VOL. LVII.
INDIANAPOLIS, IND., JUNE 28, 1902.
NO. 26
%xpevlmcz gep&vtment.
TELL ItOW   TO   GROW   RASPBERRIES   AND
BLACKBERRIES.
Arc They Profitable Market Crops?
Moderately Rich Clay Soil is Best.
1st Premium.—We have grown raspberries and blackberries on a small scale for
market, and have seen several other people grow them also. The best ground
lor blackberries is a clay soil, but they
will grow on any class of soil. It should
l>e well underdrained and moderately rich
to produce the best crops. In planting
the ground should be prepared the same
as for corn." To plant the blackberries,
furrow out the field in rows about 7V£ feet
apart and place the plants 18 or 20 inches
in the row so as to have a good stand.
Corn or potatoes or some other crop can
be planted between the rows. The berries
are cultivated the same as any other crop,
plowed once a week And after every rain.
After the first year the sprouts should
be kept down in the middle, making the
rows as wide as convenient, and the old
wood should be removed and burned after
the fruit ripens. Then in the spring the
patch should be gone over and the canes
headed back to about four feet high, and
all the winter killed and diseased wood
tnken off. To make the best results, straw
should be hauled and placed in the middles
and between the canes in the row. It
should be deep enough to prevent the
growth of weeds. The straw rots and
makes a mulch for the plants, keeping the
soil damp by preventing the evaporation
of moisture, as well as furnishing plant
food for the plants. Corn stalks are also
good   if  they   can   be   had. The   fruit
from such treatment will be large and
juicy and will not dry up as other blackberries do. They can also be cultivated
liming the summer, but it will not give as
good results as the above mulching treatment. Raspberries should be set in the
spring in rows about 3V2 feet apart and
about 18 inches in the row to secure a
thick row. They should be cultivated during the summer, same as blackberries.
Pinch off the terminal bud of the young
sprouts when they are about 18 inches
high, so they will make branches and not
grow so tall. In the spring prune the
branches, making them about three feet
high, and as wide a row as convenient.
Also take out all the old wood, if not done
just after the berries are off. Blackberries
are a profitable crop if yon have a marker
and can get good prices, but if you have
to give them away they are not. Raspberries are usually higher priced, and if
you can have enough plants on the ground,
they are profitable. C. B.
Select Good Varieties.
2d Premium.—To make the growing of
raspberries and blackberries profitable, depends on three things, namely; variety,
cultivation and market. To have the best
varieties should be the aim of every berry-
man; that is, the variety that is suited to
his soil, and sells best in his market. The
plat of ground where the raspberries are
to be grown should be covered with well
rotted manure and turned under deep as
possible. Shallow culture will not do for
these berries, for in dry seasons the crop
will not perfect itself, as the roots require
coolness and moisture. The plants should
either be set four feet apart each way
or six feet one way and three feet the other.
I prefer them four feet each way, they
should be hoed and kept clear of weeds the
first two seasons.     Then the canes should
be cut back till they are three or four
feet high, and tied to a stake. If sprouts
are wanted, pinch the bud off, and bury
the cane. The second season they may
be covered with straw five or six inches
deep This prevents weeds from growing
pad keeps the ground cool and moist. I
prefer setting the plants in the fall of
the year. About the first of October is a
very good time. Then the early fall rains
beat the ground around the plants well,
and they get a good start to growing in
the fall and are ready to do their duty in
the spring as soon as frosts are over. The
plants are also stronger and can* hold their
own against the cutworms when they make
a raid, as they did the last season. The
plants hould be mulched iu the fall, before the hard freezes come, to protect
them. If it is not possible to set them
in the fall, or if spring setting is preferred,
it should be done early in* the spring as
possible. As to the best varieties it would
be hani to determine without trying several kinds. We prefer the blackcaps. They
have a better flavor, keep their firmness
longer, and sell better than any other
variety. The Mammoth Cluster is a very
good berry. It is large, vigorous and productive. The Crimson Beauty is an early
red raspberry. Berries should be picked
its soon as they begin to ripen, as they
will not keep their firmness and have not
as good flavor if left to get overripe before
gathering. As soon as the berries are
gone the old canes should be cut out, and
the new ones cut off about three or four
feet from the ground and tied to stakes.
