STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 49 



justified in mainly passing those topics by; and in calling attention to how largely 

 we are as yet dependent upon natural causes for our finest crop of this favorable 

 fruit; by this, not disparaging in the least good culture, but endeavoring to find out 

 how we may extend it, and best supplement or modify these forces of nature when 

 absent. 



Strawberry yields are extremel}' variable in quantity and quality of fruit, during 

 different seasons in the same place, under almost precisely the same treatment. 

 Thus it may happen after we have grown an enormous crop of very fine fruit, we 

 flatter ourselves that we know precisely how to duplicate it. And following up 

 the same mode of preparation of soil, planting, and cultivation, we are sorelv dis- 

 appointed at last in securing only an ordinary or even poor crop. 



The finest yields are undoubtedly the result of a combination of every favorable 

 ■condition of soil, varieties, cultivation, location, moisture, and temperature. 

 Yet I have seen some remarkable ones when soil, varieties, and cultivation were 

 ivll apparently inferior, leaving, perhaps, the two combined influences of proper 

 moisture and temperature through the entire season to account for them. We are 

 all familiar with the reverse, when by lack of moisture or extremes of temperature, 

 other conditions having been good, poor crops followed. 



Marking well these facts, may we not infer that so far as is possible, we must 

 select a soil and location that will naturally resist these untoward conditions of 

 nature, to that end also applying the most intelligent methods of culture and 

 management ? 



One of our most eminent horticulturists, being asked what special fertilizers 

 and in what order he would recommend them for the strawberry, replied, first, 

 water, and second, water again Within reasonalfle bounds, this accords nearly 

 with my own experience. Where irrigation is attainable, I do not doubt it could 

 be used to good advantage and profit, even in districts where the average rainfall 

 is considered sufficient. 



During a severe drouth occurring at Xew Albany, Ind , just as strawberries 

 were beginning to ripen, I irrigated one and a half acres of Charles Downing. 

 The plants were in matted row form, and had been covered for the winter with 

 -Straw, in the spring a part of it being drawn into the paths, the plants pushing 

 through the remainder. The drouth was so severe that even with this mulch the 

 foliage was wilting, and some of the fruit scalding in the .sun. Two teams were 

 ■employed hauling water in large hogsheads from a stream three fourths of a mile 

 -distant, and four large sprinklers in the hands of as many men, distributed the 

 water profusely on the rows of plants. One half of the patch was gone over each 

 alternate day. 



From the time of the first application of the water the plants perfecftly revived, 

 and as fine a crop of fruit as we ever gathered was the result, bringing high prices 

 on account of the short and inferior crop in general. The expense was inconsid- 

 erable indeed, as compared with the increased (juantity and quality of fruit. 



Desirable as is irrigation at times, very few of us will assume the expense of pre- 

 paring for its use. But to be sucsessful we must do the next best thing. So pre- 

 pare the soil, cultivate and manage, as to retain and utilize all the moisture at 

 command. I of course recognize the fact, that occasionally we have too much 

 rain, even for the strawberry, but such is the exception. 

 4 



