IRRIGATION OF STRAWBERRIES. 187 



years ago that irrigation was a big affair at best, and that it would 

 not pay to enter into it unless one had considerable capital and ex- 

 perience, but I think it would be well to make an experiinent. A 

 neighbor of mine, Mr. Prescott, has been making some experiments, 

 and he makes the best use of the water, using it under a mulch. He 

 does not use it over a large area; I do not think it exceeds an acre. 

 Mr. Kimball and I visited him this summer, and I was surprised at 

 the good results he got. 



Mr. J. A. Sampson: Mr. C. W. Spickerman, who is present, is doing 

 a little irrigating, and I would like to hear from him, whether it is 

 profitable. 



Mr. Spickerman: My attempts at irrigation have been directed 

 more to raspberries than to strawberries. I watered one bed of 

 strawberries while the plants were 3 oung, and they made a very 

 fine growth of plants b}' fall. The rows were thickly matted and 

 the plants vigorous. A 5'ear ago last summer that bed did not 

 amount to much; I do not think it averaged over 500 quarts to the 

 acre. They were Jessie and Princess, one-third Jessie and two-thirds 

 Princess. That bed I watered last year, and they bore a good crop. 

 I wish to say in regard to fertilizing, those rows of Jessie had fine 

 blossoms, and where the blossoms were the most vigorous I had the 

 least berries. Where the plants had small blossoms and there were 

 not many plants, there I had the most berries. Another bed I 

 did not water this year was planted with Jessie and Princess, and I 

 had the best results. I have tried strawberries five j'ears in succes- 

 sion and have not had one good crop. I have had little patches that 

 produced well, but take the whole result for five years, and I have 

 not had a good crop. The first year they were all Wilsons, and the 

 finest of the kind. The growers in our vicinity claimed they were 

 the finest they ever saw, but the berries dried up on the vines when 

 half grown. I undertook to water by hand, and after hauling about 

 one hundred barrels from Lake Minnetonka I gave it up discouraged. 

 The next year I put in a watering plant, and I think it has paid. 

 It paid wonderfully well with raspberries. So far as strawberries 

 are concerned, I think it depends upon the fertilizer in the spring of 

 the year. 



Mr. Wm. Adelman: Did you not put too much water on? I tried 

 it one year. The plants were wilted and lying down during the day 

 so I took a sprinkling can and went down the rows sprinkling them, 

 and the next day they stood up till about ten o'clock. I repeated 

 the process and the next day they stood up till four o'clock, and if 

 I had commenced before it got so dry I would have kept my berries 

 in fine shape. 



Mr. Spickerman: I do not put any water on the plants at all. I 

 let the water run down the row without wetting the foliage. I put 

 the water on evenings as much a possible, but until I had a reser- 

 voir I could not always do that, but now that I have a reservoir I 

 can put it on any time I choose. 



Mr. Kellogg; In order to make a success of watering strawberries 

 you first want to make a cloud, and a good sinart shower is from 

 one-half to one inch of water. Say, a good shower is one-half inch. 



