l48 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



called the Ancient Briton. The berries, as I say, were planted on 

 the lower side of the garden next to the pasture fence, upon a 

 black loam with a sandy subsoil, where there was plenty of moisture, 

 and since the first year they have never failed to produce a crop 

 except the season they were frozen, which was in the winter of 

 1903-4, when they were killed down to the ground. I never could 

 account' for that. I am sure the berries were covered as carefully 

 that winter as they were in previous -winters, but they seemed to 

 lack hardiness that winter ; at any rate they were killed down fo 

 the ground, and I was grievously disappointed. 



I think the problem of raising blackberries is solved if they are 

 covered properly, and I take a good deal of care about that. In 

 the first place, all the berry canes have usually a leaning inclina- 

 tion in the same direction, they are usually bent in a certain direc- 

 tion. I always try t'o put them down along that line of inclina- 

 tion, along the line of least resistance, for the great trouble in 

 covering blackberries for winter is the breaking of the vine, which 

 grows very rank, and exercise as much care as you may you will 

 find you will break some of tbem, but you can break a good many 

 and still have an abundance. left. I have always endeavored to put 

 the vines down before they are frozen, or at least in an unfrozen 

 condition, because there is a great deal less liability of breaking 

 them. I covered mv vines a week ago last Saturday ( Xov. 25), 

 and the thermometer was up to 40 or 50 degrees, the ground was 

 not frozen, and there was very little breakage in putting them down. 

 In the matter of covering I have sometimes used dirt, and some- 

 times I have taken a piece of sod out of the border and put the 

 tips down and put the sod on to hold them, and then covered the 

 vines with some coarse material, and the coarser the better, pref- 

 erably some litter from the barn or, perhaps, cornstalks, and then 

 put on something that would hold the covering together. Last 

 vear I ran out of what I thought was proper teiaterial for cover- 

 ing and put on some straw, and the mice got in and did some dam- 

 age, but even at that I had an abundant crop after trimming them 

 out. 



Of course, I was raised in a berry patch outside of the city and 

 now live on a part of the old farm where I was born, but it is a 

 marvel to me that so many people live in the suburbs of the city 

 who are employed in offices and stores during the daytime and have 

 plenty of ground out there and do not have those things. I don't 

 know what they are there for. I am a blackberry crank, and I 

 think if I had to let go of my garden and orchard I would hold on 

 to the blackberry patch for the last tbing, because I think there 

 is a greater return for the amount of labor put in and the amount 

 of ground occupied than can be obtained from any other variety 

 of fruit. 



