312 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
Mr. Thayer: Well, I have used various things. I am now 
using rye straw because it is easier for me to get. I used pine 
boughs one year quite successfully, and I remember it made a 
very nice covering. I have also used marsh hay and corn- 
stalks. 
Mr. Ludlow: I have been very successful in using corn- 
stalks. One winter I used coarse hay there was no foul 
seed in. That winter there was a great deal of ice and snow 
and sleet, and it formed on this matted hay and seemed to 
smother everything under it. That same year I had a portion 
of the patch covered with cornstalks. Those that were covered 
with the cornstalks came through all right, but the others suf- 
fered very much. 
Mr. Thayer: Of course it is hard for us to tell just the con- 
dition under which fruit will and will not succeed. For instance, 
last season we had a remarkable thaw early in March, and it 
flooded nearly half an acre of my strawberries. Then it turned 
off cold, and they were covered with ice six or eight inches 
thick, solidly frozen, and I supposed, of course, that I should 
lose all my fruit that was under that ice. but it made no differ- 
ence whatever. Now, I had the same experience with raspber- 
ries and blackberries, but with them it turned out the other 
way—it killed them. 
Dr. Frisselle: Do you cover raspberries entirely with dirt, 
or do you use hay or straw? 
Mr. Thayer: There is where you get the benefit of mulch- 
ing. If you use the hay, it packs down, and in the fall of the 
year it lays like a mat, close together. Now, as you bend your 
canes over, you can take that, and with about one third of the 
dirt usually required you can cover them very nicely. I con- 
sider it a great assistance. This past season our clover was a 
failure, and this year I bought a large amount of straw. I 
shall mulch with that next season, and use it in the same way 
in covering. 
Vice-President Wedge: Supposing that a person did not 
have the clover, what could he afford to pay for it, and cut it 
and haul it? 
Mr. Thayer: Well, I have had just that experience, and I 
paid $6.00 an acre forit. I cut it myself and hauled it, but I 
will say that it was adjoining my own plantation. 
A Member: Was it the first or second crop you cut? 
Mr. Thayer: That was the first crop when it was in blossom. 
That seems to me to be just about the right time. By putting 
