SMALL FRUITS. 347 



Mr. Thayer : I would be willing to substitute the word 

 'one." I would not want to make any great compromise. 



Mr. Brackett : Do you refer to blackcaps, red raspberries 

 and blackberries, all three ? 



Mr. Thayer : I refer to blackberries and blackcaps, which I 

 pinch at the same height. 



Mr. Smith : I had a little doubt when I made the figures as 

 to the correctness of them, because I have been going nearer 

 the ground than that for some time. 



Mr. Thayer : I had a little experience one year from nec- 

 essity. There came a frost when the young shoots were a 

 few inches high, which froze them down very low. Many of 

 them started afterwards and made some of the finest canes we 

 have ever had. After that I pinched lower. There is one 

 other question I wish to ask Mr. Smith: Do you recommend 

 the farmer to set out strawberries a foot to a foot and one-half 

 apart? 



Mr. Smith: From one foot to one and a half, I say. 



Mr. Thayer: Now, is it not your experience that the strong 

 growing varieties, like the Crescent, Wai field and others of 

 that kind, will grow entirely too thick? I would prefer to see 

 a farmer set his berries two and a half feet apart, instead of 

 less than 18 inches. In our field culture we set them two feet 

 apart in the row, and, even then, though pinching back the first 

 runners until the last of July, we find sometimes too vigorous 

 a growth of the plant. I think one cause of failure in growing 

 strawberries is in allowing the plants to become too closely 

 matted together. It gives a large amount of small fruit, but, if 

 each plant could have three or four square inches in which to 

 grow and from which to draw its nutriment, we should have a 

 very much larger and finer lot of berries. 



Mr. E. J. Cutts: What would you recommend as standard 

 varieties at that distance? 



Mr. Thayer: It would depend on the kind. Michel's Early 

 makes as vigorous a growth, perhaps, as the Crescent or War- 

 field. If you grow the Wilson, you should place them nearer 

 together. I would place the Wilson 18 or 20 inches apart, per- 

 haps. 



Mr. Elliot: There is one question I want to ask Mr. 

 Thayer. I think it is applicable to this season. He recom- 

 mends pinching your vines back until the last of July. Now. 

 with a dry season, such as we have had this year, do you get a 

 sufficient amount of vine if you do this? 



