378 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. Gregg: After harvest, about August. Then we cut 

 back the tops of the plants and rake the whole thing clean and. 

 put OD ashes, and the plants make a stroDg growth. When the 

 ground freezes, we put on the straw, and it is all the work we 

 have to do. 



Mr. Hart well: How do you cultivate? 



Mr. Gregg: We use surface cultivation altogether. 



Mr. C. L. Smith: You put straw on the rows and then un- 

 cover it the next spring? 



Mr. Gregg: We put about four inches of straw on the rows, 

 and we put it in between the rows in the spring time. One of 

 the great dangers in strawberry growing is the frost in June. 

 We let that straw stay on the plants as long as we find the 

 crown is bright, and if we find the crown is getting white we 

 rake off half of the straw and let the plant come right through. 

 It looks nice and tidy. I h<;^ard a man say the other day, "That 

 man Gregg is employed by the state; he can afford to do that." 

 Why, bless your heart, that is just where I have to economize; 

 labor is what costs; that is my biggest expense. I stand here 

 to say that I can raise a peck of strawberries as cheap as you 

 can raise a bushel of potatoes, but I want somebody else to 

 pick the strawberries. 



Mr. R. A. Wright: Do you have any trouble with the grain 

 coming up from the straw the next season? 



Mr. Gregg: One year I was a little careless, and we had some 

 trouble. I now take old straw and then, possibly, shake it up a 

 little bit. If I had it handy I would put marsh hay between, 

 but I would not put it over the plants; it would smother them. 



Mr. C. L Smith: I want to take exception to that statement. 

 I have been growing strawberries for about thirty years, and 

 many times I have used slough hay, but I have never had a 

 strawberry smother They did not smother last winter or the 

 winter before, and they were covered eight inches deep. The 

 question is asked, what time do you take the covering off? 

 Look at your plants and as long as the crown keeps all right 

 leave the cover on, but when the crown begins to grow take off 

 enough of that mulch so the plant can come through. You 

 cannot tell whether it is the te.nth of May or the twentieth, or 

 the first of June, but as long as the plant remains dormant, 

 leave the mulching on. But when it starts to grow take off the 

 mulching. 



Mr. Gregg: We use a great deal of straw between the rows. 

 We hold the plant back as long as we can, but we have late June 



