246 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



twelve inches. With blackberries it is different. You under- 

 stand that the fruit is produced on the end of the laterals, and 

 if you trim those laterals you destroy the crop, while in your 

 black raspberries they should be cut back to make a success of 

 it. I have pruned my blackberries to prevent an overproduc 

 tion of fruit. The laterals grew out so thick and were so 

 crowded with fruit that if allowed to grow to the full extent 

 there was danger of injuring the whole crop, so I cut back 

 thirty to forty per cent, of the fruit. I go through with a 

 sickle and cut them off two feet or such a matter, and in the 

 spring of the year I trim them back more. My red raspberries 

 I pinch in the spring when about eighteen inches high, but I 

 do not trim in the spring. 



C. H. Gordon : Please state more accurately in regard to the 

 trimming of blackberries. 



M. A. Thayer: To grow blackberries, you want to pinch your 

 canes at twenty inches high, eighteen or twenty. It is best to 

 keep them low; it causes those laterals to grow stronger and 

 in greater abundance. We want them low on account of laying 

 them down. I do not trim any more in the spring. I do not 

 trim off those laterals. 



C. H. Gordon: Do you trim any time during the summer? 



M. A. Thayer: I leave that all summer. The fruit of the 

 blackberry grows on the end of the vine. 



R. P. Lupton. You speak of your rows running north and 

 south; why is that? 



M. A. Thayer: If you lay out your rows north and south you 

 get an equal distribution of the sun during the season, that is 

 one thing. Another, by laying them north and south as you 

 raise them up in the spring the bush is inclined to the north, 

 the new shoots come out on the north portion of it, and during 

 the heat of the day they are protected from the direct rays of 

 the sun. Understand me, in the growing of small fruits there 

 can be no iron-clad rule laid down in regard to those minor de- 

 tails. The location of the place of planting, the quality of the 

 soil, the variety of the plants, the manner of cultivating and 

 trimming must depend largely upon circumstances, and they 

 must be determined in a large degree by your own judgment. 

 But in the growing of small fruits there are certain principles 

 or certain necessities that cannot be omitted without loss or 

 probable failure. The ground must be rich and well cultivated, 

 the plants must be vigorous and of a variety suited to your lo- 

 cality. 



