272 



The Canadian Horticulturist. 



^'^ > RASPBERRY NOTES. 



HERE happens to be just now need of advance all along the 

 raspberry line, notwithstanding the fact that we have in the last 

 half century created the whole raspberry harvest and market. Of 

 the older sorts Cuthbert alone, of the reds, stands well nearly 

 everywhere. It is somewhat tender as far north as Boston and 

 Buffalo, in exposed positions. Turner suckers beyond endurance. 

 Shaffers is too dark and the cane rusts. Marlboro, on some soils, 

 is inferior, and always requires good culture. Thomson is early, 

 but small. Hansell and Crimson Cluster are decidedly unsatisfac- 

 tory with me, and the same must be said of several other sorts 

 industriously disseminated. Of the newer sorts, Muskingum belongs in the 

 Shaffer class, but has a very solid fruit that will carry well. No one, however, 

 will buy these berries except at very low figures. Superlative is either the same 

 as E. P. Roe's Pride of the Hudson, or very similar. It is not suited to general 

 culture. Champlain is a pale yellow. Caroline, however, for a home berry to 

 be used without delay after picking, is really fine table fruit. 



Among the blacks. Palmer and Kansas are excellent. But Kansas is not 

 equal in size to Gregg. Gregg is, unfortunately, not hardy. Now what we want 

 is a succession of berries, beginning as early as Davison's Thornless and closing 

 as late as Gregg, and fully as large as the latter. In reds, we need a berry as 

 large and reliable as Cuthbert, but as early as Malboro, and then a succession 

 running on as late as Cuthbert. Marlboro, gives a standard of color, and 

 Turner of quality. For canning I do not ask a berry better in quality than 

 Shaffer's Colossal. But the color is not acceptable to housekeepers. It is a 

 remarkable innovation in the fruit, however. The canes grow twelve feet in a 

 season, and, while always killing bark, there is always a crop, and a very big one. 

 It is a grand home berry. As a market fruit, the red raspberry is rarely ever in 

 supply above demand. It is useless to raise it for a distant market. The local 

 berry will always hold the local market. The red has fifty friends to one for the 

 black. 



The best remedy for a drouth is heavy mulching after spring harrowing. I 

 run the cultivator in April, and then apply all the mulch that I can command. 

 In the fall I gather enormous piles of leaves, these in the spring making admir- 

 able mulch. There is great advantage in growing the rows so that the bearing 

 branches will reach out nearly to touch each other and shade the ground. Cut 

 out old canes in September or October ; then tie the new canes to wires, or 

 rather in small bunches just below a wire stretched along posts. Then, in late 

 October, cut off the tops with hedge shears, leaving the canes five feet high. 

 Apply a good coating of manure, and wait until spring. In picking time the 

 rows should present almost solid walls of berries, but if there be a lack of mois- 

 ture, the upper clusters will be dried. Irrigation must ultimately be almost as 

 common in the East as in the West. — American Agriculturist. 



