490 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



If taking another view, the whole expense of 

 mading will on the average be more than paid for 

 by the net increase of crop made the first year of 

 cultivation — leaving thenceforward all the newly 

 created value of land so much of clear profit 

 made by the marling. 



These and all such estimates may be pronoun- 

 ced by most persons to be extravagant and in- 

 credible ; but it will not be by those who have 

 had most experience of the results of judicious 

 marling. It is indeed assumed, in the foregoing 

 estimate, that the marling was, and the subse- 

 quent culture isjudiciousiy conducted. If other- 

 wise, then so far the profit may be deficient, and 

 the estimate will be erroneous. But the estimate 

 was not designed for injudicious marling, nor for 

 exhausting or destructive tillage. If all the 

 farmers who have marled in King William have 

 not fully realized the values estimated above, it 

 is the fault of their management, and not of the 

 marlj or of its proper use. 



"amende honorable." 



To the Editor of tlie Farmers' Register. 



Big Lick, Roanoke, October 11, 1842. 

 In your September number, which has just 

 reached me, I observed a letter from Mr. Turner, 

 in which he declines a regular reply to my last 

 piece, as presenting nothing to which he had 

 not already replied, save a large infusion of "in- 

 sulting epithets and coarse figures." I am free to 

 confess that there is a good deal of truth in this 

 censure, and I sincerely regret that I should have 

 been driven by circumstances into a style of com- 

 position so opposed to my own taste, and so illy 

 suited to an agricultural journal. Courtesy, kind- 

 ness, and charity, should above all distinguish the 

 discussions of farmers, between whom there 

 can be no conflicting interests, and whose sole 

 aim should be an increase of the general stock of 

 knowledge and their mutual prosperity. All 

 communications which violate these distinguish- 

 ing characteristics are properly excluded from 

 publication, but when from oversight or any other 

 cause they are admitted, and the feelings of in- 

 dividuals thereby wounded, justice requires the 



ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE RASPBERRY* 



By C. M. Ilovey, esq., Editor of the Magazine of 

 Horticulture. 

 In our last number we gave an article on the 

 cultivation of the currant. It was the first of a 

 series of papers we intend to offer upon the culti- 

 vation of all the fruits of the garden, which have 

 not been previously written upon by ourselves. 

 We now proceed to treat upon the growth of the 

 raspberry. 



The raspberry, like the strawberry and currant, 

 and other small fruits, the gooseberry excepted, 

 has been greatly neglected in its cultivation. 

 Though common in every garden, and every 

 where esteemed, next to the strawberry, for its 

 rich and handsome fruit, yet kvi individuals have 

 attempted improved methods of growth, by which 

 the size, beauty, excellence, and productiveness 

 of the berries may be increased to a much greater 

 degree than they are generally seen in our gardens. 

 The raspberry is as susceptible of improvement 

 as the strawberry : yet, while in the latter we 

 have the beautiful Keen's seedling and our own 

 variety, contrasting with such marked superiority 

 over the small and interior berries of the older 

 sorts, the same varieties of the raspberry are now 

 cultivated that were common twenty or thirty 

 years ago, and they are still deemed the most de- 

 sirable sorts. The same attention bestowed on 

 this fruit, that has been devoted to the gooseberry, 

 would undoubtedly have resulted in the produce 

 tion of varieties much superior to those at present 

 grown. 



The raspberry, like the, strawberry, is a native 

 of low and partially shady situations, growing in 

 boggy or soft black soils, which allow its roots lo 

 strike deep, and throw up a free growth of its vi- 

 gorous suckers, it is only in such situations, in 

 their wild state, that the plants are found produc* 

 live ; on light and thin soils, and in high and ex- 

 posed situations, the growth of the suckers is li- 

 mited, and the fruit scarcely ever attains any size. 

 Nature thus teaches the proper mode which the 

 cultivator should adopt in the growth of the 

 plants ; and it should be his object to follow her, 

 rather than lo divert and thwart her in the course 

 she has pointed out for us to pursue. 



But how different is the cultivation of the rasp- 

 berry from what we should infer from nature to 

 be most conducive to its healthy growth. The 

 plants are frequently set out in light and poor soils, 

 crowded together, left untrimmed, choked up with 

 a profuse growth of weak stems, and what little 

 fruit they produce nearly dried up, from the arid 

 situation in which they are placed. On the con- 



privilege of a reply. Whether I have been trary, in cool, deep, and moist soils, in a sheltered 



" most sinned against or sinning," in this con 

 troversy, I a'n perfectly willing to leave to the 

 decision of the public upon the essays as pub- 

 lished. 



Acting under the restriction which you impos- 

 ed upon me, I have carefully avoided every thing 

 offensive in this letter, which I desire you to 

 publish as a sort of '^amende honorable^'' to your nu- 

 merous intelligent subscribers for the disrespect 

 which I have shown them, in filling the valuable 

 pages of the Register with the satirical badinage 

 and coarse epithets of a heated personal contro- 

 versy. Yours respectfully, 



W. M. Peyton. 



and partially shaded place, the plants throw up 

 suckers to the height of six or eight feet, and 

 produce a profusion of large, handsome, and well 

 flavored berries. So well assured are the most 

 eminent English cultivators of the raspberry, of 

 its love of a cool and moist soil, that some writers 

 have strenuously recommended the use of bog 

 earth and rotten leaves, in the place of the richest 

 loam. We are well assured that the many com- 

 plaints which are made of the meager produce of 

 many raspberry plantations, may be attributed 

 wholly to the light and droughty soils in which 

 they are often planted. 



We would not here omit to mention the pro- 



