THE BLACKBERRY FIELD AS A BUSINESS VENTURE. I I I 



I would say as a business venture that it is a good investment. 

 Not much capital is needed if you have the right kind of soil and 

 location ; and you can easily ship them 500 miles if you dqn't find 

 a nearer market. 



Plant on high ground, rows running north and south, twelve 

 feet apart, and plants two and one-half feet apart. You can plant 

 corn and potatoes between rows the first year, and beans the second 

 year. If you have given good cultivation both years, they will not 

 need any more cultivation for at least live years, as too much culti- 

 vation cuts the roots and throws up too many suckers instead. Seed 

 the ground to clover and cut the same when in bloom and use for 

 mulching plants. You will find twelve feet none too far apart for 

 the rows if you have them on good clay loam. If they look too far 

 apart, give them a good coat of stable manure, and you will find 

 them close enough the following year. 



I have four kinds of blackberries but raise only one kind for 

 market, known as the Snyder. I consider it the best, for two 

 reasons. It is both early and hardy, and you can get most of the 

 crop sold before other varieties, also apples, are ripe. They also 

 bring a better price than the later kinds. 



Two hundred 16-quart crates is a good yield per acre. I pay 

 i J /i cents per quart for picking, besides about % cent per quart for 

 other expenses. You will not need as many boxes and crates by 

 selling in home market, as crates can be used several years and 

 boxes refilled three and four times during a season, if they are re- 

 turned. For the last ten years blackberries have brought an average 

 of ten cents per quart. 



An Enemy to The San Jose Scale. — The secretary does not vouch for this, 

 which was clipped from an "exchange": 



"There is in China a lady bird beetle, which is death to the San Jose scale, 

 and grows fat on it. This insect is to be brought to the Uuited States and 

 propagated by the department for use in the several states where the scale is a 

 nuisance. It has been discovered that the ancestral home of the scale is on 

 the sunny slopes south of the great Chinese wall. It is here, also, that the lady 

 bird beetle is found. So voracious is this beetle that in China the scale does 

 little or no damage to fruit trees." 



