FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 85 



Q: What sized plants do you recommend setting? 

 Mr. Stearns: I prefer the year old plants. 

 Q: What time do you prune? 

 A: In the fall. 



SUCCESSFUL STRAWBERRY GROWING. 



R. M. KELLOGG, IONIA. 



I would like to correct an erroneous report that I saw in the paper. It 

 stated that I was making an attempt to cross the strawberry with the 

 milkweed, for the sake of furnishing the berries and cream from the same 

 plant. I have no intention whatever of injuring the dairy business by 

 any such operation. It was simply a mistake. 



There is beyond question a new era dawning for the strawberry cul- 

 turist. We are coming to understand the habits and nature of the plant 

 and a more complete knowledge of its requirements, and are therefore 

 able to meet its wants and thus secure the highest development. 



In the past, plants have been looked upon as things without life, uncon- 

 scious and incapable of appreciating generous treatment. We now know 

 they are as fastidious to food and environment as is your favorite cow or 

 horse, and will as generously respond to good care. When placed in 

 uncongenial surroundings they manifest their displeasure in a thousand 

 ways; when furnished with a deficient or improper food, they become 

 lean and lank. When bounteously supplied in kind and quantity, they 

 take on a vigorous, robust appearance. 



While I am not prepared to discuss the amount of intelligence plants 

 possess, I yet believe they are conscious of their existence and know their 

 surroundings. Who will look upon a wounded plant in the agonies of 

 death, witness its limp and drooping form, manifesting all the symptoms 

 of suffering shown in the animal under the same conditions, and then 

 say it does not feel pain? We know they have their diseases and reme- 

 dies and a plant doctor would fill a long-felt want; 'in any case it will be 

 safe to treat them as if they were high class animals. God's first great 

 commandment was to multiply and replenish the earth, and to that end 

 all trees and plants were included in the order, and endowed with the 

 strongest passions to accomplish this great purpose. When a plant is 

 left uncontrolled it will throw its whole being into this one effort until 

 its life energies are wasted, and it becomes impotent and incapable of 

 performing that function. Stockmen understand this, but fruit growers 

 are slow to learn that restriction and selection of perfect specimens are 

 as necessary in the plant as in the animal, if we are to build up a strong 

 fruiting power. We lose sight of the fact that an attempt to fruit is the 

 carrying out of this original command to multiply its species; that all 

 fruit grows as a receptacle for the seeds to grow in. 



What is a seed? Simply an egg. If we take an egg and keep it at the 

 desired temperature the required time, we get a chicken. Taking the 

 acorn and placing it in proper moisture and heat, we get in due time the 

 great oak, and so on through all the animal and plant kingdoms. Like 

 begets like and plant life is not an exception. Under constant restric- 



