An Encyclopedia of Horticulture. 



277 



Raspberry — continued. 



Cultivation. Ground intomlefl foi- a new Raspberry 

 plantation should be well trenched, and have plenty 

 of manure intermixed. A good depth of soil is essential, 

 and a rather moist situation is preferable. When trench- 

 ing, the subsoil need not be brought to the surface if 

 it is of an inferior description, but it should be moved 

 to a depth of from 'ift. to ilft, and have some decom- 

 posed manure mixed with it. The usual method of 

 planting is in rows, about oft. apart, a distance of not 

 less than 3ft. being allowed between plants in the row. 

 Canes may be arranged singly, in twos, or in threes : 

 when more than one are planted, a space of Oin. should 

 be allowed between them. Two or three canes form a 

 full-sized bush on a stake in a much shorter time than 

 one : but, of course, many more are required, in the 

 first instance, to form a plantation. After the canes 

 are planted, they should be cut down to within 1ft. 

 of the ground : this will encourage the production of 

 stronger growths the next summer than could be ex- 

 pected if they were allowed to fruit the first year. The 

 following autumn, the canes should be tied to stakes, 

 and shortened to a height of about Hft. ; the plantation 

 may then be considered established. In the second 



Fig. 357. Friiting Branchlet oi- RASPiiKRRv. 



season, these canes will bear fruit from the side 

 branchlets, and suckers will proceed from the base, to 

 form others for fruiting the succeeding year : about six 

 of the strongest will be sufficient to leave on each plant ; 

 the remainder should be removed early in the season as 

 they appear. The pruning for this and successive 

 seasons consists in cutting away the old canes any time 

 after fruiting, and tying the new ones in the autumn 

 to take their place. Raspberries are sometimes trained 

 to a trellis formed horizontally with strained wire, or 

 narrow strips of wood about lin. thick, with upright 

 stakes at intervals. The plants for training against 

 those may be arranged about '2ft. asunder, and old and 

 young canes should be trained alternately as far as con- 

 venient. Another method of training is that of arching, 

 for which purpose plants may be inserted 4ft. apart, 

 and the tops of one trained over to meet those of that 

 adjoining. 



A top-dressing of manure should be applied to Easp- 

 berry plantations in the autumn : it may be lightly 

 forked in. but the soil should never be stirred to a great 

 depth ; otherwise, many of the surface-roots would be 

 destroyed. When very large fruits are required, but 

 few bearing shoots should be allowed, and these only of 

 the strongest description. The young shoots from a few 



Raspberry — continued. 

 stools might be kept removed, in order to throw addi- 

 tional support into those fruiting ; this, however, would 

 prevent the development of canes for bearing the suc- 

 ceeding year. 



FuNcii. Though a good many Fungi grow on dead 

 Raspberry canes, this plant does not experience serious 

 damage from parasitic Fungi. The most common one is 

 a, Brand, belonging to Phragmidium, a genus of lire- 

 dine<e, characterised by having the more conspicuous 

 spores (teleutospores) composed of a row of cells, end to 

 end {see Phragmidium). The leaves of the RaspbeiTy 

 in autumn are often thickly sprinkled with small, black 

 dots, made up of masses of spores of P. Ruhi-Iriwi, 

 Pers. (P. gracilis, Grev.), or the Raspberry Brand. 

 The spores are cylindrical, or nearly so, contain from 

 six to ten cells, and end in a conical point. The dark 

 masses are preceded by yellow spots, which are the 

 seoidia, or the uredo form of this plant. These yellow 

 spots are made up of spores, roundish or elliptical in 

 form, yellow in colour, and prickly ; but the ajcidiospores 

 are produced in rows, whQe the uredospores grow singly 

 on the tips of short stalks, which are crowded together 

 in separate spots. 



The living leaves of Raspberries fre- 

 quently have the upper side sprinkled 

 thickly with black dots, smaller than those 

 caused by Phragmidiujn. These are the 

 perithecia of Coleroa chcetomiuin, Kunze 

 {Stigmatea Chaetomiam, Fries.), one of the 

 Pyrenomycetes. With the microscope, it is 

 seen that they lie on the surface of the 

 leaf, and are bristly, globular, and thin. 

 Each contains a number of asci, each of 

 which incloses eight two-celled spores. 



Both kinds of Fungi are apt to cause 

 the premature discoloration and the fall of 

 the leaves, but it can scarcely be said that 

 they seriously affect the welfare of the 

 plants. The only remedy is to pick off the 

 speckled leaves, or to cut down and burn 

 those plants that are seriously attacked ; 

 but this is seldom, if ever, necessary. 



Insects. The roots are, in common with 

 those of other plants, liable to be cut and 

 eaten by Mole Crickets, and by the usual 

 subterranean larvie {e.j/.,Cockcliafers, &c.). 

 Damage from this cause is so seldom serious 

 that it need not be dwelt on. The young 

 canes, and the fruit, on the contrary, are sometimes 

 very much injured by certain insects. Among the.se, the 

 following have been recorded in Miss Ormerod's valuable 

 '* Reports on Injurious Insects," for 1870 and 1883, as 

 peculiarly destructive. Certain Weevils (Otioi-lujnchus 

 picipes, O. sulcatus, &c.) gnaw the young shoots, killing 

 them, and greatly weakening the plants, many of which 

 perish when the attack is severe. Besides this, the 

 beetles gnaw through the bases of the flower shoots, 

 either cutting them oft' entirely, or biting half through 

 them, causing them to wither, and destroying the crops. 

 For a descriptioH of these insects, see Otiorhynchus. 

 They hide, during the day, under any shelter they can 

 reach, and, as they are wingless, this must be near the 

 plants. Hence, pieces of bark, or similar objects, placed 

 in their haunts, prove good traps, and have been used 

 with success for their capture, since they are easily 

 cleared off the lower surface of such traps. Any sticky 

 substance smeared round the stems would prevent the 

 ascent of the insects to the flower-shoots ; but this 

 method is too laborious to be employed for any but 

 choice plants. The most effectual means of destroying 

 the beetles has been found to be shaking the plants 

 after dark over shallow wooden trays, smeared with tar 

 round the sides, to prevent the escape of the insects. 



