on the ground.

Mr. Anderson: Don't you take out any dirt on the sides?

Mr. Johnson: No, sir; sometimes I might put a shovel of ground against
them to bend the canes over.

Mr. Rogers: Do you plant in the hedge row or in the hill system?

Mr. Johnson: In the hedge row. I think it is better because they protect
one another.

Mr. Ludlow: How far do you put them apart in the hedge row?

Mr. Johnson: Four feet. That is the trouble with the King, if you don't
keep them down, your rows will get too wide.

A Member: I heard you say a while ago you covered these. Do you plow
them after you get them down or do you cover them with a shovel?

Mr. Johnson: I cover mostly with a shovel. Sometimes I take a small plow
through.

A Member: Don't you think in covering them with a plow you might disturb
the roots?

Mr. Johnson: That is the danger.

A Member: I saw a fellow covering up twelve acres of black caps and he
plowed them shut. After I heard what you said I thought maybe that he
was injuring his roots.

Mr. Johnson: You know the black cap has a different root system from the
reds. The roots of the reds will run out all over the road.

Mr. Willard: How thick do you leave those canes set apart in the row,
how many in a foot?

Mr. Johnson: I generally try to leave them in hills four feet apart, not
let them come in any between. About three or four in a hill. I generally
try to cut out the weak ones.

Mr. Willard: You pinch the end of the tops, I think?

Mr. Johnson: Yes, sir.

A Member: When do you cut those sucker canes?

Mr. Johnson: I generally hoe them just before picking time and loosen
the ground in the row. That is very important, to give them a hoeing,
not hoe down deep, but just loosen that hard crust there and cut all the
plants that you don't want, and then generally, after the berries
commence to ripen, your suckers don't come so fast, and you keep on
cultivating once in a while.

Mr. Brackett: I have some King raspberries, and I never covered them up
in ten years. I will change that. The first year I did cover a part of
my patch, at least one-half of them, and that left the other half
standing, and I couldn't see any difference. Around Excelsior there are
very few people that cover up the King raspberry. But the King raspberry
has run out; all of the old varieties have run out. We have at our
experiment station the No. 4--you can get double the amount of fruit
from the No. 4 than from the King.