90 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



your raspberry canes just as soon as they are through fruiting. 

 I never did in my hfe, but I ought to do it. Business is rushing 

 so just then that we usually wait and do it in the fall, and in 

 the spring go through and thin down to what we want, cutting 

 back what is winter-killed. This is one way to control rasp- 

 berry diseases satisfactorily: Keep your bed clean and if you 

 see a cane which shows the least sign of disease, cut it out and 

 burn it. 



Question : There is one advantage in our section, with our 

 climate, in leaving the old canes to support the new canes, to 

 prevent their breaking down. 



Mr. Putnam : Let me tell you my method. It may help you. 

 I plant in rows six feet apart with plants four feet and let them 

 make solid rows. I set posts about 25 feet apart and two and a 

 half feet high, and drive a nail in the top. I then stretch a No. 

 13 wire rather loosely on each side and hook it over the nails. 

 I can easily throw this wire down for pruning and hang it up 

 to keep the plants in for cultivating. You can get second hand 

 telephone wire which will cost almost nothing. 



The raspberry has to be marketed very quickly. You people 

 everywhere in New England have a home market more than 

 you think you have if you would spend time in developing it. 

 I have shipped my raspberries away w^hen I could have sold 

 them near home if I had taken the trouble. With the rasp- 

 berries you sometimes get three days' rain in the middle of 

 your best crop. This ruins them for market, but if you can 

 evaporate them, you can use a big paddle for picking and you 

 can perhaps save your profit on your crop. The small fruit 

 grower has his troubles as have the growers of large fruit. 

 There w^ill be years just as you are getting this year with the 

 apples, w^hen things don't look so hopeful, but on the whole 

 they are a pretty profitable proposition. 



The black raspberry is propagated from the tips, otherwise 

 it is handled in much the same w^ay. I think it best to pinch it 

 back. Another thing, in regard to red raspberries, — I never 

 cultivate them after I pick them. I am up 1200 feet, in an 

 entirely different climate from New Haven, and I have to look 

 out for the winter-killing, as you do here. You want to 

 ripen your cane early and get it mature. We are about ten 

 days later than they are at New Haven with their crop. Con- 



