February, 1918 
WISCONSIN HORTICULTURE 
83 
out of a possible 600, and the first 
prize was divided between them. 
An exhibit was held at each cen- 
ter in July and again in August. 
Also two finals one in July and 
one in August. The vegetables 
grown were radish, carrots, beets 
and tomatoes. Director Hotch- 
kiss placed a conservative esti- 
mate of the value of the vege- 
tables grown in these gardens at 
$2,000 for the season. Of these 
gardeners 90% had never before 
made a garden. 
The vacant lot gardens plan re- 
solved itself into a plan to bring 
vacant lots and gardners together. 
The commission council financed 
this movement and plowed or 
spaded such lots as were made 
available by donation of the own- 
ers of the lots or otherwise. Mrs. 
E. R. Smith was in' charge of the 
work. She reports 1,000 gardens. 
These were furnished to members 
of the Garden club who paid a fee 
of from $.50 to $2.50 according to 
the size of the plat received. In 
this class preference was given to 
those whose names were found on 
the city poor list and to these were 
furnished seed potatoes and seed 
beans with the understanding that 
the seed should be returned in the 
fall. $150 worth of potatoes were 
used and about 2 bushels of beans. 
The plots of ground ranged from 
plots 20 ft. square to those con- 
taining as high as 20 acres. The 
larger areas were allotted in acre 
or half acre plats. These gardens 
were taken almost entirely by per- 
sons who knew something about 
gardening and were very produc- 
tive except in a few cases where 
quack grass was abundant. Sev- 
eral lectures were given at the 
city hall by members of the Osh- 
kosh Horticultural Society and 
our Mr. Roe, Mr. Rasmussen and 
Mr. Christensen acted as a self 
constituted committee to extend 
garden knowledge to all who were 
in doubt. These gentlemen also 
gave freely of their services in 
judging exhibits and otherwise 
assisting in this movement. The 
plan for next year is to continue 
the work along these lines using 
the knowledge we have acquired 
this season for a better campaign 
next year. 
Before closing this report I wish 
to call your attention to the value 
to a community of a live Horti- 
cultural Society. In every local 
ity there are men and women who 
know the value of a garden, who 
know r the pleasure of gardening, 
who know the appeal of growing 
things, who rejoice at the instant 
response for the little care given a 
plant and who would be lost with- 
out their garden. These people 
should be waked up and made to 
see the value of organization and 
there should be in every commu- 
nity a local society, be it great or 
small, which will cooperate with 
this, our state society, in bringing 
the value of a garden home to 
their neighbors and their neigh- 
borhood. 
I earnestly urge all members of 
this society to give some thought 
to the value of a garden for every 
home and do their bit to bring 
about such a condition. 
Black Raspberry Culture 
Frank Hays, Wyanet, 111. 
(Read at convention of N. 111. 
Hort. Society, De Kalb, 111., Dec. 
6th, 1917.) 
The black raspberry, if proper- 
ly grown, is a fine attractive fruit ; 
but the dried-up seedy kind we 
frequently see is about the sorri- 
est thing in the way of fruit that 
one can think of. But there is al- 
ways a big demand for good ones. 
In Bureau County, where I live, 
there are never nearly enough to 
go around, and 1 understand the 
same condition exists over a large 
part of the state. The taste peo- 
ple have for it is indeed remark- 
able. It is no wonder this society 
is interested in so popular a fruit 
The successful growing of the 
black raspberry has for at least 
twenty years been considered 
quite a problem. The difficulty 
is largely due to a widespread 
disease that attacks the plant and 
causes that scabby condition we 
so frequently observe on the bark 
and we must to a large extent 
avoid that condition or we can’t 
succeed in growing profitable 
crops. We must avoid the scab 
rather than depend on any spray 
mixture to control it. So far as I 
have been able to learn, there has 
not yet appeared an effective and 
practical spray for that sort of 
scab. The best way I have found 
to beat it is to have the patch on 
good fertile soil and put the plants 
in close — eighteen inches apart in 
the row and use only good, strong, 
freshly dug plants. Iloe and cul- 
tivate frequently until toward 
fall. When plants are up about 
sixteen inches go along the rows 
with a knife and hack off a couple 
of inches of the tops ; that will 
make them branch out and form 
much better bushes. 
You should have by fall a thick 
growth of strong, healthy bushes, 
large enough to yield a profitable 
crop of the finest berries the fol- 
lowing year. But if the plants 
had been set two and one-half or 
three feet apart, as is often recom- 
mended, there would not have 
been enough of them to make the 
