PACIFIC TREE AND VINE 



Small Fruits 



The Raspberry 



The past generation has seen a 

 remarkable spread of the interest 

 in the cultivation of the small 

 fruits. Not so very long ago they 

 were considered to be quite un- 

 worthy the serious attention of the 

 cultivator, and, in fact, this feeling 

 still lingers among the farmers. 

 However, from mere garden ac- 

 cessories, the small fruits have 

 come to be commercial crops and 

 are the main reliance of many 

 fruit-growers. There are plenty 

 of men whose main or money crop 

 is raspberries or blackberries. 



All these small fruits yield quick- 

 ly to good care. They are shallow- 

 rooted plants, depending to a great 

 extent on the good tilth and rich- 

 ness which the farmer provides for 

 the surface of his land. Bearing 

 in summer, the excellence of the 

 fruits depends very largely on the 

 supply of moi.sture in the soil, and 

 this moisture is stored and saved 

 by good tillage. In a very dry 

 time the raspberries and black- 

 berries are often so hard and juice- 

 less as to be hardly worth the har- 

 vesting unless the land is in "good 

 heart" and the man keeps his cul- 

 tivator going in the plantation. 

 This thorough and continuous cul- 

 tivation is the first requisite to 

 success in bush- fruit growing, 

 particularly with raspberries, dew- 

 berries and blackberries. 



Intelligent pruning is impera- 

 tive to any success in the growing 

 of the bush-fruit. On the newer 

 wood the fruit is borne, and the 

 old wood should be cut away as 

 soon as its usefulness is past. Then 

 one must limit the number of 

 shoots that arise from the crown 

 in order that the plant may not be 

 choked with too much growth. 



In all the bramble fruits — black- 

 berries, raspberries, dewberries — 

 the wood bears but once. Let us 

 suppo.se that the shoots spring 

 from the crown in the spring (jf 

 1900. It is well to pull out all but 



three to six of the strongest. By 

 fall these shoots or canes have 

 reached their full stature. In 1901 

 they will bear their first and only 

 crop. After the crop is off or before 

 the following spring — they should 

 be cut out entirely. In the mean- 

 time — in the spring of 1901 — 

 another crop of shoots has arisen 

 to bear in 1902; and thus the 

 biennial succession goes on. 



Currants and gooseberries also 

 bear on the second-year wood, but 

 this wood also continues to bear 

 for a year or two or three there 

 after The first two crops on any 

 cane are usually the best, however, 

 and it is therefore the practice of 

 good growers to cut out some of 

 of the old and weak wood each 

 year — that which he judges to be 

 past its usefulness — and to allow 

 two or three new shoots to come 

 on each year from the crown. In 

 this way the bush is in a constant 

 process of renewal from the root. 

 Such plants are low and condensed, 

 whereas the bushes one commonly 

 see about old yards are tall, spraw- 

 ling and productive of very inferior 

 fruit. — Country Life. 



To the amateur the raspberry in 

 its cultivation furnishes more en- 

 tertainment and satisfaction than 

 any of the small fruits — the straw- 

 berry not excepted — because of the 

 wide variation in the character of 

 the plants and in the quality of the 

 fruit. There is solid comfort in 

 passing from variety to variety, 

 and from one individual bush to 

 another when the fruit is ripening, 

 watching the characteristics of the 

 plants and testing the quality of 

 the fruit in the different classes. 

 One can do this with greater ease 

 than with strawberries because it 

 does not make so great a stain on 

 the back. For the amateur the 

 keenest pleasure is not found in the 

 fruit upon the table but ujwu the 



plant, and the pleasure one gets 

 from taking his friends into a 

 raspberry plantation and saying; 

 "Now, help yourselves and tell me 

 which you like best," is one that 

 cannot be consideied alongside of a 

 bank account. 



The kind of soil is not of so 

 great importance as its quality: 

 that it is to say, fine raspberries 

 can be grown on clay, sand, loam, 

 or even muck, provided the neces- 

 sary food is given to develop the 

 highest perfection of cane and 

 berry. Soils that are rich in 

 humus and nitrogenus matter can 

 be supplemented so as to give the 

 greatest perfection in fruit by the 

 addition of small quantities of un- 

 leached ashes and ground bone at a 

 very slight expense for the small 

 plantation required by the average 

 family. While the main object 

 sought in the culture of raspberries 

 for home use is beautiful berries of 

 the best quality, there is a second- 

 ary use of the plants that always 

 appeal to me, and that is the beauty 

 they add to the home grounds. 

 This is especially true of the black- 

 caps, the caues of many varieties 

 of which add color to the landscape 

 in winter. The background and 

 sides of a vegetable garden can be 

 made exceedingly attractive by the 

 proper use of the raspberry for em- 

 bellishment, and not in the least 

 take from its value in contributing 

 to the family table. 



The points that I would em- 

 phasize in connection with rasp- 

 berry culture are: 



1. A thorough preparation of the 

 soil. 



2. Wise discrimination in selec- 

 tion of varieties. 



3. Annual feeding of the plants 

 with the proper fertilizers. 



4. Thinning of the canes to 

 from three to five to each plant, 

 never allowing a weak one to 

 remain. 



s. Pinching back the shoots so 

 as to develop side branches and 

 vigorous fruit buds, cutting back 

 the branches in spring so as to 

 limit the production of fruit to 



