110 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. T. E. Cashman : I want to say a word about irrigation. 

 A year ago we had a dry seasan at Owatonna that crippled our fruit 

 except where we irrigated. Our field happened to be near the water- 

 works fountain, and I kept two strings of hose running on this patch 

 for two or three weeks. I must say the result was wonderful. It 

 paid me well. If I were to go into the business extensively I would 

 not want my plant situated anywhere but where I could irrigate. 

 I found that those who did not have a chance to irrigate did not have 

 any crop, while I had a big crop. 



Mr. O. W. Moore : I had something a little new that occurred 

 to me in strawberry culture the past season. I set out a small bed 

 of two or three hundred plants. The weather came on very hot 

 and dry in May. The truth of the matter is I went away fishing, 

 and when I came home the larger part of my strawberry plants were 

 dead, and all I saved was about fifty plants. I went to work nurs- 

 ing them and saved them. I had heard about a theory or practice 

 of setting strawberry plants in the fall, and about the middle of 

 October I tried a little experiment. I took up plants in the row 

 and set them in the vacant places six inches apart clear through. 

 I filled up the rows all the way through, not knowing whether they 

 would grow or not, but it was wet, moist weather, raining two or 

 three days in the week ; and the result was I did not lose a single 

 plant, and at covering time they were all alive and had done well. 

 What the result will be next spring time will determine, but in a 

 favorable season the rows can be filled out, and the plants will live. 



THE BLACKBERRY FIELD AS A BUSINESS VENTURE. 



WM. SANDROCK, RUSHFORD. 



My experience with blackberries dates back to 1875. For the 

 first five or six years it consisted of setting out a good hardy variety 

 and grubbing out one that was hardy the year before, until I got 

 the Snyder. 



In 1880 I had my first blackberries for market, the whole crop 

 (2 rows, 16 rods long) amounting to about 40 16-quart crates. The 

 next year I had only thirty cases on four rows, sixteen rods long. 

 The winter of 1880-81 seemed to be hard on the canes. I then tried 

 laying them down for four successive years with good results. 



In 1886 I laid down only part of them in the fall, and found, to 

 my surprise, that those left standing yielded the best. So I have 

 not laid down or covered any blackberries since, and have had berries 

 every year. To my belief, blackberries do not winter-kill but sum- 

 mer-kill. I have always found ready sale for all the blackberries 

 I raised, on about one and one-quarter acres, in home market at 

 from six to fifteen cents per quart. 



