RASPBERRY CULTURE. 



age is grown. If the canes were cut 

 back in spring at a height of say four 

 feet, it would leave very little wood for 

 fruit production, as there is but one 

 fruit-bearing stem produced from each 

 bud. Fig. 1303 illustrates our method 

 of pruning. The new canes are cut 

 back at the height of two and one-half 

 feet some time during the month of 

 June. This causes them to become 

 strong and stocky and throw out a lateral 

 branch from each bud on the main 

 canes. These branches sometimes grow 

 to the great length of ten or twelve feet. 

 The following March or April, after sev- 

 ere freezing weather if past, we clip these 

 with a hedge shears to eighteen or twenty 

 inches in length. This leaves an abun- 

 dance of wood for fruit production and 

 gives the bushes a nice circular form 

 about three and one-half feet in diam- 

 eter, thus affording every facility for 

 cultivation and gathering the fruit. 



As soon as the soil is in a fit condi- 

 tion for working, the ridges should be 

 cultivated back to a level again and 

 shallow cultivation should be continued 

 until just before the fruit begins to ripen. 

 As soon as the fruit has been harvested, 

 the old wood should be cut out, remov- 

 ed and burned. By using a V. shaped 

 steel hook for cutting out the old wood, 

 a horse attached to a wooden rake for 

 gathering it into bunches, and a sled for 

 hauling it away, this work is much 

 simplified. When this has been accom- 

 plished, the ridging up should again be 

 done. Doubtless many who are pre- 

 sent have attempted to grow raspberries, 

 and have noticed the bushes become 

 sickly after a few years and soon die 

 out altogether. This is usually caused 

 by a fungous disease known as anthrac- 

 nose. It is contagious, is carried in the 

 air, and is most prevalent during a wet 

 season, Fig. 1304 in the charts illus- 



trates a section of cane 

 very badly affected with 

 anthracnose. The first 

 symptom of the disease is 

 the appearance on the 

 young canes, from the first 

 till the middle of June, of 

 small white pits or inden- 

 tures, surrounded with a 

 dark bluish circle. 



These pits soon enlarge 



and spread over the canes, 



until in severe cases they 



are entirely girdled. It 



also affects the foliage in 



the form of dark brown or 



Fig. 1304. reddish spots, sometimes 



containing a light centre as shown in 



Fig. 1305. 



Theses pots quickly enlarge and cover 

 the whole surface of the leaves, when 

 they dry and curl up, giving the entire 

 patch the appearance of having had a 

 fire pass over it. When the foliage of a 

 few bushes in a plantation become affect- 

 ed, it rapidly extends itself to others* and 

 in this way will run over several acres in 

 the course of five or six days. In some 

 cases, the bearing canes entirely dry up, 

 while in others, where they still retain 

 sufficient vitality to ripen the fruit, it is 

 much diminished in size and is dry and 



Fig. 1305. 



93 



