140 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
from the time the water was applied, 128 quarts of berries. The 
bed might have measured a little short of eight rods, or less than 
a twentieth of an acre, but they picked nearly four bushels of 
berries. 
Pres. Underwood: Are there likely to be any ill effects from 
putting cold water on the plants? 
Mr. Kimball: Seemingly not there. 
Pres. Underwood: Do you think it would be perfectly safe 
to irrigate our home gardens with city water? 
Mr. Kimball: I think it would. It revived the strawberries 
immediately. Of course, I can appreciate there were many 
berries that were not filled out, but it seemed to revive the 
whole crop immediately. It takes very little water at the 
proper time, and the difference between a small fraction of an - 
inch of water and no water at all is the difference between suc- 
cess and failure in raising a crop of strawberries or any other 
crop. That I can realize from my own experience. 
Mr. Brackett: What kind of a well have you, Mr. Kimball? 
Mr. Kimball: I have one of those tubular wells, six or 
eight inches in diameter, sixty feet deep. The flow is not 
larger than the majority of wells, but continued pumping will 
not exhaust it; and I think from what my observation has been 
as to how little water it takes, I could raise enough from my 
well to save acrop of twoor three acres. I laid my pipe through 
my garden, and every hundred or hundred and fifty feet I put 
in a plug so I could shut off the water at that point; and if I 
wish to carry a branch line, say, fifty feet or so, I can attach my 
hose to a plug and carry my water to any part of the garden at 
a very small item of expense. 
Mr. Mackintosh: At what time did you do the watering? 
Mr. Kimball: In the evening; my children did it in the eve- 
ning and morning. I think it was applied twice, and it took 
probably a couple hours of work. 
Mr. Mackintosh: Was the bed mulched or cultivated? 
Mr. Kimball: The summer before I had mulched it with corn- 
stalks which I got from a neighbor who had no use for them. 
I put on cornstalks from the fact that I am not much used to 
taking care of strawberries, and I was afraid straw would blow 
off; sol put oncornstalks. I thought they would lie right 
where they were put. Of course, they were not allowed to re- 
main, and in the spring I removed them, and the bed was left 
without mulch. 
Mr. Brackett: In what shape was the water put on? 
Ae 
