274 'i'HE Canadian Horticulturist. 



vigorous as possible. Hence the pinching back. After the first year, no trim- 

 ming whatever should be made until the following winter or early spring. This 

 has been against the almost general practice, but it is sound, not only when 

 tested by experience, but in theory, also. We aim to prevent winter-killing, to 

 have the plant complete its round of growth, the wood mature, and the leaves 

 drop, because they are ripe, and not from frost. There are from four to eight 

 canes, and these, without any branches of old growth, will fill the rows with 

 their new shoots the next season. It is upon the new shoots alone that the 

 fruit is formed, anc the more vigorous these new shoot the greater the yield. 

 One shoot, 20 or 30 inches long, will produce far more than 5 or 6, 4 inches 

 long. Don't cut anything in the fall. Don't ! Don't ! Let the patch remain 

 as near a wilderness as possible. In the winter or early spring cut out the old 

 wood close to the ground, and then cut off the new canes as nearly 3 feet in 

 height as possible. They will then be in the shape of straight sticks without a 

 branch. But the roots are the matured product of an uninterrupted year's 

 growth, and, as soon as spring opens, will develop the buds with great vigor. 

 In no instance is the law of pruning more markedly shown than with the rasp- 

 berry : summer pruning dwarfs both root and top ; winter or spring pruning 

 increases the growth of both. Late summer and fall cultivation and summer 

 and fall pruning have cost the raspberry farmers thousands of dollars each year. 

 The idea that the more work they do the greater the crop, has ruined thousands 

 of acres every year. Two good crops is about the average number, while side 

 by side, other farmers with less work get from five to eight crops. The unvary- 

 ing rules for raspberry pruning are : i. Pinch the terminal bud when less than 

 12 inches high the first year. 2. After the first year do not cut a cane, mature 

 or immature, old or new, during the season of growth. Adherence to these 

 rules will give a permanence to the plant, limited only by the ability to keep 

 the ground free from weeds, and to supply the fertilizer necessary to sustain such 

 an enormous vegetable growth. — Jefferson Sherman in Rural New Yorker. 



The Importance of Thinning" Crops. — I am satisfied that but few 

 farmers know the importance of thinning. They seem to think nothing needs 

 thinning but corn. One bought some raspberries of me and said, '' Come, look 

 at my vines and tell me what is the matter with them ; they are a good kind but 

 wont bear." I looked and saw at once. I said " How many stalks have you 

 in each hill?" He laughed and said about forty. I said "What is the use of 

 carrying your brains around with you if you don't use them ? " There were ten 

 plants where there should be only one as a rule. One good, thrifty, well-formed 

 blackberry or raspberry stalk is worth a dozen over-crowded, thriftless, limbless 

 ones. I once planted a big potato whole to get big potatoes and got a big hill 

 full of little potatoes. It would have been all the same if I had planted a big 

 ear of corn whole in a hill and expected big corn. Potatoes should be thinned 

 to one or two eyes before plantiing. Few farmers do it. To thin my crop as I 

 ought has taken more nerve than anything I have undertaken on the farm. — W. 

 L. Anderson, Montgomery Co., Ind. 



