STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 237 



better in the State. I raised berries there years ago and I can 

 do it agaiu, and everybody else can, and they can raise apples 

 too. 



Mr. Sniith. I don't think the soil of McLeod County is one 

 whit better than other counties throughout the State. 



Mr. Isaac Gilpatrick. I wish there should be a premium on 

 strawberries, raspberries and currants; there don't seem to be 

 any premium offered for those; we all talk at random, we want 

 to know what the ground is. In Massachusetts, where I used to 

 live, there was always a premium offered for the best fruit, and 

 they had to state how it was raised, on what kind of soil, etc. 

 I don't wish to put this as a motion, but I wish there could be 

 some premium offered for small fruits. I wish that we could ar- 

 range so that we should know how they were raised, so that if a 

 person has sandy soil he would know how to proceed; if it was 

 wet that he would not need to mulch. My neighbors don't un- 

 derstand it, and they lose their crops. Couldn't something of 

 that kind be done to help us out I There used to be a premium, 

 but they never stated how the crops were produced, what climate 

 and soil. 



Mr. Tuttle. What kind of blackberries do you grow? 



President Smith. We grow very few of any kind. Last year 

 I saw very few in our markets. Mr. Ford here has raised more 

 than anyone else; he can tell you, perhaps. 



Mr. Tuttle. For a good many years I had the opinion that 

 we could not grow blackberries successfully on account of the 

 hot sun and want of shade. I set two plants in the orchard row 

 some years since, and left them there; I didn't consider them of 

 any account and never expected they would amount to anything; 

 but in about two years from that time I picked sixty quarts of 

 blackberries, and the plants had spread over a rod of ground. 

 The second year after that I gave them no cultivation whatever; 

 they were partly in June grass sod. They were the Ancient 

 Briton. That year I had two hundred and fifty quarts on four 

 rods of ground, and that was without a particle of cultivation. 

 Now, there are other blackberries that have been made prom- 

 inent and are generally considered better than the Ancient Briton, 

 and where thej^ are growing blackberries extensively. One man 

 had eight acres last season at Berlin, Wisconsin. They grew 

 Stone's Hardy or Snyder, but they give preference now to 

 Ancient Briton. I can grow them better than you can grow 

 raspberries. At E-ipon they make a business of it. One man 



