82 ANNUAL REPORT. 



President Smith. I would state that we have no fruit growers 

 in our society here from the northern part of the State that I 

 know of that would report in regard to that. But I would also 

 state that in the regions of Lake Superior they have an abund- 

 ance of wild raspberries which grow well in either the shade or 

 in the sun. That is a very different locality, but they ship ber- 

 ries from there in large quantities. 



Mr. Muzzy. I would say that we also have the very finest wild 

 raspberries in our section of the country that I have ever seen 

 in any country. 



Mr. Smith. Mr. Morford, who lives up on the line of the 

 Northern Pacific road, had a splendid crop of berries on his 

 place. I wrote him to send me a letter to tell how he did it, but 

 I have not heard from him yet. I would like to inquire if any- 

 one has had any trouble with mice working in their raspberries, 

 and if so, what they have put in as a preventive. 



Mr. Whipple. If you put in wheat straw or something that 

 has grain in it, it will draw the mice and they will girdle the 

 canes. 



Mr. Harris. I have lost a good many bushes where mice got 

 in and gnawed them off. A. good way is to take a little corn and 

 soak it, mixing in a little strychnine, and put it into an oyster can 

 and poison the mice, and then you are safe; and I believe some 

 of my neighbors use Paris green. The mice are apt sometimes 

 to get in any way and destroy the Blackcaps. 



Mr. Whipple. The principal preventive I have is a good shep- 

 herd dog that takes all the rabbits, and some good cats that keep 

 the mice down. 



Mr. Harris. This is a short-tailed field mouse that does the 

 mischief, and sometimes comes in from the woods. 



Mr. Ford. Mr. Chairman, I lost my entire crop of raspberries. 

 They started well and soon seemed to die out. If there is any 

 gentleman here who has had a similar experience, I would like 

 to know from him his opinion of the cause, and to know the 

 remedy. 



Mr. Smith. Eepeat your experience. 



Mr. Ford. I planted about an acre of raspberries of Cuthbert, 

 the Philadelphia — about a thousand Cuthbert, the balance Phil- 

 adelphia and Turners. I planted them in the early season; they 

 sprouted well and grew so you could see the buds coming through 

 the ground, and then began to die after being only about four 

 inches high; so by July I hadn't any. 



