CARE OF BLACK RASPBERRIES. 



5" 



them the better it will be for your own 

 credit. I think the plates of Hyslop and 

 Martha shown here would be rather a revel- 

 ation to you. On making a careful exami- 



nation of all fruit shown, I failed to see any 

 vestage of scab or worm. 

 Algoma Fruit Station, C. Young. 



St. Joseph's Island. 



CAEE OF BLACK EASPBEEEIES 



A BERRY CANE WILL BEAR ONLY ONCE. 



THE crop of black raspberries depends 

 on the new growth made this year. 

 It is a surprising fact — one hardly 

 to be believed, but true, — that not one man 

 in five among farmers knows that a berry 

 cane only bears once. I have seen men, 

 otherwise quite intelligent, trimming up the 

 old canes, thinking to get a second crop. 

 Even growers of small fruits only half real- 

 ize the fact, and leave the canes to grow as 

 they will during the summer without prun- 

 ing or any care. 



The long, overhanging cane sways in the 

 wind and breaks beneath the snow, the 

 grower saying : "I guess we will have to 

 stake and wire them," which is a needless 

 expense if they are properly cared for. 

 Some experiment stations claim to find a 

 diminished vigor where summer pruning is 

 practiced. So the tendency seems to be 

 toward "the survival of the fittest" plan 

 and a " go as you please " policy. 



After growing raspberries for twenty 

 years with success, and picking seven con- 

 secutive good crops from one field. I do 

 not take any stock in these mentioned plans. 

 I think it possible to keep a field in good 

 heart and make it bear fine crops for many 

 years by careful attention to the growing 

 wood, to the diseased plants, and with 

 plenty of manure. A single handful of high- 

 grade fertilizer per hill only takes two or 

 three hundred pounds, and if applied around 

 the hill in spring is paid for in berries ; but 



I apply it for the promotion of new growth. 

 It's not too late now. Plowing the soil 

 toward the plants and then harrowing it 

 down level kills weeds and hastens growth. 

 Pinching off the soft green end stops the 

 upward tendency and causes the side buds 

 to start. A pinched back, tree shaped, low 

 bush is well balanced, and neither snow nor 

 wind will affect it ; but the main object is to 

 increase the fruit bearing surface. If let 

 alone you have one long cane. Pinched off 

 while soft, green and growing, at two feet 

 high, you probably will have five good lat- 

 erals, or five times the surface for fruit to 

 grow on. 



Cutting back the laterals in spring to 

 eighteen inches will cause them to throw 

 out side shoots, and you have six on each 

 side lateral, or thirty spurs for fruit bearing, 

 as against the one long cane when not 

 pruned. The objection of too much fruit, 

 small in size, is overcome if the land is rich 

 enough. The objection of loss of vigor, by 

 check frofn pruning, is also overcome by 

 more fertility. It is difficult to see how cut- 

 ting out the soft first inch or two with 

 thumb and fingers, should shock the plant. 

 Nature prunes with wind, haijstorms and 

 insects which girdle the top, lay an ^^^ and 

 stop all growth above the girdling. 



We grow berries for the money, not for 

 fun ; and to make them profitable we must 

 have ** quarts of 'em " per acre, and a place 

 for them to hang. Our method is to cut 



