148 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mrs. E. B. Crooker: I have a different way of planting- strawberries^ 

 a way of my own. I think the plan is original with myself, as it has 

 not been brought out here. I have the plants in water, the same as 

 has been spoken of, muddy water. I take a trowel and make holes 

 as far as I can reach; then I put in the plant and press it firmly with 

 the trowel, and then I have some water in a vessel opposite to me 

 from which I fill the place where I have set my plant nearly full of 

 water, and then put the dirt right over it, and I have no trouble in 

 making them grow. I believe I could set one thousand a day ray- 

 self, but I did set eight hundred a day and did my work and had a 

 rest of two hours. 



Sec'y Latham: Did you do a washing that day? (Laughter). 



Mrs. Crooker. No, I did not do a washing, but I did my housework. 



Mr. Smith: I had a variety that I wanted to save all I could of, so 

 I dug up the plants, trimmed off all of the leaves and about one- 

 third of the length of the roots, and I took some flat boxes, putting- 

 in about a half inch of dirt on the side of the shallow boxes, and 

 laid a row of plants along so they would nearly touch each other, 

 and then put on some soil, and then some inore plants until I had 

 the boxes filled. I then set them on the cellar bottom, and they 

 stood there ten days until they had begun to grow a little, then 

 I put them in a pan of water and set them out, and I did not lose a 

 plant out of three thousand. The ground was all ready at the time, 

 but I am satisfied that if the leaves were off and the roots trimmed 

 and the plants put on the cellar bottom for a time they would be 

 more likely to grow than they would be if planted the same day they 

 are received. 



Mr. G. I. Kellogg: The president spoke of machine planters. We 

 are cursed with tobacco g-rowing in our country, and we have used 

 the tobacco planter for planting strawberries. If the soil is in 

 proper condition, the}"- will plant as fast as the team will walk, but if 

 the season is dry they are not good for anything-. 



The Mexican Strawberry. — We are now cultivating about 300 

 kinds of strawberries, and out of a large collection we give the prefer- 

 ance to the Mexican strawberry, as the greatest yielder that we have 

 ever tested; also, it is our largest berry, being considerably larg-er 

 than the Marshall. In flavor, it is first class, but not superior to sev- 

 eral other sorts. The plants attain a height of from 14 to 18 inches, 

 with large, beautiful, dark green leaves; the blossom is large and 

 perfect-flowering-. A strange peculiarity of this plant is that it 

 yields heavier and better crops at three and four years of age than 

 it does at two years. 



A single plant of the Mexicp.n strawberry will yield three boxes of 

 fruit when it is three years of age. In September and October here 

 we always get a big second crop from the Mexican strawberry. The 

 young plants when set out always give a good picking the first 

 season.— S. L. Watkins, Grizzlj^ Flats, Cal., in Canadian Horticult- 

 urist. 



