BREEDING HARDY STRAWBERRIES AND RASPBERRIES. 257 



when you have bred a raspberry or a strawberry that is hardy hke 

 our wild ones, you will find that it is simply drouth-resisting ; it 

 can live on a dry soil and under drouthy conditions where another 

 could not. Prof. Hansen says rust will not form on a 

 healthy and strong- plant. If it is in a weakened condition, it is 

 susceptible to rust. That is exactly what has been brought out here. 

 The plants were weakened by the roots being hurt on account of 

 lack of moisture. A drouth came on in the fall, there was a dry 

 condition of the soil, the strawberry plants were calling for a good 

 deal of moisture ; they had heavy foliage, large tops and large 

 leaves, and they were exhausting the moisture in the soil "right in 

 the row where the were. They cannot reach way out several feet 

 to obtain moisture like a tree. I do not know how far the roots of 

 a strawberry plant can reach out, but they do not gO' as far as the 

 roots of a tree. They are in a matted row, practically in a hill, and 

 they absorb all the moisture in that immediate vicinity. The ground 

 freezes up in that condition, the freezing weather continues to ex- 

 pel the moisture from the ground until that plant is left there with- 

 out anything to drink. It is simply choked to death. That is the 

 way the matter appears to me. It is simply a lack of moisture, and 

 if it is not that get up and tell me what it is. Do not say it is lack 

 of hardiness, do not say it is winter-killing ; that does not mean 

 anything to me I want to know what it is. I want to learn wheth- 

 er it is this, that or something else. 



In regard to improving our raspberries, that is all right for you 

 to go ahead and breed raspberries that will not need laying down. 

 If you succeed in developing such a raspberry, I will honor you for 

 it. But, at the same time, until you get raspberries that will not need 

 laying down we had better keep on laying them down, those of us 

 whO' are growing raspberries. One man said he laid down four 

 hundred acres last year with one team. He lays them down as fast 

 as his team can walk, and if you can have it done as easily as that 

 you had better keep on. Until Prof. Hansen gets a raspberry that 

 does not need laying down, you had better keep on doing as you are 

 doing now, laying them down and giving them protection in the 

 winter. 



Prof. Hansen : I heartily agree with Mr. Underwood that we 

 should lay down our raspberries and irrigate our strawberries when 

 necessary. I believe winter-killing is largely lack of moisture, but it 

 is not altogether that. Xo matter how much moisture you give the 

 fuchsia or the geranium, you could not carry it through the winter 

 as you do t'he strawberry, because it is not hardy enough. The 

 water will not do it all. Mr. Hess, the man I spoke of, irrigates his 

 strawberries with excellent results, and that shows that water is 

 very necessary. It is the same concerning our apples, etc. Xo one 

 can tell what hardiness is. We only know that with the same tem- 

 perature and moisture some plants will stand the winter and some 

 will not. It is in the condition of the plant itself. In the same way 

 hardiness may mean resistance to heat. You take the Siberian crab, 

 and it is a failure in the south because it is not adapted to the con- 

 ditions it finds there. 



