La. Crossb Meeting. 21 



outer edges of the field. He had another patch 'of about two 

 acres on low ground, which was injured but little. Knew of no 

 reason for the difference, except it was that this field was more 

 completely covered with snow. What injury was done was in 

 little patches, here and there, as is often seen in fields of wheat, 

 injured by winter killing, when covered with deep snow. The 

 yield on these two acres was very remarkable. He had to go to 

 market as often, and thought he realized about as much from the 

 two acres as he usually did from the whole eight 



Mr. Wilcox said the crop with him had been very good ; he had 

 not given the beds much care, not as much as he ought to ; his 

 beds were mulched ; he thought they should be mulched every 

 winter, and that it should be put on early, much earlier tnan it is 

 customarily done. The theory of mulching is said to be to keep 

 the plants from freezing and thawing, but he believed that they 

 were often injured by long exposure to steady cold in the fore 

 part of the winter. Did not think that a heavy covering of snow 

 smothered the plants. The best berries he had this season were 

 where the snow was deepest over them. 



Mr. Kramer, of Minnesota, was of the opinion that the injury 

 •was mainly done by early frosts in the fall, before the buds and 

 wooJy fiber of the plants were matured. Ilis own beds had not 

 been hurt by the winter. They were on a side hill where grapes 

 had s'ood. The soil was rich at the bottom and well underdrained, 

 but the surface was poor and clayey. The plants had matured 

 early in the fall, before the frosts came, and were unaffected by 

 the winter. 



Mr. Plumb stated that there had been very little injury to 

 plants by the winter with him, or in the southern part of the 

 state, even where the beds were not covered, but they had suffered 

 severely by the drought and heat of the spring. The condition 

 of the ground during the fall and winter had been unfavorable on 

 account of the extreme dryness of the soil, and the plants were 

 weakened by it, but they survived the winter, and, favored by the 

 gradual melting of the snow and the thawing out of the ground 

 under the snow, would have recovered their vitality had the usual 

 spring rains come. As it was they grew finely and blossomed 



