352 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



RAISING PLANTS OF THE RASPBERRY AND 

 BLACKBERRY. 



A M. SHEPHERD, MINNEAPOLIS. 



We secure almost our entire output of these plants from suck- 

 ers. Our practice is to set a new plantation every spring for grow- 

 ing plants only, and to secure plants from this plantation in the 

 fall of the second and third years only (preferably the second), dig- 

 ging the plants in, the fall and heeling in for use the following 

 spring. Plants taken from the plats after the third year from set- 

 ting propagate less freely and are weaker each succeeding year as 

 the plantation grows older. 



Early in the spring of the second year (and third, if plants are 

 used) we cultivate deeply to break the roots, causing them to sucker 

 much more freely. After this early cultivation they are left entirely 

 to themselves until the plants are dug. The main thing in securing 

 sucker plants that will make a strong growth is to dig properly. 

 Don't push the spade in once beside the plant and then pull and 

 prv it out! Such plants have no parent or lead root, it being broken 

 off by this improper mode of digging, and the plant is not worth 

 setting as a gift. Take your spade (we assume that it is always 

 sharp) and cut ofif the lead root, not closer than two inches from 

 the plant on both sides, viz.: toward the parent plant and in a paral- 

 lel line on opposite side of the sucker. Then insert the spade near 

 the plant between these two cuts and dig out the plant — not pull it 

 out. These plants have the parent root as in root cuttings, and with 

 us give results fully equal to them and at a minimum expenditure of 

 labor. 



Xew varieties are obtained from seed saved as soon as the 

 fruit is ripe and planted in the open ground if the soil is in prime 

 condition, or stratified until the following spring if not. Root cut- 

 tings are made in the fall from roots from one-fourth to one-half an 

 inch in diameter, and cut in pieces from one to four inches long 

 (pfeferably long) according to scarcity of the variety propagated. 

 These may be buried in boxes of sand or stored in a cool cellar till 

 spring. They callous more rapidly in a cool cellar. They are 

 planted in April or May in the open ground. The pieces are 

 planted horizontally, about two inches deep, in rich, mellow soil. 

 Bottom heat may be used and stronger growth of cane secured the 

 first season, as they are thus started from one to two months earlier 

 in the frames. At current prices of plants, however, this is imprac- 

 ticable except in case of scarce or new varieties. Where bottom 

 heat is used shorter and slender roots may be used, which would 

 not do where planted in the open ground. 



