80 ANNUA J. REPORT. 



the ground to plant on. They will bear a good deal of shade. 

 A grove on the west or south is very good, the south the best. 

 As a general rule we have to cut them back in the spring until 

 we get sound wood. If your plants are injured they are bound 

 to come out to the tip end, but you get small blossoms and small 

 fruit; it is bound to do it. Don't be afraid to cut back to sound 

 wood. You may have to cut off two feet. I have trimmed them 

 when they were thought to be dead and would cut some stalks 

 clear down; but have had a good and paying crop. Unless you 

 have a favorable locality you will find that the Black caps gen- 

 erally winter-kill. The same trouble is found with the red rasp- 

 berries, and you have to trim to the sound wood. If this rule is 

 followed I think you will have no trouble with the berries dry- 

 ing up. 



Mr. Whipple. I have had only twenty years' experience with 

 berries. My rule is, if I want to get a crop of black or red ber- 

 ries, to keep the ground in such condition that when you are 

 picking the fruit you can take the dirt in your fingers and make 

 it into mud balls. In order to do that you have to mulch the 

 ground. Mr. Harris is I'ight as far as he goes; he has not got 

 quite enough of the amber cane yet; that holds the moisture the 

 best of anything I have found. 



Mr. Harris. 1. have seen that used and I know it is first rate. 



Mr. Underwood. If it is necessary to emphasize the impor- 

 tance of mulching I might do it by stating some of my own 

 experience. I had a Swede in my employ who could not under- 

 stand a word of English, and I set him to mulching some rasp- 

 berries, making him understand by signs what I wanted him to 

 do. About an hour after he came around indicating that he had 

 the job done. I sent him back and had him do it over again, 

 and an hour after repeated the same thing. He was pretty wel 

 along in years and thought he knew something, and was disposed 

 to get provoked about it, and when he came around the next 

 time I found he had put on the whole pile of manure, and it was 

 at least a foot and a half thick. But I would say that I never 

 had so many berries before or since off the same quantity of 

 ground as I had from that piece. So I think that all that 

 has been said in favor of mulching raspberries has been said in 

 the right direction. 



Mr. Pearce. Speaking of uiulchitig, 1 want to say one word 

 more. Mr. Whipple had certainly the right way of mulching 

 with the amber cane straw; he put it on about a foot and a half 



