigerator cars, the berries being first carefully cooled off, 

 and we use Tiffany cars, because they carry the ice overhead, where it ought to 

 be. We scatter widely, and we don't make as much money as we want to, 

 for there are too many strawberries for profit to the grower.'" 



MULCHING. 



W. J. Beal : At the college one year we mulched with leaves, putting on corn 

 stalks to keep them down. In the spring only the stalks remained, the leaves 

 had blown away. Straw often contains seeds of weeds and grass, but is other- 

 wise good. Some have thought that wheat rust in the straw might cause rust 

 in the strawberries. The two kinds of rust have no connection. 



Dr. Marshall : I have used planing-mill shavings with success. 



Alexander Hewitt : How would sawdust do ? 



W. K. Gibson : It does not seem to give satisfaction. 



T. T. Lyon : Sorghum begasse has been used' by some and highly recom- 

 mended. Being crushed it soon decays, forming a valuable fertilizer. 



E. H. Scott: Pure marsh hay, cut before seed has ripened, is as good as 

 anything. 



A. G. Gulley : Spent tan -bark has been used by one of our growers with 

 success. 



VARIETIES FOR DIFFERENT SOILS. 



T. T. Lyon : I have heard it said that the Bidwell was specially good on 

 heavy soils. My experience has been very satisfactory with it on a light soil, 

 but the runners must be kept off or it will not fruit In my experience I have 

 sec :i little difference in varieties on different soils. The Triumph De Gaud 

 and Jucunda are probably as particular as any, and prefer a heavy soil. 