This makes them stockier and their berries larger and more plentiful. Blackberries should be cultivated the same as
raspberries. The Eaily Harvest and
Snyder are splendid varieties. The Early
Harvest is the earliest berry I know, and
always brings a good price on the market.
The Snyder is later but yields and sells
well. If a man puts a plat of ground
in these fruits, and cultivates them as they
should be, I think he will find they bring
him more profit than any other thing
would on the same sized plat of gronnd
and with the same amount of labor expended upon them.
Floyd Co. Farmers' Wife.
ought to average a quart to the bush. This
would make 517 gallons which at 35e
per gallon, the price I get at home after
they are picked and crated, makes at the
rate of $180.95 per acre which certainly
pays for the time, trouble and expense of
production. The Gregg is an excellent
shipper, and as it is propagated from the
tips, is more easily controlled than the red
varieties, which sprout up like the blackberries that any lazy man can raise, if he
once lets them get started on his farm,
the crop being often gathered by outsiders
without lease or license from the land
owner. A. H. P.
Premiums of $1, 75 cents and 50 cents
are given for the first, second and third
best articles for the Experience Department each week. Manuscript should be
sent direct to the Indiana Farmer Company and should reach us one week before
date of publication.
How to Grow Raspberries.
3d Premium.—In raising raspberries I
prefer the Gregg. Get your tips from
some reliable nursery, which will guarantee
that they are genuine, as you want no
mongrels. If you want to plant out as
mnch as an acre, it will take about 2,070
tips, which is enough to make 30 rows,
seven feet apart, and G9 tips to the row,
which I consider the proper distance. After
setting, cultivate as you would for corn,
keeping the weeds down* all season. After
the shoots get three feet high, pinch out
the center buds, this will stop their upward
growth, and cause them to throw out
laterals, which, if the bushes do well, will
reach the ground and many of them take
root before frost. Some prefer to rineh
back the canes at two feet high. I prefer three feet, as then you do not have to
stoop so low in-gathering the berries. Along
in March, when the ground is frozen, haul
out some good stable manure, and give
each bush a liberal forkful of this fertilizer. Spread it around the canes until the
ground is covered at least two feet square.
Then get your clippers and cut the laterals
back until they are about eight inches long.
Thus you have a bush with from two to
four strong canes and with the laterals to
bear the fruit. The next year, early in
March, cut out all dead wood and proceed as before. Your acre of 2,070 bushes
Topics for discussion in future numbers
of the Farmer are as follows:
No. 330, July 5.—Tell about some of the
leaks that are most common in farming
and how they can be avoided.
No. 331, July 12—Tell how to put out
a ten-acre fruit orchard. State kind of
soil, varieties of fruit, treatment, etc.
No. 332, July 19.—Give experience with
corn harvesters and corn shredders. Should
they be more generally used?
No. 333, July 20.—Give experience in
raising horses for farm use and for the
market.     What type is most profitable?
inclosed—no fencing being required for
his purposes anywhere, we do not think the
law would require him to contribute to
the construction of a partition fence which
conld be of no benefit to him. Of course,
if he has heretofore contracted with you
for a valuable consideration, to keep up
bis part of the fence, he could be held to
bis i-iiiitract.
(gctijeval Hetxrs.
%v.m gepixvtmtut.
Conducted by Ghas. B. Clarke, lawyer, 823 Steven-
eon Building,  Indianapolla, Ind,
In operation a volcano emits gases, vapors,
ashen,   boulders  and lava.
The use of Spanish Is decreasing, but It is
-•till a very Important language in commerce.
The Japanese mokklne is a xylophone of 16
wooden keys.    It is beaten with two drumsticks.
What Is known as the fruit trust handles 25,-
000,000 bunches of bananas and 220,000,000 co-
coanuts a year, besides oranges and other fruit.
Jacob E. Schurz, of Petersburg, a fur and gin-
wng dealer, and Fred Gouipf, a German gardener
or this place, have planted an acre of gluseng as
an experiment.
Confectioners and candy makers are among tho
largest purchasers of pineapples, and it is esti-
DQAted that at least 1,000.000 pineapples are used
•■very  yrar in  this country to flavor    ices.
