286 MISSOURI STATE HOUTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



tbej must be not less than three or four feet apart. It \YOuld do very 

 well to have them that close for hand culture, but that would be a slow 

 and expensive undertaking. I did the best I could, but the weeds 

 got the best of me and kept it. And as I had read a piece in the paper 

 to mow the weeds and burn them, after fruiting, so I gathered what 

 fruit they had, which was splendid considering the dry weather which 

 cut it short. Xow, thinks I, its my time; I'll mow the ground, then 

 haul on straw and burn all off" and when they coine on take up every 

 other row and plant them over. I got everything ready and watched 

 for a time when I thought it was going to rain, and one afternoon 

 there came up such a fine prospects for a good rain and I set fire and 

 away went my berries, for it did not rain to wet the ground one-half 

 inch ; then the hot, dry weather continued and ruined my plantation. 

 There were about three thousand came, the balance died. The burn- 

 ing process may do in an i rdinary year, but it was a failure this year, 

 at least, so it was to me. I plowed the ground all up and have begun 

 anew, and have just got through putting out one-half acre more; 

 would have set out two acres, but it has been too dry to risk so many 

 plants, so will have to postpone it until next spring. Experience is 

 sometimes a dear school, but fools profit by no other. 



Now to raspberries. I set the following out last spring: Thwack, 

 Turner and Cuthbert for red and Hopkins, Gregg and Mammoth Clus- 

 ter for black; I set them seven feet and three feet in the row. I 

 had ordered them early from the nursery, but got them so late that I 

 did not set them out as early as I should have liked. Then it being 

 so dry about one-half died, and I think they were before I put them 

 out ; at least I lost them, so now I adi ise any person setting out any 

 kind of fruit to get their plants in the fall, as there are times one can- 

 not get them as early in the spring as they would like. 



My blackberries that I wrote you about, Kittitiny, did splendid 

 this summer. If you had not advised me to let them remain, I should 

 have plowed them up this spring, as I had them out three years and 

 got no fruit from them; but the dry weather cut them short. For best 

 crops of blackberries keep new growth, well trimmed back while 

 growing. This causes them to branch out, and then the more branches 

 and tops the larger the crop. 



As to grapes, I put ont one hundred Concords last spring and they 

 hav^- done splendid. 



This has been a very bad season for all small fruit on account of 

 the dry hot weather in this locality. Fruit of all kinds were not what 



