420 MINNESOTA STATE TKJR'ITCULTURAL SOCIETY. 



farmer \\ill only prepare the ground, his wife or family or both 

 would rather grow the berries than be without them. There is 

 neither reason nor sense in farm homes being without strawberries 

 — or raspberries either, as is further shown below. 



Grozi'ing Red Raspberries. — It is generally recommended that red 

 raspberries shall be laid down in winter by those who grow them, 

 and that is all right for the professional grower. It will give him 

 a larger and surer return from a given area. But, in my judgment, 

 for the farmer there is an easier way. 



The land may be prepared as for strawberries. It may then be 

 planted to raspberries the following spring. The planting should be 

 done early. The rows may be made, say, four feet apart, and the 

 plants, say, three feet apart in the line of the row. The reason why 

 such close planting" is recommended is that the canes may sooner 

 cover the ground. 



The first season the cultivation should be clean, allowing all the 

 young shoots to grow at the same time. In the autumn give a 

 good top dressing with rough manure. This and the leaves should 

 prevent weeds from growing the following year. The canes should 

 produce considerable fruit. Other canes will grow up and pretty 

 well take possession of the ground. Top dress similarly again. The 

 following spring dig out all the weak canes, and those that crowd 

 too much, and throw them in a pile for burning, and cut away also 

 dead wood. No further labor will be called for during the season. 

 For a limited number of years, say three, four or five, good berrries 

 can be then obtained. A new patch should, of course, be started 

 before discarding the old one. 



I have grown raspberries by this method on the same ground 

 for five or six years in succession, but incline to the view that a 

 shorter term of years would be better. There has been some freez- 

 ing back of the canes, but only in two instances could it be said to 

 be serious, and I noticed that in these instances canes growing on 

 plots but one and two years old sufifered but little from freezing 

 back when those standing for a longer period sufifered considerably. 



With reference to varieties, only the hardiest should be grown by 

 this method. As an old standby, the Turner cannot be surpassed. 

 The King has also been found hardy and productive and is larger 

 than the old standby previously named. 



Growing Currants. — Of all the kinds of small fruits grown, none 

 is grown with less labor than the currant in its dififerent classes, the 

 red, the white and the black. As is known doubtless by all, the 

 currant is propagated from cuttings. These are taken in the early 

 spring from vigorous shoots of the previous year's growth and 



