CULTIVATION OF VINES AND SMALL FRUITS. 671 



the branches, without frames for their support, to extend more than 

 two feet outward. 



Raspberries The raspberry is a favorite fruit in America. 

 The black will thrive in almost any sort of ground, but the red 

 variety is more delicate, requiring damp rich, ground for their 

 growth. In setting out, it is better to adopt the system of hills and 

 rows. Red raspberry bushes may be placed about three and a half 

 feet apart, but the black need about five and a half feet of distance. 

 Raspberry plants may be set out either in spring or autumn. The 

 trunks or canes of the bushes should be severed at the surface of the 

 ground when the setting out is completed, and fruit should not be 

 expected until the season which succeeds the planting. If there are 

 indications of fruit, trim the bushes closely. In midsummer the 

 bushes should be cut down to ten or twelve inches from the ground, 

 and the shoots which have started out from the sides should be lop 

 ped off. In the season following the planting, the bush should not 

 be allowed to rise higher than about twenty inches, and the stems 

 setting out from the trunk should not be permitted to exceed that dis- 

 tance in length. In this wise the roots of the bushes will be made 

 firm, and the bushes themselves and their branches strong. If care 

 be given to these suggestions, the bushes will be firm enough to 

 develop their fruit without supports. In every year raspberry 

 shrubs will send out in the branches enough to supply the yielding 

 trunks for the succeeding season, and only such quantity of shoots 

 as are necessary for this purpose should be permitted to develop, 

 and any excess should be taken away. Raspberry bushes develop 

 in one season, yield fruit the second season, and then become un- 

 fruitful ; hence, after the berries have been gathered the trunk by 

 which it has been yielded should be cut down close to the ground. 

 Weeding must be attended to. Moist, pulverized, mellow soil 

 should be cast over the canes after they have been cut off for protec- 

 tion during the winter. 



Currants This fruit is produced without great trouble 

 and is prolific, but will yield better, and be more desirable in every 

 way if it has cultivation. Placing rotten hay or straw about the 

 roots is a good way to cultivate them in any part of the republic. 

 Currant bushes should be trimmed, and the portions which have 

 reached maturity removed. The fruit will develop well upon bushes 

 that are from one to three years old, but those which have yielded 

 for a long time, will not produce so plentifully as young ones. It 

 is wise to allow not more than the four canes to rise from one root, 

 and also to set out new plants at intervals of every three years. In 

 setting out currants, they should be planted at about three and a half 

 feet distant from each other, and there is no danger of having the 

 soil in which they grow too much enriched. The cultivation of 

 currants can be expended by the system of layers or cuttings which 

 we have described. 



