310 ANNUAL REPOET. 



We mulch for winter, drawing the mulch out in the summer and 

 working it into the soil for the purpose of keeping the ground rich. 

 We cultivate about in the same manner as you would a piece of corn; 

 giving thorough cultivation, but not deep. 



A Member. What is the character of the soil ? 



Mr. Hamilion. We have a variety of soil at Ripon. We can furnish 

 a black loam, prairie soil, underlaid with clay subsoil; then we have a 

 sandy clay soil and loam; we also have almost clear sand. They are 

 a little earlier on the sandy soil than on the prairie, but as to the 

 diiference, whether they do better in one place than in the other, you 

 can't tell it by the eye. 



A Member. Do you prune any ? 



Mr. Hamilton. Yes, sir, we pinch them back to about three feet 

 and three and a half feet high. That causes them to branch out. 

 Some of them undertook to trim the laterals, bat we found that we were 

 cutting off the part where our best fruit grew. We now take off 

 nothing but the top. 



A Member. Is the Ancient Briton as hardy as the Stone's Hardy ? 



Mr. Hamilton. I consider it is fully as hardy. 



A Member. Are they thorny ? 



Mr. Hamilton. They are a thorny bush. 



A Member. How many canes do you allow in a hill ? 



Mr. Hamilton.. Not over five; you will not very often find that 

 many. 



Mr. Smith. How do you cover them ? 



Mr. Hamilton. They are covered by removing the dirt at the side 

 that you wish to lay the brush over. Then place your foot at the 

 crown of the fork and push it under the root and bend down; you 

 bend the root by so doing, and not the top. Lay them down straight, 

 as the row extends; we endeavor to cover them from the side. I think 

 it is better to have the rows run north and south, because after they 

 have been laid down, the dirt being again removed, the canes will 

 run in the angle on which they were laid down ; the new growth will 

 be in full foliage and that breaks the heat from the midday sun on 

 the berries. You have all observed that the best wild blackberries 

 we get are those that have been raised in the shade. 



Mr. Cutler. I would like to ask whether you turn them north or 

 south ? 



Mr. Hamilton. We bend them to the north; that is the way they 

 run. We endeavor to have the rows run the way that they would 



