STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 313 



Mr. Hamilton. Well, occasionally we cross-tie them. 



A Member. Please tell us what you know of the history of the 

 Ancient Briton. 



Mr. Hamilton. As far as I have been able to trace the history of it, 

 it was originally sent from Wales, to a county in Southern Wisconsin 

 about twenty -two years aj^o. A man in Berlin, Wis., first got hold of 

 a few plants and set them out, and he came through Ripon, the first 

 I heard of him, seventeen years ago this coming spring. I bought 

 a few plants of him, and also a few of my neighbors. I was not in 

 the fruit business then, I was running a general nursery. My neigh- 

 bors planted them out; they did not protect them and they said they 

 didn't think it was of any use to try to raise blackberries there. One 

 fall I was unloading a hay-rack, and a row of blackberries were near, 

 and as they hadn't borne, we expected to dig them up in the spring, 

 and the men put this hay -rack on them; they were thus laid down un- 

 der the hay-rack. The next spring these canes were alive and the 

 rest of the row killed. That suggested to me the idea of covering and 

 the question why not lay down the blackberry as well as the rasp- 

 berry? I undertook the task of laying theoi down. And that was 

 followed up by different persons in the vicinity of Ripon, until now, 

 blackberry culture is one of the chief industries of our town. There 

 are about seventy acres, as I said, in cultivation in that vicinity now. 



A Member. How far from the ground do you place those wires ? 



Mr. Hamilton. About two feet. I had five acres of blackberries 

 last year; I took 725 bushels off the five acres; on one acre it was the 

 seventh crop. 



A Member. Will they run out in the course of ten or twelve years? 



Mr. Hamilton. There are plants in Ripon that have borne the fif- 

 teenth crop, and are still in good condition; I have seen them eighteen 

 years old. 



A Member. They stand it better than red raspberries then? 



Mr. Hamilton. Yes, sir. 



A Member. Does any insect trouble your blackberries ? 



Mr. Hamilton. I have never seen anything on the Ancient Briton; 

 I have noticed that the Stone's Hardy was affected in some cases. 



A Member. Don't you consider the Stone's Hardy a better berry 

 than the Ancient Briton? 



Mr. Hamilton. No, sir. I claim I can send the Briton blackberry 

 to Minneapolis in better order than yon can the Stone's Hardy, half a 

 mile distaiit from your market. * 



