78 ANNUAL REPORT. 



Col. Stevens. What was the situation? 



Mr. Shannon. It is on a side hill. They were planted in a 

 row and had a northern exposure. 



Mr. Pearce. What was the variety that dried up? 



Mr. Shannon. About half of them were the Doolittle and 

 half said to be the wild raspberry. They were not Thornless. 



Mr. Smith. I can tell you how you can raise raspberries: 

 stake them or put a trellis along the rows, of the proper height, 

 so that you can cover them a little in the winter. I have suc- 

 ceeded in doing that in two ways. I set the plants close together 

 and drive some stakes and put some cleats on to hold the canes 

 up about two feet from the ground. I pinch the ends of the 

 canes back. In the fall I throw a few corn stalks along on the 

 top of that trellis to shade and protect the bushes; in that way 

 I get a croj) of black raspberries every year. The other way is 

 to keep them in girdles by driving down stakes or slats around 

 the canes so as to make a frame-work and keep them up in that 

 way, pinching them back so as to make a second growth come 

 out. Cultivate around the canes three or four inches deep, and 

 in the fall throw a little handful of corn stalks over them, or 

 marsh hay. Then in the spring work them in among the roots. 

 I think Mr. Shannon in this way would have been able to get 

 some berries even if the canes did kill down some. If you fix 

 your trellis so the snow can't break them down and throw in 

 some mulching in the fall, and in the spring work it into the soil 

 there will be no difficulty in getting some berries. They ought 

 to produce a big crop every year. 



Col. Stevens. At Mr. Shannon's place it is different probably 

 from most other places in the State. At Gi-anite Falls there is 

 a heavy granite deposit, and I apprehend you would not go very 

 far before you reach it. 



Mr. Shannon. I had the same fruit on a hill and I moved it 

 down and had the same experience in both places. I gave a 

 friend of mine some roots and he planted them about in the mid- 

 dle of our county in a different kind of soil, although the expos- 

 ure IS about the same, and he doesn't get any fruit. He told me 

 last spring they seemed to come through the winter all right and 

 showed blossom but after that dried up. It seemed to him there 

 was not strength enough in the roots to ripen what they had 

 started. 



Mr. Smith. That is the whole trouble; there was not sufiBcient 

 vitality to the plants. You will frequently meet with this trou- 



