44 



THE CANADIAN H0RTICULTUEI8T. 



to have succeeded with Cutbbert on 

 light soil, but that is a point on which | 

 I stand aside. But as to productive- 

 ness I have no doubt personally. I do 

 not like to say it is as productive as 

 Philadelphia, simply because I should 

 like a little more experience with it 

 before praising it so highly. With it 

 on my place three seasons — in only one 

 of which it had growth enough to bear 

 a full crop — I am not going to write 

 as if I knew all about it ; but, taking 

 into account the mutilation of the roots 

 to remove the suckers for planting, I 

 have no hesitation in placing it second 

 only to Philadelphia in bearing quali- 

 ties, out of a dozen red raspberries 

 tested so far. 



But what are its faults 1 A distin- 

 guished American horticulturist and 

 nutseryman says that is just what he 

 has been trying for years to find out — 

 and can't. Such excellence as this in 

 the Cuthbert is more than I can see, 

 but its demerits are certainly neither 

 great nor numerous. Such as they are 

 on my grounds, however, I state them, 

 as we need to look on both sides of a 

 question of fruit as of anything else. 



And first, the canes do not seem quite 

 stiff enough for the load of fruit. The 

 stems shoot up with g:sat rapidity in 

 spring ; in late summer they grow 

 slower and mature innumerable fruit 

 buds, and the stalk, of course, thicTiens 

 up, but does not appear to acquire that 

 toughness and rigidity of fibre we note 

 in the Philadelphia and Turner. With 

 the long laterals which summer pinch- 

 ing causes, of course the effect is to let 

 some of the fi-uit get splashed in the 

 event of a heavy rain, and if deep 

 snows come in winter these laterals are 

 apt to be broken off. Older experience 

 may show a stiffening up of the cane^ 

 and different application of pinching 

 favor a growth of laterals too high to 

 be broken down by snows, but I simply 

 state what I have seen so far. 



Then T have not been able to quite 

 gauge its hardiness. The first winter 

 the yearling plants, together with 

 foreign sorts, were badly killed — per- 

 haps, indeed probably, because of too 

 vigorous late growth — but frozen they 

 were, and the fact must be faced. Last 

 winter they came through smiling in 

 spite of that cold dip that almost 

 brought the thermometer down from 

 the peg and the oldest inhabitant to his 

 memory's end. But Clarke and Fran- 

 conia came through too, nearly as well. 

 And this winter, January 13th, they 

 are gi^en to the tips, except where very 

 late fall growth was made — but the 

 foreign sorts are not far behind. 



( >n the whole, I do not think in this 

 climate it is any hardier than Franconia, 

 Clarke, &c., on one year old plants, but 

 rather moi-e so when full grown ; but 

 I do not regard the moist favorable 

 climate of Owen Sound fit to decide 

 the question, and I look eagerly for 

 reports of my brother fruit growers in 

 other districts to fix its value as to 

 hardiness for the Province, conscious 

 too that Cuthbert did not get a fair 

 relative trial with me, because 1 had it 

 on rich soil that caused quick soft 

 growth, while the other sorts were on 

 poor soil that caused closer grained 

 hardier wood. 



Lastly, it has a large hollow — per- 

 haps not wider than other sorts ; Init 

 that long crimson cone fits on to a long 

 stem, and fits pretty tightly too, though 

 not so as to break in the picking, and 

 when it comes off and lies with its 

 neighbors in a quart basket, I should 

 expect, after jolting in the express ear, 

 or standing thirty lioui-s in a shop win- 

 dow, a sinking down in the basket that 

 would cause a distinct murmtir at the 

 purchaser's end' of the line. 



That's the Cuthbert. Tliere's room 

 for a better l>erry — a little better — and, 

 as usual, a number of claimants for 

 public favor are ready to step in ; 



