CHAPTER XX. 



RASPBERRIES PRUNING STAKING MULCHING WINTER 



PROTECTION, ETC. 



T T SUALLY, there is no pruning either in the field or the 

 ^^ garden beyond the cutting out of the old canes and 

 the shortening in of the new growth. There is a difference 

 of opinion as to whether the old canes should be cut out 

 immediately after fruiting, or left to natural decay, and 

 removed the following fall or spring. I prefer the former 

 course. It certainly is neater, and I think I have seen in- 

 creased growth in the young canes, for which more room is 

 made, and to whose support the roots can give their whole 

 strength. The new growth can make foliage fast enough 

 to develop the roots ; still, I have not experimented care- 

 fully, and so cannot speak accurately. We see summer 

 pruning often advocated on paper, but I have rarely met it 

 in practice. If carefully done at the proper season, how- 

 ever, much can be accomplished by it in the way of making 

 strong, stocky plants, capable of standing alone, — plants full 

 of lateral branches, like Httle trees, that will be loaded with 

 fruit. But this summer pinching back must be commenced 

 early, while the new, succulent, growth is under full headway, 

 and continued through the busiest season, when strawberries 

 are ripe and harvest is beginning. It should not be done 

 after the cane has practically made its growth, or else the 

 buds that ought to remain dormant until the following sea- 

 son are started into a hte and feeble growth that does not 



