STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 71 



Ml*. Brimhall. That is the way I do. I take the mulching off 

 and put it back again. 



Mr. Smith. What kind of soil is yours? 



Mr. Chandler. Sandy loam. 



Mr. Smith. And what is yours, Mr. Brimhall ? 



Mr. Brimhall. Clay. 



Mr. Smith. That will illustrate the difference. With a sandy 

 soil leave on the mulch. 



Mr. Gilpatrick. On wet soil I would prefer corn stalks, and 

 would make them very thick so as to let in the snow. 



Mr. Pearce. In regard to mulching strawberries, I think ^t 

 depends very much on the variety that you are going to mulch. 

 If you have the Wilson or a tender variety you will always have 

 to mulch. 



Mr. Smith. Don't it depend about as much on how they are 

 cultivated before mulching, whether in rows or on hills; whether 

 suffered to run broadcast among the weeds, all over the ground, 

 or kept clean with the runners clipped. 



Mr. Pearce. I think there are very many strawberries in the 

 country that don't need any mulching because they are already 

 mulched. I have seen acres of them. 



Mr. Harris. Mr. President, those strawberries need some- 

 thing. With us last winter strawberries winter-killed. I wouldn' t 

 give a cent to have my strawberries covered. But the time we 

 need the mulching is in the spring because the drought cuts the 

 crop short, and it always makes the berries smaller; and some- 

 times they become dried up and are utterly ruined in one or two 

 days. 



Mr. Pearce. What I meant to say was there are a great many 

 beds where they are covered up with weeds. 



Mr. Harris. Did you ever get any berries from that kind of 

 a patch ? 



Mr. Pearce. No, never. 



Mr. Kenning. I would ask where strawberries are raised on 

 the bleak prairie and mulched, whether the snow would not have 

 a tendency to bank up five or six feet deep and smother them ? 

 Whether that will have a tendency to kill out the plants or not ? 



Mr. Smith. I don't think they would be successful there un- 

 less they ridge the ground somewhat and plant on the ridge. I 

 would mulch lightly if the ground is frozen. To leave the ground 

 level, as on sandy land here, when you put mulching on you find 

 them in the same condition in the spring, all frozen into a bed of 



