GROWING STRAWBERRIES WITHOUT IRRIGATION. 107 



When the plants throw out runners a foot or fifteen inches lonjr, 

 they are all placed by liand properly in the rows with a little soil on 

 each runner where it is to root. In this way the plants are all rooted 

 and make a vig-orous growth regardless of drouth, the best of plants 

 for fruiting another year. 



We go twice over the plants to arrange thetn for rooting. After 

 that, if fruit is the prime object, all late runners and plants should 

 be destroyed; they are worse than weeds, parasites to the mother 

 plants. Mulching should be done the last of October with marsh 

 hay, litter from the stable or wheat straw. To keep the mulch froin 

 blowing off, we place a telegraph wire on top of the mulch, each end 

 attached to a stake at the ends of each row, with weights on the 

 wires at intervals of forty or fifty feet. The same wires we use to 

 hold up our raspberry canes when fruiting. If we did not have 

 them, we would use something else to hold the mulch. It is an ex- 

 cellent plan to remove the mulch in the spring and cultivate between 

 the rows and then return sufficient mulch to protect the fruit from 

 the ground. 



In writing this paper I have gone more into detail than usual. To 

 put all those details in practice takes time and labor, but no more 

 than it does in the usual way. The plants are straight in the rows, 

 and the cultivator does the work of ten men. Our experiments in 

 growing plants for fruiting, as we have stated, have never failed to 

 grow a paj'ing crop of good fruit the dryest seasons we have had. 

 We practice what we write and expect a good crop of fine fruit 

 another year without the application of water, regardless of drouth. 



Mr. G. J. Kellogg, (Wisconsin): I would like to ask Mr. 

 PearcG what variety escaped the rust and blight with him the 

 most successfully. 



Mr. Pearce: I am not troubled a great deal with that. In 

 the first place, I try to keep the blight away, I do not think I 

 had any blight last year. I always grow my own plants. If 

 you destroy all the spores that produce the blight on your 

 plants, with proper care it is just as easy to grow strawberries 

 without blight as with it. Blight is a fungus that is propagated 

 by spores or seeds the same as weeds. I do all my work be- 

 fore the plants are set out. Now there are some varieties that 

 are more liable to blight and rust than others. You find the 

 Crescent free, the Warfiold quite free, the Greenfield quite free. 

 Then there are other varieties that are quite apt to blight. 

 The Wilson blights on my soil, so does the Capt. Jack, and the 

 Downing blights very badly. The blight has been the least of 

 my troubles and will be the least of anybody's trouble if the 

 proper precaution is taken in growing the plants. I would not 

 take plants from an old bed unless I wanted to get a start, and 

 then I would spray the new plants right along with Paris 

 green. I grow pure plants free from disease, and you can do 



