BLACKBERRY 



BLACKBERRY 



511 



(6) The Evergreen blackberries, of unknown origin, to 

 which the Himalaya is closely related, are commonly 

 put in R. Ifirinitiliiii, Willd., but may be but a cut-leaved 

 form of the European bramble (R.fruticosus, Linn.). The 

 vines are clinging, the foliage evergreen or nearly so, 

 and the berries in the Pacific coast climate are large, 

 l>]aok, sweet, and ripen through a period of two or three 

 months. The Oregon Evergreen is the typical variety. 



Propagation. 



In nature the blackberry propagates itself from 

 suckers and under cultivation young plants from 

 suckers are thriftiest, but many varieties produce but 

 few suckers and the natural process is a slow 

 one with all kinds. A more expeditious method 

 is to use root-cuttings. Such cuttings are usu- 

 ally made during the dormant season by taking 

 up old plants and cutting the roots with prun- 

 ing-shears into parts 2 inches long. The cut- 

 tings are then started 

 under glass, or sown in 

 furrows in well-prepared 

 nursery beds in the spring. 

 The cuttings should fall 

 in sowing 2 inches apart 

 in furrows 3 inches deep 

 and should be covered 

 with well-pulverized soil. 

 The soil must be such 

 that it does not bake as 

 the young shoots appear. 

 It sometimes requires two 

 summers to produce 

 plants ready for setting:, 

 but in the South, the 

 Pacific coast, and under 

 favorable circumstances in 

 the East, yearling plants 

 are strong enough for set- 

 ting. Cuttings should be made 

 from the roots of thrifty, healthy 

 plants, preferably from a young 

 plantation. It is contended and 

 there are many facts to substantiate 

 it, that propagating successive 

 generations of blackberries from 

 root-cuttings results in unproduc- 

 tive or even sterile plants. 



Some blackberries from the sev- 

 eral varietal groups may be grown 

 in almost every condition of climate 

 and soil in temperate regions, yet 

 this fruit does best in a carefully 

 selected environment. Blackberries 

 cannot stand, without protection, 

 more winter cold thr.n the peach. 



In dry, hot climates the plants suffer and the berries 

 are few, small, poorly colored and lacking in flavor. 

 A deep, mellow, clay loam, well filled with humus, is 

 most suitable for this fruit. Gravelly and sandy 

 lands are usually too hot and dry. P^lat wet lands are 

 quite unsuited and in such soils the plants suffer alike 

 from cold and heat; whatever else may be said of the 

 soil, good drainage is imperative. A northern exposure 

 is usually desirable. Fertilizers are little needed if the 

 land be rich enough naturally to grow fair farm crops. 

 Stable manure often induces rank-growing canes which 

 produce but little fruit. Cover-crops of vetch or clover 

 and some grain as oats or barley, sown in August, will 

 supply much-needed humus and about all the plant- 

 food usually necessary to add. 



Field cultivation. 



The plants are set in rows, 7, 8, or 9 feet apart, 

 depending on the soil and the variety, and from 3 to 4 

 feet apart in the row. There should be room between 



the rows for a two-horse harrow or cultivator to keep 

 the plantation in good condition. Planting may be 

 done by spade or in furrows 6 or 7 inches deep. A hoed- 

 crop is usually grown between the rows the first year 

 but seldom the second, as the plants need all the food 

 and moisture to make sufficiently strong plants to bear 

 a crop the third season. The canes are allowed to grow 

 the first year to a height of 18 to 30 inches, when 

 they should be cut back a few inches. The plants are 

 thus pruned to cause them to grow low, stocky and 

 upright, with many lateral branches, and so avoid the 

 necessity of a trellis and yet be able to hold the crop 

 up well. Trellising is troublesome and expensive. 



Subsequent training 

 and pruning consist in 

 keeping the plants well 

 branched, low and stocky, 

 and in regulating the 

 amount of bearing wood. 

 Success in growing black- 

 berries depends largely 

 upon proper training and 

 pruning. The fruit is 

 borne upon one-year-old 

 canes which should be 

 removed as soon as the 

 crop has been harvested. 

 To allow them to stand 

 through the growing sea- 

 son jeopardizes the proper 

 development of the new 

 canes, and often exposes 

 them to infection 

 ^ from fungi. Five or 



six canesto the plant 

 are quite enough; 

 if there are more, 

 the size and quality 

 of the crop will be 

 reduced. The canes 

 should be headed -in 

 annually during the 

 growing season, as re- 

 commended for the 

 first year. In the spring 

 laterals are shortened- 

 in, the amount of cut- 

 ting - back depending 

 upon how close the 

 fruit is borne to the 

 cane on the variety in 

 hand. The laterals 

 are usually left from 

 12 to 20 inches long. 

 This spring pruning 

 may be and often 

 should be made a thinning process. Managed accord- 

 ing to the directions just given, the plants need neither 

 stakes nor trellises. In some plantations, however, a 

 wire is stretched along each side of the row to hold the 

 plants up, and in others, notably along the Hudson 

 Kiver, the plants are trained on two-wire trellises. In 

 northern climates the training must be such as to 

 provide for winter protection for manv varieties. 



Winter protection consists in laying down the 

 canes and covering them wholly or in part with a thin 

 mulch of straw or earth. The method of laying down 

 must be varied with the variety, the soil and the amount 

 of protection to be given. Three men can do the work 

 most expeditiously ; one goes ahead and digs the earth 

 from the front and back of the roots, a second with 

 fork or foot pushes the plant forward to the ground, the 

 third puts on the mulch of earth or straw. Tender 

 varieties are wholly covered, but the hardier sorts need 

 only a covering on the tips of the canes. The plants are 

 raised in the spring just before or as the buds begin to 



579. The short-cluster garden blackberry. ( X H) 



