184 



HOME FRUIT GROWER 



only three or four stems to the lineal foot of row, (Fig. 119), 

 or not more than four or five, preferably three, to the hill or 

 stool. When grown in hills five or six feet each way is necessary 

 between the newly set plants; when in rows three or four feet with 

 six or eight feet between rows, depending upon the size of the variety 

 and the richness of the soil. During the first season vegetables may 

 be grown between the plants and the rows. Frequent and thorough 

 cultivation is necessary the first year and unless the plants are deeply 

 mulched with straw, leaves or other loose material, also every other 

 year, especially up to the time the fruits are ripening so as to keep the 

 soil as moist as possible. 



Besides the methods of pruning and training employed in Black- 

 berry growing, Red Raspberries are handled in many ways, among 



Fig. 122. Spring pruning Raspberry canes level with the top trellis wire 



which the following are perhaps most common. Black varieties 

 more often than red ones have their young canes pinched like Black^ 

 berries to make them stocky and branchy. The first year no training 

 is usually given, the plants being small. In the Spring of the second 

 year before growth starts a stake is driven beside each hill when 

 tfafe hill system is employed and the previous year's canes tied to it: 

 The canes that grow later in the season develop outside those tied 

 to the stake. 



With solid rows and fairly dwarf kinds all the suckers in the row 

 may be allowed to grow without staking or trellising, only those between 

 rows being destroyed. The following Winter the inferior ones are 

 removed. With large-growing varieties the canes may be left un- 

 pruned until the following Spring, when the best ones are shortened 



