BREEDING HAEDY STRAWBERRIES AND RASPBERRIES. 255 



late varieties, but for the farmer we need one where he can plant 

 without considering the needs of pollination. That is the ideal for 

 the farmer's berry, and I think we have such a plant in the South 

 Dakota No. i. We need also a variety reasonably free from rust. 

 Among the thousands of seedlings I found some that did not get 

 the rust, or at least not enough to injure them. Perhaps rust will 

 not come on a berry if it is perfectly hardy. A weakened animal 

 is more liable to be attacked by disease than a healthy one. If our 

 plants were perfectly hardy, we would have less trouble with rust. 



I don't believe in "the squirt gun." Of course spraying is es- 

 sential and must be done, but we should have varieties which will 

 not need continual spraying. \\'e have been too slow in raising seed- 

 lings of all sorts. We have been content with what nature has given 

 us by accident. This is like depending on a lottery. All these years 

 w^e should have been raising seedlings by the million instead of by 

 the dozen. I do not recommend any one to raise seedlings unless 

 they know pretty well what they are doing and are prepared for 

 disappointments. It is like the picture of the long bunch of hay 

 tied in front of the horse in harness. I do not want to give people 

 the idea that they are to expect financial returns from raising seed- 

 lings. We should do as President Wedge said, make it a labor of 

 love. 



After trying many of the standard raspberries, I discarded them 

 all, because they killed out if not covered. I do not like to see any- 

 thing injured, but I will not lay down a raspberry. If the plants 

 cannot stand the first winter and the succeeding winters without 

 being laid down they must be plowed under. The only way to get 

 anything of value out of the eastern sorts, and those from France, 

 England and Germany, is to cross them with the pure native stock. 

 In order to get a good strain of pure bred wild seedlings we must 

 take them for the first two, three, four or five generations under 

 cultivation, and from such select the best specimens, and keep on 

 with them the same as we do with seed corn until we get our plants 

 large enough in fruit. You cannot get them in any other way. 

 This is as sure as the fact that the sun rises and sets each day. Our 

 wild sorts need considerable modification to be acceptable. This 

 year I traveled over two thousand miles in Assinaboia and North 

 and South Dakota to get stock. I have some from Manitoba and 

 some from the Red River Valley, and I think they are hardier than 

 those of the Black Hills type. There is one raspberry I have I ex- 

 pect to name "Sunbeam." It is a hybrid of Shaffer's Colossal 

 with a wild raspberry from Cavalier county in North Dakota. It 

 is of s-ood color and flavor. It is the only survivor of several 



