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RED lUSP EEHRY VARIETIES IN luASSACIIUSETTS 



Raspberry growing in Massachusetts has been sevel'ely hit in the 

 past decade or tv;o by a combination of virus diseases and adverse v>'inter 

 conditions. Black caps seldon survive more than tliree to five years and 

 even reds are easily infected with virus since practically every sizeable 

 j.'atch of v;ild reds is infected ivith mosaic. 



Interest in this state is almost entirely in the red raspberry, 

 since it survives better than either blacks or purples and also because 

 practically all the crop goes to the fresh fruit market. Cuthbert, which 

 formerly was the chief com..iercial variet.-/, is still recognized as about the 

 best in eating quality, Latham, because of its superior winter hardiness 

 and greater resistance to mosaic, has long since superseded Cuthbert as 

 the leading coin.iercial variety, but it has never taken the place of Cuthbert 

 as a high quality dessert variety, 



jijnong the newer varieties which are being tested at the iviasca- 

 chusetts State College the following are worthy of comia$nt. They are listed 

 approximately in order of season, 



1. Sunrise is the earliest red raspberry being tested her«. It ripens 

 just "alTead of Ranere, The fruit is a bit firmer and somewhat better 

 quality than Chief. Tlie plants are fairly winter hardy and moderately 

 productive. Mosaic has been observed in the rov; but the plants have 

 not been seriously injured by it sn far. Because of its earliness 



it is being recoiiinended for trial, 



2. Indian Su-nner ripens its sum-ier crop with Ranere, but of course is 

 considerably larger and better quality than Ratiere. p[ovvever, it has 

 not been so productive and the berries shov; too much tendency to 

 crumble. The plants are fairly v;inter hardy, but production has not 

 been good. In this section Indism Summer falls dovm in the character- 

 istic for \vhich it v/as nained, since its fall crop usually is just 

 starting to mature v./hen the first hard freeze arrives. Hence, it 



is unreliable as an everbearer here. 



o, Newburgh , in spite of its large, firm berry, has turned out to be 



entirely, unsatisfactory because of its short growth and severe winter 

 killin^^, of canes, 



4, Cajoaga is a strong grower and of better than avera^^e winter hardiness. 

 Some virus has appeared but in a limited test this variety has been 

 very productive. Its fruit is larger aiid better than that of Chief, 



5, Chief is the most vdnter hardy of all varieties tested so far. It 

 has' shoViii some virus disease, but is a ^ood grower aiid productive. 

 Unfortunately, its fruit is rather small and not particularly good 

 quality, but it is probably the most reliable variety of its season, 



6, Washington and Tahoma, which on the west coast ai-e reported as being 

 more vi inter hardy th'aii Cuthbert, wore both much more severely winter 

 killed a year ago than was Cuthbert, Neither variety has shovm 



