188 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



that is, 500 barrels to the acre— and there is no use in attempting irri- 

 gation unless you can get the water on in sufficient quantity. You 

 cannot irrigate in the day tiine when the sun is shining, and I do 

 not believe there is a planter in your state who has made a success 

 of irrigation. 



Mr. Spickerman: I beg to differ from Mr. Kellogg; I believe I made 

 my plant pay for itself the first year from an acre of raspberries 

 alone. 



Pres. Underwood: That is the important point we ought to bring 

 out. If it does not pay to irrigate strawberries.we ought to know it. 

 Mrs. A. A. Kennedy: I think it does pay so far as growth is con- 

 cerned. 



Mr. H. F. Busse: I want to ask Mr. Spickerman how many barrels 

 a day he uses in irrigating his strawberries and raspberries. 



Mr. Spickerman: My judgment is that I use about five to six 

 hundred barrels every time I irrigate. I think it is absolutely neces- 

 sary to put on plenty of water. I think a little bit of water applied, 

 and then the sun coming out and drying all up, is a great deal more 

 injurious than if no water was applied at all. I think it is a mistake. 

 Mrs. Kennedy: Would you put the water on any time? 

 Mr. Adelman: I put it on in the evening. 



Mr. Spickerman: If you keep the ground wet it is all right, but if 

 you put the water on one day and it dries up the next, it only starts 

 a new growth of roots, and those roots die and the plant is injured. 

 If any one has any different views or suggestions I would like to 

 hear them. 

 Pres. Underwood: We would like to hear from Prof. Green. 

 Prof. Green: I was not in the room when the discussion began; I 

 hardly know the drift of it. 



Pres. Underwood: We are discussing the propriety of irrigating 

 strawberries. 



Prof. Green: This subject of irrigation is one that I have not 

 learned enough about in order to practice successfully. I think 

 irrigation without enough mulching, or without immediate cultiva- 

 tion after irrigation, will be a failure almost without exception. 

 Cultivation is just as important as irrigation, and often will take the 

 place of irrigation. One year, three years ago, our Warfield were run 

 down pretty badly, and it looked as though we would not get a third 

 of a crop. The berries looked very good, but the weather came on 

 dry and hot; so I had a furrow made right at the side of the row, 

 close to the plants, and we had a big tank that we used at the dairy, 

 with a piece of hose attached behind, and we watered a few rows. 

 In that case we did not water the whole land. Some one said it was 

 necessary to water the whole land. We used the water at the rate of 

 two hundred barrels per acre, and we got an almost full crop of 

 berries from those Warfields, and with two or three hundred barrels 

 per acre put on at different times we did get very considerable 

 results. I have thought since that if we had watered right in the 

 middle of the row we would have got better results yet than we did 

 from watering at the side of the row, but I felt that the experiment 

 as it was, paid very well. As to the size of the reservoir in relation 



