70 ANNUAL REPOllT. 



Mr. Harris. I have seen a good many of the Wilson spoiled 

 by covering them with marsh hay; I had rather do without any 

 mulching than to cover them too much. 



Mr. Gideon. I have mulched with straw and marsh hay and 

 with leaves, and I have grown them without any mulching what- 

 ever. I have lost plants when mulched with straw, with hay, 

 and with leaves, but I never lost any plants yet when they were 

 not mulched. The best crops I ever grew I grew without any 

 mulching. 



Col. Stevens. You are in a peculiar situation; you are in the 

 Big Woods and not on the jirairie. 



Mr. Gideon. No; it is not on the prairie. 



Mr. Elliot. I think there is a difference there; difference of 

 location should be considered. I think if Mr. Gideon lived 

 on the prairie he wouldn't do that way. I think there is one point 

 that we should recognize always in covering strawberries, not to 

 cover early, but cover them when the ground is frozen so that it 

 will bear a wagon, and then not enough so as to put them all out 

 of sight; cover five or six inches, but not enough to cover the 

 foliage out of sight. I think you wont have any plants that will 

 be smothered, and your plants will come out all right. 



Mr. Chandler. In the spring of the year should the straw be 

 raked into the rows or taken off entirely ? 



Mr. Smith. I would say in answer to that question that I 

 would follow Mr. Brimhall's plan. I would plow between the 

 rows and I would rake the straw back and leave it there. I men- 

 tioned this same thing last winter and some differed with me; I 

 have since investigated somewhat, and from what I saw last sum- 

 mer, and from what I have learned by inquiries, I would say 

 that whateA'^er cultivation is given the strawberry it should be 

 done between the time of gathering the fruit and the time that 

 it froze up in the fall of the year; that the ground should not be 

 disturbed in the ensuing spring at all. If you grow in rows 

 mulch your berries, as Mr. Elliot says, just enough barely to 

 cover the plant slightly; let the covering be raked off in the 

 space between the rows, and in this way you will get better re- 

 sults than you can in any other way. This is my conclusion from 

 what I have observed this past season. 



Mr. Chandler. I think in our soil if you mulch it will have a 

 tendency to retard the growth. I think that the straw should be 

 raked off so that the sun can warm up the ground. It can be put 

 back again just before the berries are ripe. 



