LATE HINTS ON SMALL FKUITS. 71 



per acre, as we ordiiiaril)- have to pay for labor, and 1 tliink that 

 will pay. My atrawl)errie9 went into winter ciuartera in the finest 

 coiulition I ever saw. 



President Underwood: Is there any objection to covering 

 before freezing? 



Mr. Smith: Yes, sir: I think there is a serious objection. I put 

 four inches of slouj^h haj' over live or six feet of a strawberry row 

 where there were strong healthy plants the 7th of October, the same 

 time I put those leaves on, and in two weeks after I took a friend out 

 and showed him the effects of it. The plants or leaves were all 

 musty and rotten under the four inches of hay, but where we had 

 put on the thin sprinkling of leaves they looked very fine — they were 

 jifrowing' all the time — but where we had put on the four inches of 

 hay they were spoiled. 



President Underwood: Why did you not wait until later? 



Mr. Smith: On that same day the plants that did not have 

 leaves on were not looking- so well as those which were covered 

 with leaves. There was only a difference of a few feet between 

 them. 



President Underwood: Why can't you commence the latter 

 part of October to mulch your strawberries, before severe 

 weather comes on ? 



Mr. Smith: As warm a November as we had this year, it would 

 not do to put on straw or anything- that lies close. 



Mr. Brackett: Is not lour inches too much covering? 



Mr.Smith: I want about four inches of mulching- around there 

 next spring. It takes about four tons to cover an acre. 



Mr. A.J. Coe: You say it took two men four hours to cover 

 that bed of strawberries, and at the same rate it would cost 

 about §6.00 per acre. That was eight hours work for one man, 

 and four hours for the team. They would have to work very 

 cheap, a great deal cheaper than we could get the work done 

 in Wisconsin. 



Mr. Smith: I give it to you simply for wliat it is worth. 1 think 

 about that just as I did when I first began talking about covering 

 raspberries. I think it would pay any one to lightly mulch the 

 plants in October, and then later put on an extra mulch for the win- 

 ter. That was 1113' experience. I think I have learned that lesson. 

 I have practiced it this year, and I am going to practice it next 

 year. I have no strawl)erries injured by frost. I think it was about 

 four years ago, in our horticultural meeting, some of the memljers 

 had solved the question of strawberry growing at a very large profit 

 by growing them in reclaimed sloughs. They plowed it up, ditched 

 it, but what would make a nice celery bed would not make a good 

 strawberry bed. I have tried it, and I have not had any strawberries 

 on reclaimed sloughs. I have not found a way of preventing the 

 frost from killing them. If j'ou can get your berry patch on aside 

 hill, do it every time, fhat is where we get the least frost. Not 



