DPAWBACKS TO BLACKBERRY CULTURE 465 
Mr. Elliot: How early do you cover? 
Mr. Underwood: In September. 
Mr. Elliot: Before the leaves are off. 
Mr. Underwood: Yes, we commence in September; we have 
so much to do that we could not complete it all if we left it until 
later. We always have the same men to do the work, and they are 
accustomed to it, so it is an easy matter to cover the berries in that 
way. 
Mr. Haggard: If you leave the earth against the plants until 
the leaves begin to start and then level the rows, does it not destroy 
the next year’s sprouts? 
Mr. Underwood: It does not hurt them a particle. 
Mr. Busse: Has any one had any experience in irrigating or 
watering blackberries during the fruit ripening season? 
Mr. Jewett: Our irrigating system extends over a very limited 
time and a small area of land, about one-eighth of an acre. Last 
year we did not get crop enough to pay for picking, but this year 
we had some means of irrigating, and at the proper time we put the 
water between the rows. We got a good crop; I cannot tell you 
how much we got, but it was very satisfactory. So we have made up 
our minds that irrigation is going to pay us much more than the 
plants we set this year, and another year if the weather is dry we 
shall be prepared to put the water on them. We _ have 
a windmill to conduct the water. We conduct the water 
four or five hundred feet through hose that is made of 
common duck. We split the duck in three pieces and 
then turn it wrong side out and sew it on the machine, run it 
through boiled linseed oil and roll it through a wringer, and then 
go through that process a second time. It has lasted three years, 
-and while it lasts it makes a good pipe. We pump the water be- 
tween our apple rows, and we use a trough two rods long with holes 
bored opposite the rows. We let the water run into the trough and 
out of the holes into the rows, and when we want to water another 
area we move the trough along and water something else. It is 
not much of a job, it takes two men to lift the pipe and carry it 
-along. 
Mr. Smith: How far do you lift the water? 
Mr. Jewett: Wind is cheap, and our pump will throw a barrel 
‘of water in five minutes. Next year we expect to have one of those 
motors, a gasoline motor. We propose to have plenty of water, 
and we are going to have a motor to pump more water. 
Mr. Wedge: How deep is your.well? 
Mr, Jewett: Our well is a lake three miles long. (Laughter.) 
