,i64 The Canadian Horticulturist. 



CULTIVATION OF THE BLACKBERRY. 



O fruit profits more from careful tillage than the blackberry. This is 

 largely because the fruit requires so much water, if it reaches its full 

 capabilities, and the crop matures in the driest part of the season. 

 The moisture of the soil can be well conserved only when tillage i? 

 begun very early in the spring. We generally plow our patches in 

 the spring, and thereafter keep the land in fine shape by running 

 over it every week with a cultivator. We generally prefer a spring- 

 tooth cultivator. It is especially important to cultivate as soon after a rain as 

 the soil is in condition, before it bakes. This tillage is continued until within 

 a day or two of picking time. After the crop is harvested, one good cultivation 

 is given to loosen up the ground which has been tramped down by the pickers 

 and to fit it for winter. With us, this last cultivation occurs about the middle 

 or last of August. In the drier summers west of New York, blackberry growers 

 often mulch with freshly cut clover or manure close about the plants, leaving 

 the center of the rows open for cultivation ; but this is rarely, if ever, necessary 

 in this State. 



These frequent light cultivations are really cheaper than one or two, 

 because the weeds never get a chance to grow and little hoeing is necessary. If 

 a patch becomes foul with thistles and other weeds, the best procedure is to 

 mow it off, plow it up thoroughly and crop it with corn for a season. Suckers 

 will come up in the corn along the old rows, and the following year the planta- 

 tion will be completely renewed. 



Stable manure is the most popular fertilizer for blackberries. In general, 

 it may be said that if the tillage is good, nitrogen will rarely be needed on good 

 lands. Potash and phosphoric acid as advised for orchards may, no doubt, be 

 applied to advantage. — Cornell B. 99. 



San Jose Scale.— The wide distribution of the San Jose scale, by nurseries 

 since 1887, has called attention to the fact that much harm has unwittingly been 

 done for many years past, by nurseries, in causing the spread of other insect 

 pests as well. As a result, however, of the appearance of this destructive scale, 

 nurserymen will be more careful in the future, but yet fruit growers will not be 

 able absolutely to rely on the clean condition of any stock which they buy, and 

 it has been suggested that the purchaser should demand a guarantee that stock 

 has not been infested with injurious insects, and further, that if it is found to be 

 infested after purchase, that it should be replaced : though even then the 

 purchaser would have no redress for the introduction of injurious insects and 

 their spread to older trees, and it is here that we must look for legislative aid. — 

 Rept. Mass. Hort. Soc. 



