After getting more and more fruit, I found I could not dispose of it in the home market, and tending to the picking and packing of the fruit did not leave enough time to warrant my peddling it.  I had been advised to ship my berries to two or three different commission houses in order to see where I could obtain the best results.  I frequently divided my shipments into three parts:  consequently some of my fruit would meet in competition with another lot of my fruit, and not only would one concern ask a higher or lower price than the other, but they would not know when to expect my shipments, which they would receive on alternate days.  I finally came to the conclusion that I would send all my fruit to one party, and I found that it was not only more of an object to them, but people would come every day to buy some, knowing they were getting the same quality each time.

Although it has been my experience that the raspberry is never a failure, still I have found that it is a good policy not to depend entirely on the raspberry, but to extend the plantation in such a way as to have a continuous supply of fruits and vegetables in season, from the asparagus and pie plant of the early spring to the very latest variety of the grape and apple ripening just before the heavy frost of fall, when it is again time to tuck them all away for the winter.

Mr. Ludlow:  Do I understand that you have to lay down and cover up those red raspberries?

Mr. Johnson:  Yes, sir; otherwise you only get a few berries right at the top of the cane, and if you cover them the berries will be all along down the cane.

The President:  Do you break off many canes by covering them?

Mr. Johnson:  No, it is the way you bend them.  When you bend them down, make a kind of a twist and hold your hand right near them.  You can bend them down as quick as a couple of men can shovel them down.

Mr. Anderson:  Do you bend them north or south or any way?

Mr. Johnson:  I generally bend one row one way and the other the other way.  Where you want to cultivate, it is easier for cultivation; you don’t have to go against the bend of those plants.  That bend will never be straight again, and when you come to cultivate you are liable to rub them.

Mr. Anderson:  How far have you got yours planted apart?

Mr. Johnson:  About five feet.

Mr. Sauter:  What is your best raspberry?

Mr. Johnson:  I haven’t seen anything better than the King.

Mr. Sauter:  Do you cover the King?

Mr. Johnson:  Yes.

Mr. Sauter:  We don’t do it on the experimental station.  I never covered mine, and I think I had the best all around berry last summer.

Mr. Johnson:  That might be all right when they are young, but I find it pays me.

A Member:  Don’t they form new branches on the sides when you pinch off the ends?

Mr. Johnson:  Yes, sir; then you pinch them off.