STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. IO7 



cultivate between with a horse. The plants that are set four- 

 teen inches apart can only be cultivated by hand labor, with 

 wheel hoes and hand tools. In some varieties which grow a 

 very large plant I am setting only three rows, eighteen inches 

 apart each way; but in either case making a bed about four 

 feet across. In that way we can pick the plants from each 

 side. We don't attempt to pick first on one side and then on 

 the other; we pick two plants into the bed, each picker picking 

 that way. 



Question : I would like to ask if there is any more danger 

 of their winter-killing under the hill system than in matted 

 rows ? 



Mr. Wheeler: I have not found it so. You see there is 

 enough foliage made by the plants to cover the ground com- 

 pletely, so that practically the hill system in this way is a wide 

 matted row, with the advantage of having each plant by itself, 

 so that when the berries ripen they lie right around the plant 

 instead of being covered entirely by the immense quantity of 

 foliage you get in a matted row. I find that one particular 

 advantage in the hill system over the matted row is the ease 

 with which you can pick the berries. In the matted row you 

 have got to look all the foliage over to get the berries under- 

 neath ; in the hill system the berries lie right round the plants, 

 are easily seen and easily picked. There is no more danger, 

 as far as I can see, of winter-killing than in the matted rows. 



Mr. Merrill: Do you use the same varieties in the hill 

 system as in the matted row? 



Mr. Wheeler : I prefer Glen Mary for the hill system over 

 any other variety I have tried ; possibly Sample is the second. 

 The gentleman asked about Senator Dunlap — the great trouble 

 with that is that it makes such an abundance of runners that 

 it keeps you busy all the season pulling runners. I would rather 

 not use that variety for the hill system, though it is a very good 

 berry. 



Question : You say "pulling the runners." Do you pull 

 them ofif? 



Mr. Wheeler: By putting your hand on the crown of the 

 plant, you can take twenty-five runners in the other hand and 

 pull them all ofif, pulling a little sideways so as not to break the 

 crown. 



