226 RASPBERRY. 



known, repays careful culture. It is propagated by suckers 

 or offshoots, seed being used only for obtaining new varieties. 

 Two or three suckers are generally put together to form a 

 group or stool; plant the suckers in rows about three, or, if 

 convenient, five feet apart, and the stools about three or four 

 feet apart, in the rows. Let the soil be deep and rich, rather 

 moist than dry. Keep them free from weeds. Prune when 

 the crop is off, by cutting away old wood and feeble suckers, 

 and trim back about a foot of the remaining shoots, and give 

 each hill a light top-dressing of vegetable mould, and a little 

 salt or sea-weed may be worked in with other fertilizers. 

 The foreign varieties require to be treated in the fall like 

 climbing roses : round each hill put straw and sea-weed, and, 

 bending the branches gently over, cover them for the winter 

 with evergreen boughs. In spring the bushes are trained, or 

 simply tied to stakes or rails, so as to be exposed to the sun. 

 Late fruit is obtained by cutting down some of the stools to 

 within a short distance of the ground. 



A plantation of raspberries is considered to be in perfec- 

 tion at the third year, and to be exhausted in five or six 

 years, when a new one should be laid out on another piece 

 of ground. 



The common American Red Raspberry is a native of the 

 Eastern and Middle States. It is valued for cordials. (See 

 Cordials.) 



The American Black, or Thimbleberry, is stewed for a 

 common preserve. 



The American White is similar to the Thimbleberry, ex- 

 cepting in the color of its. fruit, which is of a pale yellow or 

 white. 



The most desirable foreign varieties (though these things 

 are constantly progressive) are the True or New Red Ant- 

 werp (the common Red Antwerp being inferior) ; the Yel- 

 low Antwerp, a large light-colored raspberry; the Fran- 



