258 Notes on Raspberries. 



a greater diversity of taste and opinion in reference to the raspberry than 

 to ahiiost any other fruit. 



Among my horticultural friends, while a few give preference to the 

 Black Caps, others regard them veiy lightly, and consider only the Pur- 

 ple Cane, or the Antwerp families, worthy of cultivation. Occasionally, 

 also, I find a person who cares for none of them, and " does not like 

 raspberries." Indeed, representatives of each of their classes are to be 

 found in my own household ; and this fact teaches me that it is hardly 

 safe to allow individual taste to be at all dictatorial in recommending 

 or treating of this fruit for the benefit of the public at large. 



A similar diversity of taste, I find, exists in communities or sections. 

 I am informed by market gardeners from different localities that in 

 some places the Black Cap raspberries are preferred in market, and 

 they can scarcely sell any others ; in other sections the reverse is true, 

 and only the red, or Antwerp class, are valued. 



Individually, I must confess a preference for the finer varieties of the 

 Antwerp class, — Brinckle's Orange, Hudson River Antwerp, Fastolff, 

 Knevett's, Giant, etc., — and although they do "sucker," and are ten- 

 der in winter, and require extra care, I have nevertheless found them 

 to pay abundantly for all the labor required, and in their cultivation have 

 never had cause for regret, except when the necessary attention has 

 been withheld or neglected. 



Still I would not recommend these, or any varieties, for general cul- 

 ture, which require winter protection, for the reason that it is so often 

 and so easily neglected, and so few persons will take the pains neces- 

 sary to insure constant success. The most frequent objection urged 

 against all this class of raspberries is their habit of " suckering " from 

 the roots. And although this is Nature's renewal system, not only for 

 producing new fruit canes, but also for perpetuating these varieties, if 

 left unchecked and uncared-for Madam Natuie seems disposed to ovei*- 

 do the business, and an excessive wood-growth, with comparatively 

 little fruit, is the result. Precisely analogous to the runners of the 

 strawberry are the suckers of the raspberry ; and as the removal of 

 superfluous runners is necessary to produce the best results in straw- 

 berry culture, so in successfully growing the Antwerp class of raspber- 

 ries must a similar course be pursued. 



