314 ‘ MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
Mr. Thayer: Yes, turn the first to the north and lay the 
next three feet further, lay it just to the west of the preceding 
hill, so that the top of this hill will protect in a measure the 
other from the west, and so on in succession. 
Mr. Harris: What is your object in laying to the north 
every time? i 
Mr. Thayer: Well, you see, Hamilton is my great grand- 
father in the berry business, and he told me that in laying them 
to the north you derive this advantage; when you come to raise 
them in the spring they will not come up straight, they will be 
a little inclined, and the new bush, coming up straight, the old 
bush leaning over it shades it partially from the southern or 
direct rays of the sun. This way of laying them is also more 
convenient in picking. 
Mr. Hamilton: I have advocated this laying to the north, 
and believe it to be the best way yet discovered. Last year 
one of my neighbors commenced on the north end of his row 
and laid it down. When he got to the south end, instead 
of walking back to the end of the row, he commenced where he 
was, and laid the next row to the south, thus laying one row 
to the north and the other to the south. And so he went along, 
and when he had completed his task they laid in both ways. 
When they came to bear there was a marked difference in the 
appearance of the fruit during the entire season. Those that 
lay vo the south were facing the sun—they were exposed to 
the broiling hot sun—and consequently there were many berries 
injured from the excessive heat of the sun. They had to con- 
tend also with the failure of the growth of the new wood to 
protect them, either north or south, so there was a marked 
difference between those that laid to the north and the ones 
that laid to the south. 
Mr. Thayer: The secret of laying a blackberry or raspberry 
down successfully is to bend it below the dirt line and not 
above. You must do the bending in the root. 
Mr. Brackett: When do you pinch your blackberries? 
Mr. Thayer: I pinched the most of them this year when 
they were ten inches high. Heretofore I have usually let them 
go until they were fifteen or eighteen inches high, but this 
year, as I said, I pinched them when they were about ten inch- 
es high. Two years ago we had a severe frost when the new 
shoots were up perhaps six or eight inches high, and it cut 
those new shoots right off. They wilted down and left mere 
stubs. Well, those stubs threw out new branches, and the best 
