510 Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



Blackberry biislies which are managed as I have outlined above 

 will stand alone, without stakes or trellises. Such bushes are shown 

 on the title page (Early Cluster) and a smaller-growing variety 

 (Early Harvest) in Fig. 92. The bushes are sometimes kept from 

 lojiping by stretching a single wire along either side of the row, 

 securing it to stakes which stand two or three feet high. 



In some places, particularly along the Hudson, blackberries are 

 trained on wires, after the manner of grapes. A blackberry trellis 

 is shown in Fig. 93.- The two-wire trellis is generally preferred. 

 The young canes are headed-in just above the upper wire, and they 

 are gathered in bunches in the hand and tied to the upper wire, 

 where they will least interfere with the ripening fruit. These canes 

 may remain on the wires all winter, or they may be laid down for 

 protection. Early the following spring, they are tied securely to 

 both wires. This makes, therefore, one summer tying for the 

 young canes, and one spring tying for the bearing canes. Black- 

 berries may also be tied to single stakes, although the practice is 

 scarcely advisable because the fruit is apt to become to much massed 

 in the foliage. Dewberries, however, which make a less rampant 

 growth, are trained to stakes to great advantage, and when they are 

 well grown, they are caj)able of becoming a valuable addition to the 

 berry plantation, because they sell as blackberries and ripen a week 

 or ten days earlier. Some growers in this State find the Lucretia 

 dewberrry to be as proiitable as the blackberry, and one or two cor- 

 respondents even prefer it.* 



Winter protection. — Protection in winter is rarely, if ever, nec- 

 essary in western ]^ew York if the bushes are upon the proper 

 land, if they have been judiciously cultivated and pruned, and if the 

 hardier .varieties are grown. Blackberries are extensively laid down 

 in colder climates, however, and it may be well to relate the method 

 here for the benefit of those who occupy bleak locations. Late in ' 

 fall, the bushes are tipped over and covered. Three men are gen- 

 erally employed to perform this labor. One man goes ahead with a 

 long-handled, round-pointed shovel and digs the earth away six 

 inches deep from under the roots. The second man has a six-tined 

 or four-tined fork which he thrusts against the plant a foot or so 

 above the ground, and by pushing upon the fork and stamping 



*A full account of the dewberries will l»e found in our Bulletin 34, vrhich, 

 however, is now out of print. 



