152 Xessons in Friilt Growing. 



should be taken not to injure the bud at the crown, as growth 

 of the stem must proceed from this bud. 



215. Fruiting: habit. In the cultivated brambles the 

 young plant, which is commonly a bud offset from the 

 parent rather than a seedling, develops a single shoot the 

 first season. The following spring, the lateral buds of this 

 shoot that escaped injury during the winter, with the ex- 

 ception of two or three near the base, grow out into leafy 

 branches, of which the terminal and axillary buds develop 

 into flowers. Thus the plants begin to fruit the second 

 year, but the first crop, growing from a single cane, is 

 small. The second crop ma3'^ be as large as any succeeding 

 one. The flowers are followed by the thimble-like, com- 

 posite fruits. After these mature, the stem dies back to the 

 basil buds above mentioned, which in the meantime have 

 developed into vigorous shoots destined, in like manner, to 

 fruit and perish the following season. 



The fruit consists of a collection of small drupes (drupe- 

 lets), attached to a common receptacle. In the blackberry 

 and dewberry, the receptacle separates from the plant with 

 the ripe fruit; in the other species the ripe fruit separates 

 from the receptacle. 



216. Soil and culture. The bramble fruits thrive on 

 any good farm land and are most continuously productive 

 on land that is maintained in a moderate degree of fertil- 

 ity. On very strong soils, the canes grow to excessive 

 size and yield proportionately less fruit than on moder- 

 ately fertile soil. The only culture required is to keep the 

 soil free from weeds, and the surface loose. In the sucker- 

 ing species (213), the superfluous suckers should be treated 

 as weeds. Mulching is advisable in localities subject to 

 drought in summer and autumn. Deep plowing between 



