PRUNING, ETC., OF THE BLACKBERRY, 287 
Mr. Wright: There has been a little trouble in that way, but 
I am always sure to look after that, and if we have a heavy rain I 
send a man over the patch to see that they are covered. I 
never lost any yet by covering in that way. 
Mr. Jewett: Would there be any special advantage in cover- 
ing with straw after the soil was put on? 
Mr. Wright: Perhaps it might be a help in a smaller plan- 
tation, but I have never found it necessary. 
Mr. Elliot: Have you ever lost any plants by root-killing? 
Mr. Wright: Not in blackberries, except in a wet season. 
Mr. Yahnke: Can the plants be raised in the spring if they 
are bent in the roots so they will stay? 
Mr. Wright: They stay up as high as I want them to stay. I 
do not want them to get high from the greund. I would rather 
they were not over two feet from the ground. 
Mr. Yahnke: If they are full of fruit do they not bend back 
on the ground? . 
Mr. Wright: I run a wire a little over a foot from the ground 
for the canes to rest on, and other parts I mulch and do not use 
any wire. I do not believe I shall put up any more wire for any- 
thing on the place. Where they are not wired I think they should 
be mulched unless you straighten your canes or press the soil 
against the side on which they were bent. 
Mr. Haggard: What is the object in having them lean? 
Mr. Wright: We always get the best fruit where they are 
close to the ground. You take a bush standing upright without 
any shade, and the fruit is always smaller. 
Mr. Haggard: Don’t you think you get too much shade? 
Mr. Wright: I find that the berries which are-exposed are 
always inferior. The sun quite often does considerable harm when 
they are upright, but when slanting the sun cannot hurt them. 
Mr. Jewett: Don’t you find that they pick easier? 
Mr. Wright: Oh, certainly, yes. I think it is much the best 
system to keep them as much on a slant as possible. 
Mr, Elliot: How much mulching do you put on? 
Mr. Wright: About four inches.. 
The President: After it settles? 
Mr. Wright: No; probably not; when it settles it is not over 
three inches. The instruction I give the men is to put it on from 
four to six inches deep; we use marsh hay and put it on thick, I 
prefer the slough grass, wire grass hay for mulching to anything I 
have ever used. It is better than anything I have ever tried. 
Mr. Yahnke: Do you mulch all the ground or just the hills? 
