EVERBEARING STRAWBERRY FIELD. 67 



tage. In other words, it is an advantage to have water to give 

 your plants when they need it if the Lord don't furnish it. 



Mr. Brackett: He ought to have added, if you can afford to. 



Mr. Hawkins : I want to say I visited Mr. Brackett's straw- 

 berry patch. He called me up over the telephone and he said the 

 Americus was doing better than the Progressive, and I wanted to 

 see that with my own eyes before I would believe it. I went there 

 and when I came there, it was some time in September, and the 

 patch was literally red with berries. I looked up to see why his 

 patch was doing so well, and there was six inches of manure be- 

 tween the rows, and, more than this, you could make a mud ball 

 in September. So I think he has plenty of irrigation. 



Mr. Gust Johnson : I would like to ask how long the ever- 

 bearing strawberry will bear without water on your land. Have 

 you ever tried that? 



Mr. Brackett : It bears until it freezes up in the fall before 

 it quits. 



Mr. Kellogg: If the strawberry bed went into winter dry, 

 would you water it in the winter or would you depend on mulch ? 



Mr. Brackett : I have protected mine by mulch. It would be 

 too big a job to water it unless you have the water so you can 

 control it perfectly. 



Fruit Improvement Through Bur Selection. — The work of keeping 

 performance records of select trees of the Washington Navel and Valencia 

 oranges, Eureka, Lisbon and Villa Franca lemons, Marsh grapefruit and 

 Dancy tangerine has been continued during the year. Deciduous-fruit 

 performance records on select trees of Carman, Elberta, Hale and Belle 

 peaches and Baldwin, Ben Davis and Northern Spy apples have also been 

 kept. In addition to these records, a tree census has been obtained, showing 

 the conditions of established commercial orchards in regard to the uni- 

 formity of type of trees and fruits borne by such trees. More than 200,000 

 select fruit-bearing buds from citrus trees with known performance records 

 have been placed in the hands of cooperators who are to permit the depart- 

 ment to secure progeny records from the trees so propagated. These buds 

 are not only for the propagation of nursery stock, but in many cases for the 

 top-working of unprofitable trees in established plantations. Recently, in 

 co-operation with the California Fruit Growers' Exchange, a systematic 

 campaign has been undertaken to eliminate all of the inferior strains of 

 grapefruit in California by top-working trees of such strains with select 

 buds from trees of the Marsh variety with known performance records, 

 thus reducing the grapefruit production of the State practically to the basis 

 of a single variety. Each year sees an increase in the number of citrus 

 growers in California who adopt the commercial tree performance record 

 system for locating trees of unprofitable character, either because they bear 

 little fruit or because they bear fruit of a strain not well suited to com- 

 mercial use. A second commercial nursery has been established during the 

 year in California for the purpose of propagating trees from wood borne 

 by record individuals. — U. S. Dept. Agri. 



