112 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



ROTATION ON THE SMALL FRUIT FARM. 



C. W. MERRITT, HOMER. 



I think the secretary sized my abihty as a writer in giving me 

 this subject, as I cannot see there is much to write about. 



As for myself I rotate my plantings but little. Small fruits, ex- 

 cept strawberries, where well set and cared for, are a fixture for sev- 

 eral years. Ground should be well prepared, manured and culti- 

 vated before the first setting. With that purpose in view, in setting 

 red raspberries or blackberries I run a furrow, deep and straight, 

 through the patch. I have a hand drop the plants in the furrow 

 about three feet apart in the row and I set them as fast as dropped, 

 packing the earth around the roots with my fist, giving each plant a 

 little water first. When the row is finished in this way I fill in with 

 a shovel — or a good tool for this purpose is the old fashioned potato 

 hook. I seldom lose any plants. I like best a single row. What I 

 mean by a single row is that they be not allowed to spread, and then 

 they can be cultivated as well as a row of corn. The rows should be 

 six feet apart. When set in with a row of trees in the orchard you 

 cannot cultivate as close, and the rows will naturally spread until 

 stopped by the cultivator. 



The exact time to dig out and reset the blackberry or raspberry 

 patch must be determined by its fruitf ulness. I leave them until they 

 show signs of weakness, by age, or other cause, and then dig them 

 out and cultivate the ground for one or two years in corn or potatoes 

 or both, either of which leaves the ground free from weeds and in 

 good shape for resetting. I like alternate rows of blackberries by 

 themselves, a row of red raspberries either side of blackberries, and 

 the latter don't have so good a chance to "catch on" when cultivating. 



Mr. O. M. Lord : I do not know that there is any general sys- 

 tem of rotation established. I have met with very good success in 

 following strawberries with potatoes and corn and planting rasp- 

 berries in the orchard. I have one patch, or one orchard, that has 

 contained raspberries for eight or nine years with good success ; I 

 have reference to red raspberries. I have also had blackberries in the 

 orchard, a couple of rows, with good success for fifteen years. It is 

 true it requires considerable labor, but the work you put on them is 

 very beneficial, not only to your crop of berries but to the orchard as 

 well, and I am strongly inclined to believe that the raspberries plant- 

 ed in my orchard have effectually prevented what we call sun scald 

 in my orchard, as I have not for twenty years had a case of sun scald 

 on my place. Where the berries are planted for such a series of 

 years it can hardly be called rotation, but where the blackberries and 

 raspberries are taken out of the orchard, of course, it would apply. 

 I find it very little trouble to take them out and destroy them. I 

 have sometimes seeded to clover, but sometimes without much sue- 



