66 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. Brackett : How did your ditch work this fall when we 

 didn't have any rains? 



Mr. Underwood : We had rains. And another thing I wish 

 you would tell me, how would we have got any strawberry plants 

 to sell this next year if we hadn't irrigated our strawberries all 

 through that dry season? They just stopped growing and we 

 irrigated them and they went on growing, and we have got some 

 plants, and I am sure we wouldn't have had any if we hadn't 

 irrigated. 



Mr. Brackett: We have had as dry a year as we have 

 known, and on my everbearing strawberries I will guarantee I 

 have a hundred thousand runners I can take up. 



Mr. Latham : What kind of, a location does that strawberry 

 bed stand in? 



Mr. Brackett: It is in a very favorable location. As I told 

 you, it is on timber land, on land that had grown big hard maples 

 and basswood. There was a great deal of leaf mold there and I 

 fertilized it very heavily. It lays low with the hills above it, and 

 I think probably it is one of the very best. If it hadn't been I 

 wouldn't have bought it. 



Mr. Latham: Takes the water from the hillside? 



Mr. Brackett : It takes the water from the hillside. 



Mr. Latham : It is irrigated naturally. 



Mr. Brackett: That is the kind of soil you want to plant 

 your strawberry bed on, irrigated naturally and not artificially. 



Mr. Rasmussen : Mine is a low, clay soil, and I put on lots 

 of manure. The gentleman spoke about irrigating apple trees. 

 We happen to have a few Wealthy trees in the raspberry patch 

 that are absolutely the same as the ones outside of the raspberry 

 patch. We watered them, and the fruit was one-third larger and 

 hung on during the season while the others fell off. 



Mr. Smith (Oregon) : If you have ground that does not 

 contain natural moisture to produce vigorous plants and does 

 not hold moisture during the season, why it would certainly pay 

 to give them a drink when they are thirsty. The kind of land 

 has just as much to do with it as the method of cultivation. The 

 gentleman here from Wisconsin, Mr. Rasmussen, described his 

 method of growing strawberries. Just across from the famous 

 Hood River strawberry growing district, which probably grows a 

 larger amount of strawberries than any other section, just across 

 on the sandbar, the sandy land on the bank of the Columbia 

 river, a man for the last fifteen years has been practicing the 

 same method as that of Mr. Rasmussen in growing strawberries, 

 and seven years during that time he has won the highest price for 

 the first perfect crate of strawberries. I have to talk irrigation 

 frequently, but understand this : I always say when you can reach 

 moist dirt with your finger you don't need to irrigate. But when 

 your plants need irrigation give them a drink. Mr. Brackett 

 happens to have some place where the land does not need irriga- 

 tion, but where it does need it you will find it a decided advan- 



