130 FRUIT BOOK. 



THE RASPBERRY. 



This fruit, which has improved greatly under 

 cultivation, is easily grown, as the old plants send 

 up, annually, plenty of suckers from their roots, 

 which should be taken up in autumn or spring, 

 and planted where they are to remain. In the 

 selection of young sucker shoots, to set in the 

 spring, choose those that are of strong growth, 

 from three to four feet high, detached from the 

 old stools with good roots ; prune the top to the 

 first good bud ; plant them in rows four feet and 

 a half or five feet asunder, by three feet ; prune 

 out all dead stems, of the last summer bearers, 

 from the old roots, as the same shoots or stems 

 never bear but once, being succeeded by young 

 shoots produced from the root, every summer, 

 which becomes barren next year, and perishes 

 the following winter, and should be now cut out 

 as above, close to the ground ; part of the young 

 shoots should also be cut away, leaving but four 

 or five of the strongest on each stock. Prune off 

 the tops of those that remain, leaving them about 

 five feet high, which increases the size of the 

 fruit, as well as encourages the growth of suck- 

 ers for the following year. This cutting, how- 

 ever, should not be done in the spring, until all 

 chance of severe frost is over. The stems should 

 afterwards be tied lightly together at the top, or 

 to stakes placed in the ground. With regard to 

 the proper soil for this fruit, different opinions 

 have existed. Mclntosh says, " All that is re- 

 quired, we think, is a deep, rich, and humid soil ; 

 for upon shallow, dry, and poor soils, they neither 



