404 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



valuable sort for evaporating, as the fruit lost but little more in drying than 

 that of the black varieties and brought a better price in market. To test 

 the matter, several trials were made with this and other well-known varie- 

 ties at the experiment station. Contrary to what many would undoubtedly 

 expect, the Shaffer stands but little below the Ohio and Gregg. The two 

 latter varied a little in different trials, but gave on an average at the rate of 

 nine pounds of dried fruit per bushel. The best result obtained with the 

 Shaffer was eight and one-half pounds per bushel, while the average was 

 eight pounds. In one trial the fruit was dried more than was necessary, as 

 shown by the fact that other samples of each sort that was dried much less 

 are still keeping well, although quite soft. If a bushel of Shaffer berries 

 will give within a pound as much dried fruit as will a bushel of Ohio or 

 Gregg, and will sell for more per pound, then wide-awake fruit-growers do 

 not need to be told what variety to plant. 



Propagating Kaspberries. — W. F. Massey in the Philadelphia Press 

 says : I recently saw a man planting root cuttings of raspberries in the open 

 ground. He had drawn slight furrows with a marker, and was dropping 

 the cuttings therein, while a helper followed and covered them with a rake. 

 The soil was sandy, and the cover simply drew the light earth into the fur- 

 rows, without rolling or compacting in any manner. It was late for such 

 work at best (May 12), as the raspberries growing around were in full leaf, 

 and I could not help regretting the waste of material and labor. Probably 

 not more than onn in fifty of the cuttings will grow at all, and these, from 

 their late start, will make inferior plants and have to be sold at small prices. 

 If they had been put in a month earlier and the soil compacted over them, 

 a reasonable degree of success would have been certain. But when room 

 under glass can be had the best way to get good raspberry plants (of the 

 reds) is to take shallow boxes (made by splitting soap-boxes), put an inch of 

 soil in the bottom, cover this with root cuttings an inch long as thickly as 

 they will lie, cover with sand and place on the greenhouse bench in full sun- 

 light and keep moist. As soon as the shoots develop, pot in two-inch pots. 

 If this is done early in March nice plants could now be had to.set out either 

 in nursery rows to make extra strong plants for fall sale or they may be at 

 once planted where they are to fruit. When the Herstine raspberry was 

 sent out, a friend brought me two strong plants about the first of January 

 for which he had paid Mr. Parry $2.50 apiece, and wanted to know what he 

 should do with them till spring. I told him that if he would leave the 

 plants with me I would propagate them for half. This he agreed to, and I 

 at once made all the root cuttings that could be gotten off the plants and 

 put them into the propagating bench. Every particle seemed' to grow, and 

 late in April I gave my friend his share, 130 plants, eight to ten inches 

 high, suitable for immediate planting. Had I used some of the green tops 

 with bottom heat, more could have been grown, but not good ones. -Of 

 course it is a little more trouble to propagate raspberries in this way, but the 

 advance in time with new sorts will far more than repay the extra outlay. 

 Years ago, during the Philadelphia raspberry fever, a Jerseyman put up a 

 large propagating house, with benches furnished with bottom heat by tanks 

 of hot water beneath them, and concluded he was going to make a fortune 

 propagating Jersey raspberry plants. He started his house in January and 

 filled the same on benches with cuttings of the ripened fops of the raspberry 



