96 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



first season the canes should be topped back to one foot of the ground, and they may 

 be kept at about that height for the season if you don't wish to grow plants, but if 

 you wish to grow plants it will not do to top later than the twentieth of June, as the 

 laterals must have time to grow and mature by about the first of September, the time 

 the plants commence taking root. The second season the canes should be topped back 

 to about two feet and a half feet just before the berries begin to ripen. If done too 

 soon, the laterals will grow out and be in the way of the pickers before the close of 

 the season; and if you don't wish to grow plants, you can increase the yield of 

 berries largely by cutting out the old wood and topping in again and giving the new 

 canes one or two plowings after the picking season is over. It will not be necessary to 

 stake them if you top them while growing. My experience has been principally with 

 the Miami or McCormick berry, and I know of none so well adapted to general culti- 

 vation. AVhile there is no variety more hardy and vigorous, I don't think they are 

 equalled by any in the large size and uniformity of the berry, the last berries of the 

 season being as large as the first, and I know of no varietj' that will yield larger crops. 

 I have grown sixty bushels to the acre on old land that would not have produced 

 thirty bushels of corn with the same amount of cultivation. I recommend them for 

 .general cultivation. Yours , truly, 



W. S. COMBS. 



Mr. Pierson — In the east part of the State there are certain appear- 

 ances that are very alarming. I am not satisfied whether they are the 

 results of insect life or of the wet season. In canes that were only 

 in the third year of their growth the fruit matured very imperfectly 

 — the Miami and also the Doolittle. The Purple Canes have been 

 better; but the Miami which before had been remarkably vigorous 

 and healthy, has this year been, to a large extent, a failure as to 

 the quantity of fruit and hardlj^ fit to eat, and the wood is very infe- 

 rior. In my Congressional district a correspondent gave me notice 

 of some insect that was at work. 



Dr. Schroeder — Did you make many layers of them ? 



Mr. Pierson — I made some, sir. 



Dr. Schroeder — I found that to be the case with mine, but I made a 

 great many layers. 



Dr. Hull — I would like to add a word as to this, especially as there 

 is a statement that there is no disease. We have a disease — the 

 orange rust — not only on the raspberry, but on the blackberry. 



Dr. Schroeder — What kind of ground were these raspberries grown 

 on ? 



Mr. Pierson — We have a kind of sandy ridge — not poor soil — it is 



