The Canadian Horticulturist. 9 



the laterals should have time to make a hard growth and start down low so as 

 to prevent the cane from tipping over with its load of fruit. Plants thus 

 managed will need no stakes or trellises, although a simple wire may be stretched 

 along each side of the row and secured to stakes to keep them from lopping. 

 Along the Hudson River plants are trained after the manner of grapes on two- 

 wire trellises. The young canes are headed just above the upper wire and are 

 tied to it where they will least interfere with the ripening fruit. The canes may 

 remain on the wires all winter, or they may be lain down for protection and tied 

 securely to both wires the following spring. This necessitates one summer 

 tying for the young canes and one spring tying for the bearing canes. It is not 

 the best practice to tie them to a single stake, as the fruit will be too much 

 massed in the foliage, although dewberries can be profitably handled this way. 



Winter Protection — Hardy varieties, judiciously grown and pruned, do not 

 need this in Western New York. In colder climates the bushes are tipped over 

 and covered late in the fall. One man goes ahead with a round-pointed shovel 

 and digs the earth six inches deep from the roots, a second man places a fork 

 against the plant a foot or so above the ground, and by pushing it and stamping 

 against the roots with his feet lays it over, the third man covers the plant with 

 the earth that has been removed or marsh hay. If the variety is a tender one 

 the whole bush is covered two or three inches deep. Hardy varieties only 

 need a few shovelfuls of earth on the tops of the canes. If frosts are feared 

 they may be left undet this covcing until corn-planting time, but the bushes 

 must be watched in spring and raised before the buds become soft and white. 

 This method of laying down the plants costs less than ten dollars an acre, and 

 the slight breaking of roots is no disadvantage. The operators must be careful 

 not to crack or split the canes, and the method should be varied, as the canes 

 of some varieties are stiffer than others. 



Cultivation — Surface tillage should be begun early in the spring to preser\'e 

 the water. If plowed early, a spring-toothed cultivator should be run through 

 the plants every week, especially after rain, before the soil bakes. After the 

 crop is harvested one cultivation is given to loosen up the ground vjhich has 

 been tramped down by the pickers, say, about the middle or last of August. 

 Frequently light cultivations are the cheapest, because the weeds never get a 

 chance to grow, and little hoeing is necessary. If a patch becomes foul with 

 thistles or other weeds it is best to mow it over, plow it up thoroughly and crop 

 with corn for a season. Suckers will come up among the corn along the old 

 rows, and the next year the plantation will be completely renewed. Stable 

 manure is the popular fertilizer, although, if the tillage is good, nitrogen will 

 scarcely be needed, so that potash and phosphoric acid can be applied alone. 



Yield: and Profits. — The year after the planting the yield should pay the 

 cost up to that time, the third year should give a large crop, and since there 

 seems to be no limit of the profitable age of a blackberry plantation, every good 

 year should give a good crop thereafter. Of course, a plantation will not endure 



