CHAPTER XLIII. 

 BLACKBERRIES AND RASPBERRIES. 



The requirements of these are so similar that we treat them together. 

 Both are fond of a comparatively heavy loam, but are not very particular as 

 to soil, provided it is in a fertile condition and well supplied with humus. 

 Plants of the red raspberry and the blackberry should always be grown from 

 root cuttings, as such plants are far better than those from the suckers around 

 the old plants. The black caps are grown from tips of the canes, which 

 should be buried along the rows after the growth of the season is about ma- 

 ture. The running blackberry (or dewberry) can be grown in the same man- 

 ner. We set the plants in rows six feet apart and three feet in the rows, and 

 train to stakes, or to a single wire stretched from the stakes about four feet 

 from the ground. Dewberries should be allowed to trail along on the ground 

 along the rows the first season, and should not be tied up until the spring they 

 are to fruit. The best way to train them is to set forked stakes about two 

 feet from the ground, and lay slender poles like hoop poles from stake to stake 

 to which to tie the vines. These poles are better than wires, as the wire is 

 apt to chafe and cut the canes. After the fruit is gathered, cut away the old 

 canes and train out as many new ones from each stool as are sufficient, and 

 train them along the rows out of the way of cultivation and injury. 



MANURIAL NEEDS OF BLACK AND RASPBERRIES. 



If the growing of peas or clover previous to the strawberry crop is desira- 

 ble, it is far more so with the blackberry and the raspberry, and success will 

 not be certain with these unless the soil is kept well supplied with organic 

 matter. As they will keep the ground longer than the strawberry this is 

 one of the points to look after during their growth. We have found it a great 

 advantage to plant a single row of cow peas between the rows of blackberries, 

 after the fruiting season is over, and to cultivate them as long as it is practi- 

 cable, letting the whole growth die on the land to be plowed under in the 



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