STRAWBERRIES IN THE PINE REGIONS OF MINNESOTA. IQI 



winter covering. Fifty years ago a prominent apple grower said : 

 "The first requisite to growing apples is water, the second water, 

 and the third still more water." 



Mr. C. W. Merritt: I think some of the people are "off" a 

 little. In our section the strawberries are on heavy soil, and we 

 have plenty of moisture in the soil. I think it was a sort of 

 typhoon, or hot wind, such as passed over Nebraska and Kansas 

 and cut off the crops, that cut short our strawberry crop. It was 

 the same all over the country, regardless of the condition of the 

 soil or the amount of moisture. When the berries were nearly 

 ripe they were struck by something, and in a day's time they were 

 gone. It was something in the nature of a hot wind that cut the 

 plants short at that time. I think the time was about the last of 

 June. 



Mr. C. S. Harrison (Neb.) : It is well known you cannot raise 

 strawberries in a dry country. In Franklin county we never could 

 raise strawberries on account of the dry soil. 



Mr. H. G. Westman : In my experience fhe berries would come 

 along nicely for about two weeks, and then a kind of disease would 

 develop near the hull and crown at the same time, and the plant 

 would begin to blight. Near the crown there was a little crimson 

 spot, and after that appears they will begin to dry up. I would 

 like to know whether anybody has observed anything of a similar 

 nature. 



The Chairman : Were your plant's considerably spotted with 

 a small reddish spot? 



Mr. Westman : They were. We noticed it develop, but we 

 did not spray. 



The Chairman: Your chief trouble from that injury probably 

 was because you did not spray. Were you troubled with those 

 little nubbins on the late strawberries? 



Mr. Westman : Not at all. Mr. Cashman made the remark 

 that the plants were infected with blight. In our country the 

 beetle destroyed all perfect bearing plants and did not affect others. 



Mr. F. B. McLeran : In the northern part of the state the 

 soil was very wet at the time the plants blossomed, and it had a 

 great deal to do with our failure to get fruit. We had an excessive 

 amount of rain at that time. 



Mr. A. Brackett : It might affect the perfect fruit. It fakes a 

 great deal of water to drown a strawberry, and nine-tenths of the 

 damage is caused by root-killing. The root is not entirely killed, 

 but it is injured to such an extent that the plant has not sufficient 

 strength to develop and ripen the fruit. Last year everybody had 

 plenty of water, but everybody knows the roots were injured by 

 the winter. They were not killed but badly injured, but these are 

 cases where roots of strawberries were not injured. They will 

 have the blight if they are not sprayed, and you can tell in the fall. 

 If strawberry plants have no spots on their leaves, it is hardly 

 necessary to spray next year, although spraying will do them no 

 harm, bilt if the leaves are spotted it is necessary to spray and to 

 spray thoroughly. 



