STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 413 



maybe planted after the plants are Airell established and cleaned, 

 allowing the stalks to grow up and afterwards to fall down to 

 serve as a covering for the plants. They catch the drifting snow 

 and serve as a bedding until they thaw out in the spring. In 

 growing oats among plants you have to watch the oats that they 

 do not get up more than eight or ten inches high. 



Mr. Smith. I don't think that plan a feasible one. "We de- 

 pend upon September and October for the plants to make a cer- 

 tain amount of needed growth, which would be prevented by 

 the proposed method of giving them protection. 



Mr. Pearce. I noticed a bed of strawberries last fall that was 

 treated in the manner described by Prof. Porter. The patch was 

 sown in oats which grew some filteen inches high and was then 

 killed by the frost. What the result will be another spring re- 

 mains to be seen. Another plan that might be tried would be to 

 use dwarf sweet corn in i^lace of the oats. 



Mr. Cutler. I have had the best results where the snow 

 drifted over the plants early in the winter, mixed with dirt from 

 the fields. In the spring it served as a mulching for the i^lants. 

 I prefer to have the snow cover them before the ground freezes. 

 I had Crescents that were ripe the first of June this past season- 

 It was the second crop. I got sixty dollars worth of berries fiom 

 a small patch. If farmers on the prairie Avould always plant 

 their strawberries on the south side of a grove of trees, they 

 would be covered with snow and could raise berries without 

 much trouble. 



]\Irs. Stager. "We have had trouble for two years with what 

 we supposed was caused by a small fly. The blossoms turned 

 black. 



Mr. Smith. The trouble was probably from frost or from a 

 chilling of the blossoms. The SharpU'SS chills very easily. If 

 you set Wilson's don't set anything with them, they are not as 

 strong growers as the most of all other varieties. If you set 

 Sharpless with them they will overrun and choke them to death. 



Secretary Hillman. Have you had any experience with the 

 leaf-roller'? 



Mr. Smith. Yes, sir; some years ago I discovered them on 

 my grounds. I went over the bed with Paris green. That was 

 years ago when I was trying to raise two crops fi-om a single 

 planting. I noticed the second year, as the plants were bloom- 

 ing, the leaf-rollers were at work again. I went over them a 

 second time, having been over the field before, and gave them a, 