The six masts of a ship are fore, main, mlzzen,
spanker,  jigger and driver.
Only male parrots learn to talk. The females
have no power to acquire human speech. •
The best lubricant for the organs of the throat
is said lo be pineapple tuice. It is also said
that ample living iu countries where the eooe-
-h;.,.. -il fruit Is grown never suffer from bronchial affections.
The suns flames spring at times to a distance
uf ;i5o.0OO miles from its surface.
The tuple sugar crop of Vermont will be worth
not less tban $1,000,000 this year.
A young woman of Lyons, Colo., killed a bear
ami two cuiis while she was out bunting cattle
one day recently.
A Ba lt I more groceryman bas recently compared the weight of paper with the food supplied
to the purchaser. In one day'e purchase it is
said that the paper wrapping amounted to about
10 per cent of the total. In a list of supplies
'■••stiiiir about $1.40 he found that the paper which
was weighed wltb the provisions cost 14% cents.
We give a map of Mill township and Green
township. What we want to know is, will each
supervisor have \\_ miles of road to work, or
will the supervisor in district No. 3 Green township have three miles to work, and the supervisor in district No. 1 Mill township, three miles
to work and the other two in Green township,
Mill township, not  work any of the road.
A   Reader.
Tho supervisor ia district No. 3 Greea
township and the supervisor ia district No.
1, Mill township each have three miles of
ihe road under their charge. Sec. 6848
Burns' *i>4 fixes this arbitrary rule.
I am a reader of the Indiana Farmer for about
14 years, but I never saw or read in it anything
about the law as to water gaps. I can not
make a gap that will not turn off hogs and not
Interfere with the course of the water. One will
have to give up either the hogs or the water
course. This Is on Camp creek; this creek Is to
be dredged very soon. Now It is about 17 feet
wide aud 6% f'l**t deep. We have for neighbor a
stock buyer, and he gets anything and everything,
so is not a very desirable neighbor in that respect. I don't think the law is to compel us to
make a water gap, so it will turn hogs off
on such a water course. Please give it In Indiana Farmer, because so many will like to know
what the law is. If there is no law for that our
legislature ought  to make one. J.   M.
Bourbon.
You and your neighbor, if both live on
inclosed land will have to build together
a water gap that will turn hogs. If he
does not do his duty we think he would
be liable to you for aay damage sustained
by you by reason of his hogs breaking into
your fields.
My joining neighbor has a partition fence that
Is In bad repair, and says he does not have to
built! fence to keep my stock out of his land.
What steps shall I have to take to make him,
or has the law changed so that I will have it
nil to keep up, if I pasture my land next to   him?
A  Subscriber.
If your neighbor has his lands inclosed,
he could be compelled to construct his part
of the partition fence; but if they are un-
THK HARD-WOKKING KING.
King Edward is determined that all the
details of reigning shall be rigorously attended to. It seems that the royal women
did most of the nursing of the aged Queen
during her last illness, and when the end
came they were quite broken down. Almost at once the present Queen was addressed as "Your Majesty." This was
like a first notice to her and resulted in
a violent fit of hysteria, when she locked
herself in her own apartments, saying she
would not be, could not be, Queen. She
forbade anyone to speak of her Majesty,
and for over a day held out against all entreaties. She said she would go into retirement, into a convent—anywhere. That
;f the crown* had come 20 years ago she
could have borne it, but now it was too
late. She said she was lame and deaf
.ind nearly 00 years old. "And oh," she
said, "Bertie will make us all work so
hard."—Everybody's Magazine.
COST OF THE CAPITOL.
Senator Millard, of Nebraska, was
tramping around the south end of the
Capitol with some visitors, who asked him
the eost of the immense structure.
"I'm sure I don't know answered the
senator, a little disappointed for not
knowing. "What did this Capitol cost?"
Inquired he, appealing to one of the House
employes near the telegraph otBce.
"Oh, I guess about $25,000,000 was the
reply.
Captain Kennedy, the veteran Capitol
guide, however, says it costs about $13,-
000 000 and he knows more about the big
buildin'g, probably, than any other living
man. He reckons in the cost of the terraces and the improvements in the new
committee rooms, the total being just
about twice the expense of erecting aod
! equipping the Library of Congress just
across the reservation.—Washington Post.