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W. T. Hayhurst, Armstrong: As to the best variety of strawberry to 

 cultivate, I give the following as my experience: Clyde is the earliest with 

 me; it is a heavy cropper, good for home use and local market, but a poor 

 shipper. Magoon comes next ; it is a fine berry, either for home use or local 

 market, or for shipping, a good cropper, the best all-round berry with me. 

 Clarke's Seedling is good for home use, local market, a splendid shipper; it is 

 not as rank a grower as Magoon and not quite so productive, but a very 

 attractive berry. Nick Ohnier is a perfect berry and productive, but the 

 plants seem to kill out very bad with me. About one-third died the first 

 winter. I have several other varieties growing here now. Some I have not 

 tested enough to -give any opinion on ; the ones I have mentioned are the best 

 I have tested so far. I have had very good success planting in October ; the 

 plants get rooted in the fall and make far better growth during the following 

 summer. They should not be allowed to bear fruit the first summer. I like 

 the hill system the best; the plants will bear two more good crops of fruit 

 than by the matted row system. Besides, I think there are quite a lot of 

 berries destroyed by the pickers when they are matted. I find that cultivating 

 them thoroughly in spring until they come in blossom is the best plan ; also as 

 soon as the crop is off until fall, with horse cultivator. I do not think straw- 

 berries should be grown here without mulching ; the weather is showery dur- 

 ing the fruiting season, and if they are not mulched the berries are spoilt by 

 sand. I think that wheat straw cut with a chaff cutter makes the best mulch : 

 as it does not interfere with cultivaion after the crop is harvested. Mulching 

 can be clone when they are coming into blossom. It is easily done with cut 

 straw. Fill a large basket and scatter along the plants ; the chaff will fall in 

 and around the plants throughly. I do not like the mowing off the plants and 

 burning them. It might be a good plan in some localities, but I think the 

 sun is too hot here for that. When the tops of the plants are mowed off the 

 sun is too hot for the exposed roots, and seems to kill a good many of them. 



Thos. A. Brydon, Victoria : The Magoon is the berry that I am growing 

 almost exclusively, and especially for shipping. It is a number one berry. I 

 recommend spring-time, as early as the ground can be got in good condition, 

 for planting. The hill system I recommend. Mulching should be done just 

 before the fruit begins to ripen, covering the whole ground and under leaves 

 of the plants with straw, but before the mulch is placed be sure the ground 

 is well cultivated and all weeds removed round the plants. Clean cultivation 

 is an absolute necessity to success. 



W. H. Lewis, Burnaby : I grow nothing but the Magoon now. I used 

 to try and grow berries to give a succession, but gave it up. Late frosts 

 killed the bloom on early varieties most of the time. Mitchel's Early was 

 the best I ever tried for early crop and Gandy for late, but Gandy is a poor 

 cropper. This market demands a large berry and Magoon fills the bill as 

 well as any; it is a good cropper and fairly good shipper. I advise planting 

 as early in the spring as it is possible to get the ground in good shape. 

 Never plant in the fall. Hill system, not over 10 or 12 inches apart by 

 about 32-inch rows. I used to plant a great deal farther apart, both ways, 

 but am convinced it is a waste of ground. Keep clean and cultivate with 

 Planet Jr. cultivator about once a week from early spring until blossoms 



