234 



^ve are situated where we have to pay five to seven dollars 

 a cord for manure, and that is prohibitive, almost, and I 

 have a field that will be in bearing this year. We would 

 like to know what to do Avith it previous to its fruiting, as 

 to fertilizing. The land is in very gOod shape now. 



PROFESSOR LIPjMAN : Manure may not be as expen- 

 sive a fertilizer as the gentleman assumes, it will depend 

 partly on the original cost and partly on the expense of 

 hauling and spreading, etc.. but in so far as average ma- 

 nure goes, it contains ten pounds of nitrogen and about seven 

 or eight pounds of phosphoric acid and nine or ten pounds 

 cf potash, and under present prices. I regard city stable 

 manure as a cheap fertilizer at two dollars and fifty cents a 

 ton, and not beyond the reach — not a very expensive ferti- 

 lizer at two dollars and seventy-five cents or three dollars .a 

 ton, depending of course, on the cost of hauling and 

 handling; that has to be remembered. It is possible there 

 may be cornstalks, waste hay and other waste vegetable 

 material that could be used for composting with some 

 manure and a little lime to give the most satisfactory materi- 

 al for strawberries. If that is not available, then you would 

 have to depend on a commercial fertilizer. Potash being 

 (mt of the question, you would have to do whatever can be 

 done to make the potash in the soil itself available. We 

 jiave talked about the use of salt, and all that we have said 

 would apply to strawberries as to other crops, only you 

 would use rather more fertilizer for strawberries than you 

 would expect to apply in the average apple or peach orchard. 



MR. FRANKLIN: You would not advise lime for straw- 

 berries, would you? 



PROFESSOR LIPMAN: That will depend, of course, 

 on the previous history of the soil, but the strawberry 

 growers in our State who have been using groimd limestone 

 in moderate amounts, as much as three quarters of a ton or 

 one ton of ground limestone, find that it seems to give them 

 good results, but don 't seem to think that large applications 

 are necessary. 



