108 ANNUAL REPORT. 



growing the Ancient Briton for anj' length of time is 0. M. Lord, of 

 Minnesota City. He has had good success. I have seen his Ancient 

 Britons and Snyders growing side by side. They are certainly a finer 

 berry than the Snyder, and he gets more fruit from them. 



Mr. Pearce. I would say that Mr. Shepard has grown the Ancient 

 Briton for the last five or six years in large quantities; he keeps them 

 all to himself, and I think he has made a good many thousand dollars 

 from them. He lives here in Hennepin County. He has ten acres I 

 think. 



Mr. Gould, I was at Mr. Lord's place first in August and I might 

 have seen his plants in September. He had those two kinds. Ancient 

 Briton and Snyder, and as I was somewhat interested in them I asked 

 as many questions as 1 could think of. I remember of asking him 

 which he liked the best, and he didn't give any great preference as I 

 remember, except that he considered the Ancient Briton a little the 

 better producer. I was there again in October, and he told me that 

 he was about covering his blackberries; I told him I was very much 

 interested, and so he said he would light a lantern, and go out and 

 cover some; he practiced this method that has been described here, 

 that is of digging away from the root of the plant a little and doubling 

 them down in a row. He commenced at one end of the row, bent 

 them all in the same direction, and gave them a partial covering with 

 earth. He makes a success with that style of covering. 



Mr. Harris. I have had berries from his plants, and they are very 

 nice. 



Mr. Sias. Blackberry culture has been, until within a few years, 

 almost a total failure. I recollect of seeing but two places where they 

 were covered; one where they were growing the Ancient Briton the 

 vines were well loaded with fruit. I am satisfied that there is no 

 trouble about blackberries, provided they are covered in the fall at the 

 proper time. Last fall 1 covered nearly all of mine for the first time. 



Mr. Tuttle. I would say in regard to covering, it is necessary to 

 turn them over in the way described, but not to cover them entirely; 

 bringing them to the ground I think sufficiently protects them. Our 

 canes are so large and so many in a hill it takes a good deal to hold 

 them down, and I try to keep them to the ground. We went through 

 last year and just put enough dirt on to keep them to the ground. 



Mr. Wilson. I think success with blackberries depends a good deal 

 on the kind of soil. I have seen them grown where I don't think 

 more than one crop was obtained in five years, and they were covered. 



