RASPBERRIES SOIL AND ARRANGEMENT. 205 



peaty, loamy, or calcareous, for good crops of this native fruit may be grown on most 

 soils if deeply stirred and liberally enriched during the operations with stable, farm- 

 yard manure, vegetable refuse, leaf-mould, compost, or other humus-forming substances. 

 A deep sound loam on a clayey subsoil is, however, more substantial and economical 

 in labour and manures, needing little beyond draining, cleaning and digging or 

 trenching. 



Strong calcareous loams, especially those interspersed with flints or gravel on a 

 gravelly clay, free from stagnant water, are also suitable, the canes growing sturdily 

 and producing fruit abundantly. Even clays, with a foot or more in depth of 

 ameliorated soil, will grow excellent crops of this popular and wholesome fruit. In 

 shallow, sandy, gravelly soils it is only a matter of loosening, deepening, adding and 

 mixing manure or compost of an enriching, cooling, moisture-holding nature to fit them 

 for the production of raspberries. 



Arrangement. This depends upon the mode of culture and the varieties. 1. If grown 

 without stakes, as in field culture, dwarf varieties must be chosen, such as Carter's 

 Prolific, Fastolf, and Eed Antwerp, disposing the plants in rows about 5 feet apart and 

 2 feet asunder in the rows, which should run from north to south. This is the con- 

 tinuous row system, but some growers prefer the stool method, that is. arranging the 

 plants in rows 5 feet asunder, three together in what is termed a "hill" at every 

 4 feet in the rows, the plants being set in a triangle about 6 inches apart. Both the 

 continuous row and the stool methods answer for large cultures. 



2. In the upright staking plan the plants are sometimes placed in squares 4 to 5 feet 

 apart every way, and occasionally in stools, three plants together ; but the usual method 

 is to arrange the plants in rows varying from 4 to 6 feet asunder and from 3 to 4 feet 

 from plant to plant. A fair average and usually a sufficient distance, is 5 feet between 

 the rows and the plants 3 feet apart. Strong-growing varieties require 6 feet from row 

 to row and 4 feet from plant to plant in rich deep soils. 



3. Where it is intended to arch the cones from stool to stool, they should be 

 planted in rows 4| to 6 feet asunder and 4 to 5 feet apart in the rows. Some growers 

 prefer planting in squares at the distances last named according to the variety and in 

 hot situations have the line of arched canes running north and south, so that the young 

 screen the bearing-canes from the midday sun. In cold localities the arches should run 

 east and west. 



4. For espaliers, the rows of plants running north and south, 4 feet distance should 



