Part 22 (1/2)

Mr. Rasmussen: I didn't mean in putting it on in that way, but where you use the regular spray system. We watered that way about seven years in the hottest suns.h.i.+ne without any difficulty, and I wondered if you ever put in a system and sprayed that way, as I think that is the only way to put water on.

Mr. Kellogg: If you wait to spray after sundown it will be all right; the sun mustn't s.h.i.+ne on the plants.

Mr. Richardson: Mr. Yankee once said in this society if one man said anything another man would contradict it. So pay your money and take your choice. I sprinkle my strawberries in the hot sun, and I never had any damage done to the plants. His experience is different. Ours is a heavy clay loam.

Mr. Kellogg: Tell the gentlemen about the peat soil, you had some experience with peat soil.

Mr. Richardson: No, I never did. It wasn't peat, it was a heavy black clay and I had the best kind of strawberries, they came right through a tremendous drouth without any water at all.

Mr. Kellogg: What did you use?

Mr. Richardson: I used a common garden hoe.

Mr. Willis: I heard some one talking about the grub worm. I read of somebody using fifty pounds of lime to the acre, slaked lime, and 100 pounds of sulphur to the acre in a strawberry bed, and he killed the insects.

Mr. Kellogg: I think that wouldn't kill the grub; he has a stomach that will stand most anything. The only thing I know is to cut his head off.

(Laughter.)

Mr. Willis: Would it improve the plants, fertilize the plants, this lime?

Mr. Kellogg: Lime and sulphur is all right, and the more lime you put on the better--if you don't get too much. (Laughter.)

Mr. Sauter: I am growing the Minnesota No. 3, and also the No. 1017 as an everbearer. Is there any kind better than those two?

Mr. Kellogg: I don't believe there is anything yet that has been offered or brought out that I have examined thoroughly that is any better than June variety No. 3, as grown by Haralson, and the No. 1017 of the everbearers. He had a number of everbearers that bore too much. There was No. 107 and No. 108, I think, that I tried at Lake Mills, which bore themselves to death in spite of everything I could do.

Mr. Simmons: The question has come up two or three times in regard to peat soil for growing strawberries. Peat soil will grow strawberry plants first cla.s.s, but the fruit is generally lacking. That is my experience. I grew some on peat soil for two or three seasons, and the plants grew prolific, but I didn't get any fruit.

Mr. Ebler: I would like to ask Mr. Kellogg what treatment he would advise for a strawberry bed that through neglect has matted completely over, in which the rows have disappeared.

Mr. Kellogg: Plow out paths and rake out the plants and throw them away and work the bed over to rows about two feet wide.

President Cashman: I see you all appreciate expert advice. We have Mr.

Kellogg well nigh tired.

Mr. Kellogg: Oh, no; I can stand it all day.

Mr. Cashman: I am sure you all agree that it is a great privilege to listen to Mr. Kellogg on this subject. If you will follow his advice very closely it will save you a great many dollars, even to those who don't grow more than an ordinary family strawberry bed. He has had forty or fifty years of experience, and he has paid large sums of money for that experience and now turns it over to you free of charge, and I hope you will all profit by it.

Mr. Kellogg: I have grown probably 300 different varieties of strawberries, and the more kinds I grow the less money I make.

(Laughter.)

Mr. Wedge: I would like to ask Mr. Kellogg and I think we would all be interested in knowing when he began growing strawberries?