212 FRUIT-GROWING 



the soil of the moisture which the roots must 

 have, but they also shade the plants and keep 

 from the leaves that sunlight which they de- 

 mand and without which they quickly perish. 



The blackberry is a truly American fruit and 

 all the cultivated forms which thrive in the 

 East are derived from the wild plants which 

 were on this continent when the white man 

 came here. The Himalaya berry, an intro- 

 duced form, seems to thrive in some places on 

 the Pacific Coast, but in the East it is a miser- 

 able failure. At first advertised as being 

 hardy and growing wild on the high slopes of 

 the Himalaya Mountains, it was sold to many 

 planters through the Northern States. Like 

 many other novelties it failed to make good, for 

 the ' 'hardy' ' plants died to the ground each 

 winter. 



In planting blackberries the rows should be 

 spaced far enough apart to allow thorough cul- 

 tivation even after the patch has reached 

 full maturity. This means a spacing of eight 

 or ten feet, with the plants three or four feet 

 apart in the row. The apparent waste between 

 the rows can be avoided the first year by grow- 

 ing a crop of potatoes or some other low grow- 

 ing vegetable. 



When the plants are two or three feet high, 

 six inches of the top should be cut off to cause 

 the canes to branch out and to stiffen enough 



