Mr. Durand: What is the best spray for leaf-spot and rust in strawberries?
Mr. Kellogg: Cut it out and burn it, but then there are some sprays with bordeaux mixture that will help you, but you have got to put it on before the rust shows itself.
Mr. Miller: I would like to ask Mr. Kellogg if he advises covering the strawberries in the winter after snow has fallen and with what success?
Mr. Kellogg: If the snow isn't too heavy you can do it just as well after the snow comes as before, but if your snow comes early and is a foot deep you have got to wait until the January thaw before you can successfully mulch them. That snow will protect them until it thaws off, until the ground commences to freeze. If the snow comes early and stays late it is all the mulch you need.
Mr. Franklin: Are oak leaves as they blow off from the trees on the strawberry beds, are they just as good to protect them as straw would be—when there are lots of oak leaves?
Mr. Kellogg: If you don't put them on too thick. You don't want more than two inches of leaves. If you do they will mat down and smother your plants.
Mr. Ludlow: Have you had any experience with using cornstalks that have been fed off, just the stalk without the leaves. Is that sufficient for a winter protection without the straw or leaves? I put on mine just to cover them. They are four inches apart one way and then across it the other way so as to hold it up and not get them smothered.
Mr. Kellogg: That is all right. I have covered with cornstalks.
Mr. Ludlow: Would it be policy to leave that on and let the strawberries come up through, to keep them clean?
Mr. Kellogg: If you get the stalks on one way and haven't them covered too thick the other way, leave them on; the strawberries will come through.