HORSE-LEG IRRIGATION. 
PropagatinB bed photographed AuRust yl Observe that throughout this seventy acres of propa- 
gating bed that mothe? plants 'show their breeding l>y first bu khng up hirge erovvns before tluow.ng o t 
funners. Notice the plant at the man's feet over five feet m crcumfcrcnee and just startmg runnels 
proving the cori-cctness of scientific breeding. 
mid then immediately remove or burn over and 
■continue the cultivating. 
Only in the most favorable locations can 
pumping of water be economically used, be- 
sides the macliinery is very expensive and it is 
not necessary in successful berry growing. 
Have it; if you can, but understand it is not 
an absolute necessity, except in localities where 
irrigation must be practiced. 
SPRAYING STRAWBERRIES. 
.•\bout the only tiling to spray for is rust or 
"blight and sometimes the strawberry slug 
(larvae of the strawberry saw fly) finds a lodg- 
ment in your beds and occasionally leaf rollers 
get in and then you need to administer arsenics 
for insects only and copper sulphate (blue vit- 
riol) for fungi. The latter should always be pre- 
pared under the formula for Bordeaux mix- 
ture. 
.\11 rusts and blights are forms of vegetable 
fungi and propagate by spores or one cell 
seeds. Fungus plants have no digestive appa- 
ratus of their own, but the spores (seeds) find 
a lodgment on the leaves of other phuits and 
germinate, sending their misceliums or roots 
down into the tissues of the leaves and 
■appropriating the elaborated sap and tear- 
ing the leaf to pieces so they cannot 
further digest the plant's food and thus 
growth is seriously checked. The spores 
are often carried from one plant to 
another by sticking to insects or by the wind. 
In dark, cloudy days, and especially in rainy 
anurky weather, the spores develop very fast 
and soon make other spores and do serious 
mischief. 
I'^ingi is much like small pox. There is no 
danger of its spreading, if there are no live 
germs. What the fumes of carbolic acid and 
fiirmaldehyde acid are to germ life, copper 
sulphate is to fungi. Sometimes customers 
com plain that strawberry plants from our 
grounds rusted, but investigation showed that 
they were set on old ground or near others 
covered with spores. Since the vegetable par- 
asite are almost indigenious to strawberries 
and some varieties are especially sensitive to 
their attacks, and more so on some soils than 
others, it may not be possible to entirely erad- 
icate them, but they leave this farm just as 
free from spores as scientific spraying can 
make them. 
Our visitors often ask us what we are spray- 
ing for now. We have to tell them we don't 
know as we ourselves do not see anything, 
but we explain that we are propagating plants 
along scientific lines and since spraying is only 
;i preventive and not a cure that we feel bound 
to keep a coat of arsenic and Bordeaux mix- 
ture constantly on the leaves so the first 
spore of fungi that strikes a leaf or an in- 
sect dies at its first appearance. 
Some plant growers advertise plants "Per- 
fectly healthy" and free from disease germs 
when, as a matter of fact, they never spray at 
all and the leaves in the fall are covered with 
spores wdiich go with the plant to develop on 
the grounds of the purchaser as soon as the 
33 
