60 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



planting with the machine, at Sparta tliey have a machine, and 

 they set out plants at the rate of about one acre a day. The 

 beds will not average nearly as well as Mr. Underwood's, 

 but they are about as good as you find them anywhere. There 

 is scarcely any re-planting necessary. Mr. Fisher and I fol- 

 lowed the machine twice up and down the row, and we did not 

 find a single plant missing, and I know it would almost aver- 

 age the same throughout the whole field. It waters the plants 

 at the same time. Every plant is watered as it is planted, and 

 there is a roller that rolls them down, and they are set very 

 firmly. The ground was prepared as Mr. Coe describes it. I 

 think they went over it four times with the pulverizer — I call 

 it the "digger." I think they went over it four times before 

 planting, and then one team draws the water; it takes about 

 seven barrels to the acre. One man drives the machine, two 

 boys do the dropping and two girls get the plants ready. It 

 did the work last year very finely. 



Mr. D. Cook: There is one point about the distance apart 

 plants should be set I want to speak about. It strikes me we 

 get a better stand if planted close together. It is generally 

 recommended to plant strawberries two feet apart in the row. 

 My experience has been, during those dry years, that it was 

 better to set them close together. I set my plants eight inches 

 to a foot apart and I got a good stand of plants. I would like 

 to have that thing decided. 



Mr. Brackett: My plan is to set them two feet apart in the 

 row, and I have got as nice a bed as can be seen anywhere, but 

 I have cut the runners off three times; the Bubach and such 

 varieties as make a slow growth, the most of them I have cut 

 off three times. I cultivate them both ways with the horse. 



Mr. Coe: Our practice has been in regard to setting a cer- 

 tain distance apart, to regulate that according to variet3^ We 

 plant twice as many Wilsons as we do Warfield on the same 

 area. 



Mr. Braclvett: I accomplish that same end by having the 

 rows close together. 



Mr. West: I have had on hand a disease of the strawberries. 

 I ha ve some strawberries that were affected with rust. I had 

 about one thousand plants that looked very finely, but after the 

 first frost came, when I was at home, it looked as though the 

 frost had killed them. I was informed by every man who saw 

 them that it was rust. It was caused by freezing and thawing 

 afterwards. The land was cleared two years ago last spring; 



