STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 79 



Me and you cannot make a surety of a crop every year unless 

 you cover them every winter. The only way is to have some 

 sort of trellis, so that they can be kept from breaking. You can 

 raise them without, but cannot with certainty. I would as soon 

 have ten plants with protection as one hundred without protec- 

 tion. Then, when I have the plants set, I would mulch them 

 very thoroughly. 



Mr. Harris. Mr. President, some of that I believe and some 

 I don't. (Laughter.) I believe the gentleman over there (Mr. 

 Shannon) has been swindled on the variety of berries he got and 

 I will tell you why, I have been very successful in raising the 

 Doolittle and the Seneca, and some other kinds of berries. I 

 sent down to some place in Illinois and bought five hundred plants 

 and never got five hundred or two hundred quarts of fruit from 

 them. Now, if the fault with his is not in the bushes I think the 

 €orn stalk mulching is the very best thing he can follow; but 

 don't be afraid of getting it on too deep. We feed all our corn 

 fodder and try to have it used the same winter. On the outside 

 there is frequently a little that is only bruised by the cattle and 

 horses tramping on it. If you use that your raspberries will be 

 much better. I don't lay the bushes down but mulch under 

 them. 



Mr. Kenning. I have tried the Black caps, three years and 

 have had the same exj)erience as Mr. Shannon. Instead of hav- 

 ing berries there are one or two little seeds on the bushes that 

 dry up. I finally became disgusted with them and dug them all 

 up. Got my plants from a party at Hastings. 



Mr. Shannon. T would state that I got about half my plants 

 from my father in Blue Earth county, and with the same kind of 

 plants he had great success. The others I got from a gentleman 

 who had taken the wild Black caps and had lots of fruit every 

 year. I am quite sure I had the Doolittle plants, so I think the 

 trouble was not on account of the kind. I think it must have 

 been something in my soil or in my head. 



Mr. Harris. I would make one more trial and try mulching 

 under them thoroughly with corn stalks. 



Mr. Shannon. My man put manure around them last winter. 



Mr. Gilijatrick. I planted the Doolittles twenty years ago. I 

 have succeeded in raising them every year, covering with noth- 

 ing but dirt during those past twenty years. 



Mr. Pearce. My experience is that every variety kills, al- 

 though some say not. There is a great deal in the selection of 



