396 ANNUAL KEPOET. 



Mr. Chandler. I do not mulch my berries until a week before 

 picking them, and then mulch them heavily. 



The president asked Mr Chandler to state what he did in re- 

 gard to thinning the plant out. 



Mr. Chandler. I set my raspberries just as early in the spring 

 as the ground can be worked. As soon as they are set out, I go 

 into them with a cultivator, and keep cultivating them right 

 along. When they get about two feet high, I pinch them back, 

 and let them branch out two and a half feet. I leave about four 

 stalks in a hill. As for suckers, go around them with a sharp 

 hoe. Don't let them grow at all. I have the Philadelphia and 

 Turner. The Philadelphia bore the most fruit, but the Turner 

 gave the largest size. The difference in the price of these two 

 varieties was from two to five cents. 



The question being raised as to which was the best berry to 

 raise, Mr. Pearce said that his experience was that there was 

 more profit in the red than in the black. He believed that every 

 market grower should raise both kinds, for the reason that if 

 only one kind is raised customers are likely to ask for the other 

 and not be able to get it. People get tired of one kind and want 

 a change. 



The question was asked what is the best blackcap to raise. 

 Mr. Chandler didn't know. Mr. Busse and Mr. Lyons never 

 raised them. 



Mr. Gray. I have raised them, but don't intend to any more. 

 I had the Doolittle and Mammoth Cluster, I fruited them four 

 years, pulled them up and raised a crof) of turnips, and got more 

 for the crop of turnips than for the raspberries. 



Mr. Pearce. I think, if you will take the Gregg rasp- 

 berry and cultivate them, and keep them in rows, and dig the 

 dirt out from the roots, and bend them over till the stalks reach 

 the ground, and cover with dirt, you will raise just as nice black 

 raspberries as you ever saw, and plenty of them. A gentleman 

 at Long Lake raises an immense quantity of them and gets the 

 highest price in the market. 



Mr. Eoberts. I have raised the Doolittle a number of years, 

 and had good crops. Some years I would cover them up and 

 some years I would not. Once in a while, when I did not cover 

 them, they would kill back. When I covered them up I had 

 immense crops. I!^ever raised any but the Doolittle. 



Mr. Lyons. I had an extraordinary crop by covering up. The 

 Gregg raspberry is splendid if you cover it uj), but if not it is 

 not good. 



