1U STATE POMOLOGIOAL SOCIETY. 



advantage in at least the one respect of keeping pickers to cultivate raspberries 

 also. It is well known that the last pickings are not so good as those that come 

 earlier, and the pickers, who are usually paid by the quart, cannot make so 

 much, and consequently many of them are disposed to stay at home toward the 

 last and leave the finishing up either to be done by a few faithful ones or not 

 done at all. It will not entirely remedy the matter to say you will not pay them 

 unless they remain through the season, though some such rule strictly carried 

 out will help. But they will be very likely to say they were sick or were needed 

 at home, or they may have some other excuse which, rather than investigate, 

 you will accept and pay them more than you really think they earned. If you 

 do not, the matter may be misunderstood by their parents, and hard feelings 

 may arise toward you, when you were not at all to blame. But if it is well 

 understood that those and those only Avho work through the entire strawberry 

 season will have the first chance at picking a good lot of raspberries, it will be 

 quite an inducement for the best pickers and those who arc most anxious to 

 make money to remain. "What is often said of help in other business is about 

 as true of berry pickers, that those who desire most to make money to save or 

 bo use for some good purpose, are generally the best hands to work. 



In setting raspberries and blackberries I would not choose quite so moist a soil 

 as for strawberries, for while perhaps they are quite as liable to suffer from dry 

 weather, yet on a damp soil they are inclined to make too large and too late a 

 growth which will not properly mature, and if the following winter is severe 

 these unripe canes will be killed by freezing. To prevent this, and at the same 

 time guard against the effects of drought, I would select if possible a dry piece 

 of ground moderately enriched and sloping gently toward the north so that the 

 sun"s rays would strike it more obliquely, and it would not become so hot and 

 dry as ground which was level or sloping to the south, with the sun shining 

 squarely upon it. Of course if one can lay down their raspberry and blackberry 

 canes and cover them every winter, there will be no danger of winter-killing; 

 but that is an extra expense which in this region, with the temperature of our 

 winters modified by Lake Michigan, we are inclined to consider unnecessary, 

 and berries have and can be successfully grown here without covering. Then, 

 too, mulch, where it can be easily and cheaply obtained is undoubtedly beneficial 

 in most cases to nearly every class of small fruit as well as to fruit trees. While 

 thus far I have only recommended such cheap methods of cultivation as might by 

 many be considered too careless orunsystematical, I would not be understood as 

 condemning all other methods, but on the contrary would advise those who can 

 to pursue more thorough and costly system provided they can do so without in- 

 curring an expense so great as to more than balance the extra results obtained, 

 for after all it is net profit quite as much as pleasure which most of us are after 

 in this business, and as was stated in the beginning, "circumstances alter 

 while one with a limited amount of ground, and perhaps several 

 children large enough to assist in cultivating and picking, might practice a 

 more thorough system and reap large profits therefrom ; another who depends 

 entirely on hired hand labor, and had plenty of land might do better with a 

 more rough-and-ready method where he could make horses and extra spac • 

 count something. 



But as I am in danger of exceeding my intended limits, I will bring this to a 

 close, leaving the currants and gooseberries as well as the cranberries and less 

 common classes of small fruits to be talked of by others who shall take part in 



