SMALL FRUIT GARDEN IN JULY AND AUGUST. 257 



and I do not advise anybody, especially an amateur, to try to take 

 the risk. 



Mr. Merritt : After the crop is gathered we mow them, mow 

 them right down close to the ground, then rake them off and burn 

 that stuff, and we find the young shoots come right up. You can 

 run the cultivator through if you like. We find that a very good 

 plan. 



Mr. Prosser : In regard to that point of cutting the rows to a 

 certain width, we cut ours down to a width of ten inches and leave 

 everything in that space to grow. I would like to ask Mr. Moore 

 wdiether that is his practice? 



Mr. Moore : Yes, sir, 



Mr. Husser: Is it a practical thing to burn the bed off with 

 the straw in order to obtain bigger berries, and does it make any 

 difference in the size of the berries whether they are thinned out 

 with the cultivator? 



Mr. Moore : I question whether there is anything in that. You 

 may think you have inferior plants, but they will put out strong 

 and vigorous runners and establish the row, and in another year 

 you will see no difference. 



Mr. Brackett : I would like to speak a word about my success 

 with strawberries. I always mow off my bed after I am done picking ; 

 then I burn it off, and if by any accident I injure the plants in 

 burning them off, I plow up the bed and plant them anew. Take 

 the Iowa growers of strawberries ; they use their beds only one year 

 and then plow them under. In burning them off it destroys all 

 insects, and in nine cases out of ten the plants will remain unharmed. 

 When I plow them, I leave a strip about six inches in width. If 

 they are too thick I go it with a hoe and thin them out and get them 

 about as I want them. 



Mr. J. B. Sherlock (la.) : Many people now save plants to 

 form the mother plants. How many plants are advisable to form 

 the mother plants ? 



Mr. Moore : O, that is a pretty hard question to answer. I 

 would not advise leaving more than two plants to the runner, and 

 I should think about four runners would be sufficient. 



The President : I was going to say about ten in all. 



Mr. Sherlock: In northern Iowa they have the idea that the 

 fewer the plants the better they develop, the better the crop and the 

 healthier the plants. I have found that to be true in many things, 

 although there are exceptions in some cases. In northern Iowa there 

 are two or three, not exceeding three classes. In the matter of 

 plants in sandy regions they allow more, and sometimes they cut off 

 the entire first growth and allow no plants to grow whatever in 

 the month of June until after the fruit is developed, because they 

 advocate that by allowing fruit and plants to form at the same time 

 they get inferior plants. They allow the fruit to develop without 

 making extra plants, and then allow the plants to grow, which they 

 think forms stronger plants. 



