38 



Choice of variety should be mentioned "with choice of 

 location. It is generally considered that blackcaps do best 

 on light gravelly soil while the red varieties are more suc- 

 cessfully grown on medium heavy soil. Light soils, as a 

 rule, give earlier pickings of the reds, but heavy, well- 

 drained land gives a much larger crop. The Cuthbert will 

 grow on poor land M^here other red varieties might fail but 

 .should not be planted where there is lack of air drainage, or 

 danger of winter killing from other conditions. Marlboro, 

 on the other hand, should be grown on very rich strong land 

 to be thoroughly successful but will pull through the winter 

 and spring unharmed where Cuthbert would kill to the 

 ground. Aside from these two varieties I have ,inst men- 

 tioned, June and Herbert seem to be the only other varieties 

 of reds worthy of consideration for commercial planting 

 with the possible exception of Perfection for certain sec- 

 tions. Cumberland and Plum Farmer seem to be the best 

 blackcaps and Royal Purple surpasses all the other purple 

 cane varieties. These few^ statements I have just made re- 

 garding choice of varieties we have found from experience 

 to be true and I think thej^- will hold good for the greater 

 part of New England. 



Having chosen the location and variety, the next move 

 toward a successful failure is in the plants. There are two 

 effective ways in which the plants we set can contribute. 

 The first is the age of the plant. Unfortunately, many 

 rurserymen who sell raspberry plants do not raise them and 

 it seems to be too common practice to get plants from old 

 fields that are past their usefulness as producers of fruit. 

 In these old fields are plants ranging from one to eight or 

 ten years old. All plants over two years old are, as a rule, 

 lacking in vitality and when they are taken from an old 

 field, even the one and two year old plants are greatly 

 weakened. 



The second aid to failure is crown gall. I once wrote a 

 New Jersey nurseryman asking if he could fitrnish plants of 

 St. Regis free from crown gall. He replied that he couldn't 



