86 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



pose I ought to tell that in order to keep along with the procession. 

 But really that is all nonsense. Just leave the old canes right where 

 the}' are. It is an awful job to cut them out in the summer when 

 the new growth is there. I am growing fruits for dollars and cents, 

 although I love the business and I have no money except what I 

 have dug out of the farm. In practice we leave those canes right 

 where they are all summer long and all the fall. They help sustain 

 the new growth. When the new growth is young it is very tender, 

 and if a high wind comes up they are liable to be all broken down. 

 Leave the canes there for a support to the new growth through the 

 summer, and in the winter they make a grand protection ; they help 

 catch the snow and hold it there, and they help support the new 

 growth against the wind. If you lay down your raspberries and 

 blackberries in the fall you want to get the old canes out at the time 

 you lay the new growth down, and they are so brittle then that you 

 can almost break them out without cutting. But when we do not 

 lay them down we do it in the spring ; when I am trimming around 

 the bushes and using my hands and eyes for that operation, I use 

 my feet to break down these old canes and kick them out of the 

 way. I have never carted any out of the field. There is no trouble 

 about it. I have visited men who were new in the business and 

 who had read in the books that the old canes must be cut out in the 

 summer, and I have seen them working through a mass of briers in 

 mid-summer, when they ought to be doing something else. 



Mr. Knowlton. Do you treat blackberries in the same way? 

 Mr. Hale. Yes. 



Question. What variety of strawberry would you plant for pol- 

 lenizing purposes for the Crescent? 



Mr. Hale. I plant a variety that is worth but very little for 

 fruit — the old Ironclad. It is a shy bearer and not a very desirable 

 fruit, but it is a strong growing plant, absolutely hardy ; it blooms 

 very early, and it has very strong stems. I had rather plant one 

 row in three of the Ironclad with the Crescent and never pick a 

 berry from the Ironclad ; I will get enough fruit from the Crescent 

 so that I can atford to go without any from the Ironclad. I can do 

 better that way than to fertilize with the Charles Downing or any of 

 the other varieties whose fruit is more valuable. 



Mr. Pope. Do you protect your blackberries by laying down? 

 Mr. Hale. You must with all the tender varieties. You can 

 grow the Snyder, I suppose, anywhere in Maine, almost, without 



