Tillage and Irrigation 75 



If a winter mulch is applied, the expense of spring 

 tillage is heavy. The mulch is removed from the first 

 row and placed on the adjacent land. The first row is 

 then cultivated, the mulch on the second row placed 

 upon it, and so on, from row to row, across the field. 

 The mulch of the first row is carried to the last row. Some 

 growers rake off all the mulch and cultivate the field 

 several times; it is replaced before the berries begin to 

 ripen. When the winter mulch is light and the plants 

 are grown in hills or hedge-rows, the straw may be drawn 

 close to the plants, leaving the middles free for tillage. 

 Where five inches or more of winter mulch is used, spring 

 tillage is rarely practiced; the expense is prohibitive. 

 The mulch is left undisturbed, and any large weeds that 

 push through it are pulled by hand when the ground is 

 wet. C. P. Close reports experiments in Maryland 

 during the seasons of 1908 to 1911, which showed an 

 average loss of 188 quarts an acre from spring tillage, 

 and only one year was it an advantage ; this was in 1911, 

 when the month of May was very dry. Where no winter 

 mulch is used, it is customary to give shallow cultivation 

 until the blossoms open. This practice prevails on the 

 north Pacific coast and, to some extent, on the lighter 

 soils of New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland. Spring 

 tillage is common throughout the South, where no winter 

 mulch is used. It retards the ripening period slightly ; if 

 this is a disadvantage, shave off the weeds with a sharp hoe. 



Tillage during the blossoming period is not desirable. 

 If the soil is dry, dust is thrown upon the blossoms, and 

 results in malformed berries. Since tillage checks the 

 radiation of heat as well as the evaporation of soil water, 

 fields tilled when the plants are blossoming are perhaps 

 somewhat more likely to be injured by frost. Some 



