302 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
had to cut them off; they kept growing until late in the fall. My 
purpose in using this commercial fertilizer was to avoid foul seeds. 
Mr. Spickerman: Wasitthe fertilizer or the subsoiling which did 
the most good? : 
Mr. Jewett: I don’t know; it was fertilized and subsoiled, so I 
cannot say. 
Mr. Spickerman: I am inclined to think it was the subsoiling 
that did it, and not the fertilizer. I should think that was just what 
was needed in that heavy soil. 
The President: I think we get better results by not topping the 
blackcaps. Ithink in topping them off to induce the growth of 
laterals they do not get so strong and ripe as they should and do 
not winter so well, and do not produce fruitsowell. Thisis, perhaps, 
just my theory in regard toit. Iam notso close an observer as to 
be able to give you all the information you desire, but the result is 
the main thing we are after. 
Mr. Crane: Perhaps Mr. Underwood tops them off too late in the 
season? 
The President: I have not followed up the work enough personally 
to be able to give you the results as I ought, but I know that our 
man who has charge of the raspberry fields, in talking with him 
about it and consulting with him in regard to what we should do 
and what the results are from one year to another, was of the same 
opinion I was myself, that it did not pay, that it was better to leave 
them, and that the laterals did not get the strong growth and ma- 
turity that would be got ina single stalk. If you have a number 
of stalksina hill, and they are strong and vigorous, you can cut 
them off in the spring, and you have got as much wood as that hill 
ought to have; and we would rather have some strong, vigorous 
canes in that way than to have a lot of weak laterals that we get by 
cutting them off. 
Mr. Kramer: If you want a longer season in picking time,you go 
to work and cut them off in three different lengths. Cut some quite 
low, the second a little higher and the third higher still. The first 
ones will be early, but not quite so good, but the last ones are gen- 
erally the best crop I have. 
Mr. Wright: Our president touched ona valuable point in regard 
to pinching, or rather not pinching and leaving a few more stalks. 
You get better fruit by pinching the stalk two and one-half or three 
feet and your stalk will grow nearly twice the size it would if not 
pinched. But if you do not pinch, your stalk will be limber and 
easier to lay down, and by allowing two or three more stalks to grow 
to the hill you will have just as good fruit as you will have by top- 
ping off the canes. 
The President: That is just one of the points we wished to bring 
out. 
Mr. Kramer: I think they should not becut. I have topped them 
mostly on account of the snow in the winter breaking them down. 
