164 



Cultivation of Raspberries. 



Vol. XII. 



Instead therefore of adding to the meadow 

 one hundred pounds of bone which might be 

 required for a large crop, perhaps twenty 

 pounds only go in the manure, any deficiency 

 must be drawn from the soil, and this being 

 a scarce and very insoluble body, the grass 

 cannot obtain a sufficiency from this source. 

 Now had a special manure containing a 

 large quantity of soluble bone earth been put 

 on this soil, the crop might have been doubled 

 or trebled thereby. 



In the case of every other plant, the same 

 truth obtains. Each crop evinces some par- 

 tiality for mineral substances, or for forms of 

 nitrogen, none of these are in great excess 

 in yard manure, but all are present ; hence 

 the crop will be certainly increased, whilst 

 it can scarcely be inordinately great. When 

 lime and other simple amendments which 

 contain only one kind of plant food have 

 brought about extraordinary results, it has! 

 arisen either from a want of the substance 

 in the soil, a peculiar partiality of the crop 

 therefor, or some collateral action. Mature 

 deliberation is therefore necessary when a 

 simple manure is employed to secure any 

 result, or to guard against the possibility of 

 doing the soil an injury. No empirical rules 

 can cover this case, but when success is 

 attained it is often immense and permanent. 

 We cannot overcome this objection to farm 

 yard manure by increasing the dose, whilst 

 there are other reasons against the attempt. 

 Ask under what circumstances smut and 

 rust attack grain crops; it will be discovered 

 that this occurs chiefly on lands heavily 

 dunged. On the sea coast, and where mine- 

 ral manures are largely employed, smut and 

 similar fungoid diseases are rare. The far- 

 mers of Cheshire have for years used little 

 manure besides their native salt, to guard 

 against the rust which had taken possession 

 of their meadows. This is not the only 

 cause of rust, but most certainly one of the 

 chief. Another consequence of inordinate 

 dunging is the laying of grain ; the young 

 plants run up so rapidly that they do not 

 become sufficiently strong to bear the ears, 

 and therefore fall, and the crop is lost or 

 much injured. This effect is also seen on 

 lands in timothy grass, and is sufficiently 

 familiar. In the third place, the use of yard 

 manure is additionally expensive to the far- 

 mer from the weeds it engenders. Where 

 long dung is employed in quantity, the 

 amount of weeds produced renders it almost 

 impossible to grow plants broadcast, the 

 effect being a less crop than if no manure 

 had been used. This difficulty is in a mea 

 sure removed by employing short dung; but 

 then all the fancied benefits of the act of 

 fermentation must be given up, as well as 



the effects of most of the nitrogen and the 

 soluble salts of the dung and litter. — N. Y. 

 Agricultural Transactions. 



Cultivation of Raspberries. 



A FEW words on the cultivation of this 

 favourite fruit may be useful at this season, 

 when the old beds require care, and new 

 plantations should be made. The raspberry 

 will bear fruit with almost any treatment, 

 and this is the reason its culture is so often 

 neglected. Odd corners of the garden, and 

 shaded situations where nothing else will 

 flourish, are often chosen, and a small crude 

 fruit is the result. Like every other garden 

 production, the raspberry knows how to turn 

 free air and warm suns to excellent account, 

 and every available advantage of this kind 

 should be given them. 



In most gardens, we find this plant culti- 

 vated in compartments, in rows just wide 

 enough apart to allow of a passage tor gather- 

 ing the fruit ; but, too frequently, these alleys 

 become a mass of entangled branches before 

 the summer ends, thus preventing the com- 

 fortable taking of the crop, and keeping the 

 young shoots from the sun and air. Now, 

 m whatever way 3'ou plant your canes, let 

 there be great distances between the clumps, 

 wide enough in the rows to allow of other 

 crops. If the rule is observed, never to have 

 two rows of raspberries together, but to put 

 them at distances sufficient to allow of the 

 growth of cabbages, turnips, celery, &c., 

 every desirable end will be answered. In 

 this case, the canes need not be far apart in- 

 dividually, and a greater as well as a finer 

 produce will be secured. 



In making new plantations, let the ground 

 be trenched half a yard deep, and plenty of 

 rotten manure be incorporated with the soil, 

 this should be done a month or two before 

 the time of planting, to allow of the settling 

 of earth. As a general rule, raspberries 

 planted this season should not be expected 

 to bear fruit the next, as the object is to 

 secure a vigorous growth of canes for another 

 year. If you get your plants from a nursery 

 with but little root to them, and probably 

 very dry before you plant them, it will be 

 necessary to nurse them well, in order to 

 get any new shoots from them ; and, if this 

 year's stems are allowed to bear, you will 

 probably have the fruit and nothing more for 

 your pains, and have to fill up vacancies 

 next year. You had better, therefore, cut 

 down the stems to within a foot of the ground 

 at the time of planting, and wait patiently 

 till strong shoots next year repay you for 

 your trouble. 

 But if you have a supply on your own 



