I. Black Raspberries as a Farm Market Crop. 



The growing of raspberries to be sold fresh in market is compara- 

 tively well understood, although it has its difficulties. The chief design 

 of this bulletin is to call attention to the adaptability of the black 

 raspberry for evaporating, as a farm market crop, to be grown by any- 

 one who may have a taste for that work, regardless of proximity to 

 markets; and the object is rather to disseminate information collected 

 from various sources than to make a record of experiments . Many of 

 the farmers of the country are practically debarred from competing in 

 certain lines of production on account of the heavy expense of getting 

 their products from the farm to the market, or to the nearest railroad 

 station. To grow potatoes when the distance is so great that half a 

 day is required to deliver a load to the station, is to work under a very 

 serious disadvantage, for the product possesses small value in propor- 

 tion to its weight, a load of a ton and a half being worth only from 

 $20 to $30; hence to deduct $1.50 from this amount for the mere cost 

 of hauling means the loss of a large percentage of the profits. An 

 equal weight of evaporated raspberries, on the other hand, would be 

 worth on an average about $600, and an item of $1.50 for hauling is a 

 very different matter. 



, The advent of the berry harvester makes it possible to conduct berry 

 farming in just such remote locations. Without this implement, the 

 evaporator is just as dependent on location, as the grower who sells 

 fresh fruit, for it is only in the vicinity of towns of considerable size 

 that pickers can be secured in sufficient numbers to make a safe busi- 

 ness in small-fruit growing 



Varieties. — The variety chiefly grown for evaporating purposes 

 throughout the great evaporting sections of central and western New 

 York is the Ohio, yet it is by no means certain that this is the best. It 

 is a comparatively dry berry of secondary quality, containing a large 

 proportion of seeds, and giving a high yield in pounds of dried fruit. 

 Hence it has naturally come into fayor with growers, for the latter 

 reason, if for no other. It has been shown, however, that the mere fact 

 of dryness in a variety does not make it yield heavily when evaporated. 

 In some tests made by Professor Goff several years ago, the smallest 



26 



