19 



Third, selection of suitable soils and sites; 



Fourth, thorough preparation of your land ; 



Fifth, a suitable supply and sufficient number of pickers ; 



Sixth, a wise selection of varieties ; 



Seventh, the market. 



Concerning good stock, I believe we have been lax in 

 tliat respect. I think we have been willing to depend too 

 much on our nurserymen, and as you know the number of 

 small fruit nurserymen east of the Hudson who are supply- 

 mg, good stock is limited. I think the situation is forced 

 upon us, and would certainly recommend to any grower in 

 the raspberry business the advisability of establishing and 

 maintaining his own nursery to supply proper stock. I have 

 no sympathy with the plan for the extension of a plantation 

 which is done by going to the old berry patch for plants 

 where it is more or less run out, and trying to dig out suita- 

 ble stock to carry on the new planting. One can of course 

 get ideas and obtain new varieties and new stocks from nur- 

 serymen and growers and from Experiment Stations but just 

 as soon as you have secured good stock, take it to your own 

 farm and put it under nursery conditions. Sometimes, m 

 the catalogues, you will see a distinction between raspberry 

 plants, as ordinarily catalogued, and transplants. By ex- 

 perience I found out what they mean by that. You can get 

 a lot of plants when you are taking up a nursery row, that 

 are too small, and yet if you reset them in a nursery row and 

 give them one year of cultivation, you develop a remarkably 

 fine plant. Transplants are the more valuable. There are 

 several strong fcc^tures to commend this plan for growing 

 home stock. By selecting the best type of soil it is possible 

 to get very strong plant with a perfect root development, 

 which reduces your loss in transplanting. It is advisable to 

 dig your plants in the fall. Dig, count and bundle them, 

 theuAvhen they are placed in the proper nursery storage, or 

 even pit. or heeled in with proper protection, they are avail- 

 able to you on the identical day when you need them for the 

 fipring planting. These are features of the home grown 



