84 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



here is absolutely essential to prevent the weakening of the plants 

 by our dry winter winds. Along in April we usually part this hay 

 a little bit over the row, or thin it enough so that the plants can grow 

 up through it and leave it until after the crop has been picked and 

 hoed. In this way the plants are kept clean, and the plantation holds 

 moisture better, there is no hoeing or weeding to be done and the ex- 

 penses are very much reduced. 



We use, in marketing, quart boxes, using a box that holds a full 

 quart so that our customers may be satisfied with it, and which cost 

 us about seventy-five cents per thousand. The freight on these is 

 about fifty cents per thousand. The making of those quart boxes 

 costs us $1 per thousand by the job. The crates cost us about $8 per 

 hundred. We usually recover most of our crates, so the number 

 needed is not large. 



The varieties to cultivate depends very much on the market. For 

 a near market, varieties like the Crescent, Charles Downing, Sharp- 

 less, and the Wilson have given us good satisfaction, and our fruit has 

 always been disposed of in our own town, or in towns within a short 

 distance. Where the growing of strawberries is entered into in a mod- 

 erate way near each town it is always possible to sell a few plants, 

 and in this help out a little on the expenses. A man does not have to 

 be a nurseryman to sell a few plants of promising varieties to his 

 neighbor. This will help those who engage in the business in a 

 small way in or near the interior towns. 



Now regarding the raspberry crop. We have about nine acres of 

 these. Our policy is to plant them mostly in young orchards where 

 the cultivation of the raspberry crop also helps to cultivate the 

 young orchard and helps to bear the expense of bringing them up to 

 maturity and bearing. We have planted such varieties as the Tyler, 

 Hopkins, Mammoth Cluster, and Gregg, and all these have given 

 fair satisfaction. 



In planting out a plantation of raspberries we would urge that 

 the plants be as fresh as possible, and be careful not to set them 

 too deep, and get them from near home as possible that they may be 

 in best possible condition when planted. Our early planting of rasp- 

 berry tips, shipped a long distance, were not very successful because 

 of two things : First, they did not always reach us in the best con- 

 dition ; and second, we oftentimes set them too deep, and the plants 



