118 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



from two to three inches deep. From three to five strong, A'igorous canes are 

 enough to the hill for fruiting. When vegetation starts in the spring, these 

 laterals should be cut back to six or ten inches from the main stem, depend- 

 ing on the vigor of the bush. Both staking and wiring the raspberry and 

 blackberry should be condemned, as expensive and injurious to the canes. The 

 better way is to grow strong canes, well headed back, and they will always sup- 

 port themselves. Among the many varieties of this most excellent fruit in 

 general cultivation, either for market or home use, I would select the Gregg. 

 It contains about all the good qualities required. The Cluster and Tyler are 

 also well recommended. For canning or drying for future use, or for table 

 use, in its season, I doubt if we have any small fruit superior or equal to the 

 black raspberry. None of our small fruits retain their richness of flavor in 

 canning or drying better, or so Avell, as this; and the dried fruit always finds 

 a ready market at good figures. For hygienic or dietic purposes, I consider this 

 one of our most valuable of small fruits, and should have a place in every 

 garden. It is perfectly hardy in this latitude, even daring our most severe 

 winters. There is, however, one difficulty in its propagation, and this is of a 

 most serious character. It has been about as fatal to our black raspberry 

 canes, as the yellows has been to our peach trees. On the Lake Shore it has 

 literally wiped them out. We are now starting anew with better varieties, and 

 I hope such as will resist a tendency to this blighting scourge — the rust — a 

 fungus growth, manifesting itself in the iron rusty appearance of the leaves, 

 and the thin, wiry forms of the canes. Neither the cause nor a remedy has 

 as yet been discovered. This fungoid growth, like the mildew on the grape, 

 is doubtless due in part to meteorological or atmospheric causes. The excessive 

 wet season of 1883 developed an unusual amount of rust among our black- 

 berries. 



Next in order of ripening and importance of the rubus genus, is the black- 

 berry; which, in the wild state, extends over the mountainous and temperate 

 regions of the old and new world. Of these, we have in this country two 

 characteristic varieties; the rubus canadensis, low blackberry or dewberry, 

 with trailing, prickly stems running on the ground. This variety is little 

 known except in its wild state. The other, the rubus villosus or high black- 

 berry. Like the red but unlike the black raspberry, it reproduces by suckers. 

 In all that pertains to the preparation of soil, the setting of plants, the culti- 

 vation thereafter, and the general management or treatment of the canes, the 

 same system applies as in case of the black raspberry. 



Owing to the large number of new varieties continually forced upon the 

 market, it is difficult to recommend even a small list that will prove satisfactory 

 in all cases. For quality, productiveness, and exemption from rust, the Law- 

 ton has no superior or equal. But there are seasons when the Lawton in this 

 State, even on our high lands on the lake shore, winter-kills. On an average, 

 about one year in two we succeed in getting a good crop of this berry without 

 winter protection. Those who take the pains to lay their canes on the ground 

 late in the fall, may reasonably hope for a crop about every year. The Sny- 

 der and Western Triumph on a good strong soil, and close pruning, may be 

 relied upon to yield a fair crop every year without winter protection. For 

 earliness, hardiness, productiveness, size, richness of color, and firmness, the 

 Wilson is perhaps without a peer. It lacks, however, in quality, and is better 

 adapted for market than for home use. The white cricket has of late years 

 been propagating its species by stinging the black raspberry and blackberry 

 canes; but not to the same extent that it works on the red. All these plants 



