384 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



On this acre and a half there are also twenty-five apple trees, some 

 plum trees and grape vines, all of which will soon come into bearing-, 



I have found cultivation to be better than mulching for most 

 fruits, especially for the first few years after setting, but after they 

 get older it is a good plan to mulch close to the plants and cultivate 

 between the rows. Some red raspberries were mulched and not 

 cultivated for the first two years after planting, and they made a 

 very poor growth, but the last two years they have been cultivated 

 and made a good growth. 



The past season I used a fourteen-tooth horse cultivator, which 

 did very good work in strawberries and other fruits, except where 

 weeds or suckers got quite a start, in which case a five-shovel cul- 

 tivator was used. 



I have given the raspberry and blackberry bushes winter protec- 

 tion by bending them to the ground and covering with enough dirt 

 to hold them in place, so that the snow could cover them, but the 

 past winter there was not enough snow to cover them, and they 

 were injured. 



I have not been troubled much by diseases or insects. The cur- 

 rant worm appears every season brt is easily destroyed by spraying 

 the bushes with white hellebore, used at the rate of a teaspoonful 

 to a gallon of water. 



The snowy tree cricket did some damage by laying eggs in the 

 raspberry canes, which would cause them to break when they were 

 bent over to be covered. The remedy for this is to cut out and burn 

 the affected canes. 



Next spring I expect to plant more of each kind of fruit and also 

 to increase the nursery which I started in a small way last year. 



I have always been interested in the study and practice of horti- 

 culture, and ray interest and knowledge of the subject have been 

 much increased by attending the School of Agriculture. 



Cultivating the Strawberry. — As soon as the strawberry bed 

 is planted use a drag tooth, adjustable cultivator, going twice in a 

 row and as close as possible to the plant The bed is cultivated on 

 an average once every ten days throughout the growing season, 

 twice in a row until the runners start treely. After this the culti- 

 vator is run but once in the row, always going the same way and 

 gradually narrowing up the cultivator until it is not more than a 

 foot wide. By always cultivating the same way the runners are 

 pushed in one direction by the cultivator and little or no hand train- 

 ing is needed. After every rain the bed is cultivated to create and 

 maintain a 2-in dust blanket, which will prevent, to a considerable 

 extent, the evaporation of moisture. All fruit buds are picked from 

 the growing plants. In order to have the best success, the space 

 between the plants must be kept absolutely free from weeds. The 

 final cultivation is given the last of September, by which time, if 

 the season is an ordinarily favorable one, the rows will be 18 inches 

 wide, filled with vigorous, healthy plants. 



