PREPARATION OF SOIL FOR PLANTING STRAWBERRIES. 143 



pan. I prepared about a half acre, plowed it as deep as I could, and 

 ran one of those subsoilers after it, breaking- up the soil about 

 eighteen inches deep. I had manured the ground at about the rate 

 of thirty loads to the acre, old, well pulverized manure. I set out the 

 Wilson strawberry and gave it the same cultivation that I gave 

 other strawberry beds since then, but I have never raised or grown 

 a bed of strawberries that yielded as that did. I never prepared a 

 piece of ground specially since, but whether it was the subsoiling, 

 the manure, the season, or what it was I cannot tell, but I know I 

 got the best crop of strawberries from that piece of ground I ever 

 raised. 



Mr. F. W. Kimball: I want to ask Mr. Elliot if it was a dry season 

 when he had that experience. I would like to ask Mr. Kellogg what 

 the condition of the season was in the experience he speaks of. Mr, 

 Cook had applied a great deal of manure which tended to loosen 

 the soil and made it liable to dry out if the season was anything 

 but a wet one. 



Mr. Kellogg: The season was very favorable, but I attribute the 

 failure to the fact that the ground was so loose that the plants 

 could not take hold. There was so much of that humus and leaf 

 mold present that I could not tame it down until about five crops 

 were taken off, then it made a good strawberry patch. 



Pres. Underwood: I have no doubt that was the cause of the 

 failure on Mr. Cook's place. 



Mr. Smith: Would it not be well to sum up in this way, that the 

 soil be manured only heavy enough so the soil will pack and not be- 

 come too loose. On this same soil Mr. Elliot speaks of, I put about 

 twenty loads of manure to the acre, and it did well, but right along- 

 side of that where I put one hundred loads of manure to the acre I 

 got a splendid growth of vines but did not get any berries. I got 

 the ground too loose. I think we should not put on too much 

 manure so as to make the ground too loose and light so that the 

 plant cannot become rooted. I think this must have been the 

 trouble with Mr. Cook's land. 



Early Picking of Apples.— Nature always indicates the right 

 time to gather her fruits, and in apples that is when the stein of the 

 fruit will cleave from the branch where it has grown without break- 

 ing. If stems adhere and break, the fruit will not be good, but will 

 wilt if picked, for it is not sufficiently matured. The best keeping 

 quality is obtained by picking apples as early as possible. The fin- 

 est flavor is obtained by allowing them to reach the fullest maturity 

 on the tree. In holding apples, put them in tight barrels or boxes 

 and keep in the coolest place that can be provided. Ventilation is 

 not wise. The entire exclusion of air will give the smallest percent- 

 age of loss from decay. — Geo. T. Powell. 



