124 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



Q. How high did you leave your berries when you cut them 

 back? 



A. Keep them back to two and a half or three feet high. And 

 ir they make excessive growth ciit them back a little bit in the spring. 

 I suppose we should mention in reference to the blackberry the fol- 

 lowing: I tested it quite thoroughly with the= blackberries. I left a 

 row of canes right along through one of my rows where it was culti- 

 vated and hoed, and everything done just exactly as the rest of it. 

 The others were cut off to two and a half feet high and this row I left 

 all by itself to run up to big canes. In the spring it looked as though 

 I was going to have a wonderful crop of berries here, because it 

 was just one solid mass of blossoms. There was so many berries there 

 that they never ripened, because it was impossible to get moisture 

 enough for them. 



I have had good success with root cuttings by getting the ground 

 in fine tilth, then use a couple of 2x4x8 feet apart to mark off the 

 rows, dropping the root cuttings eight inches apart, and covering 

 three inches deep. Keep the row well cultivated and in two years 

 you should have a fine blackberry patch. 



Now the gooseberries and currants are very easily propagated. 

 Every farmer could very easily have them. You can take and cut off 

 last years growth, and stick the cuttings in the ground in the spring, 

 and if you take good care of them they will grow. It would be well 

 to cut them off in the fall and bury the cuttings. Then plant them 

 out in the spring, they will be sure to grow, if you get them well 

 calloused before you put them out. Plant them in rows six to eight 

 feet apart, and four feet in the row. Then in planting them, it is best 

 to plant them a little deeper than they grew in the row. Plant them 

 about three to five inches deep owing to what they were in the nurs- 

 "Tery row. What you want in a gooseberry is to get it in a cool place 

 if possible. 



Gooseberries belong to a cool climate and like a cool spot in 

 which to grow. August breezes are more disastrous to the gooseberry 

 than January blizzards. The north slope of the hill, the north side 

 of a grove, or the best place is on the north side of a worm fence, if 

 you can find a worm fence in Nebraska; or on the north side of a 

 house or barn. The heat is what makes the trouble with the goose- 

 berries and currants. The western part of the state, up on the Platte 

 river, the currants and gooseberries do much better than they do 

 here in this part of the state. That is the trouble, we have too much 

 l.eat here for the gooseberries, and j'ou must get as cool a place for 

 them as possible. Any of the Nebraska ground is rich enough to 

 grow gooseberries. A great many people hate to pick gooseberries, 

 but if you get at them ripe, the way to pick gooseberries. You know 

 a gooseberry bush bears its fruit on a three-year-old cane. If you 

 will get them started right, when your three-year-old cane is full of 

 gooseberries, and ready to pick, just go out an cut it off. Take it 



