22 RASPBERRIES AND BLACKBERRIES. 



Lifting Canes in Spring.— In the spring use a round-tined 

 fork ; carefully remove the earth and raise the plants to a slanting 

 position. It IS found that left in this position the fruiting canes are 

 shaded by the new growth and are not so crowded as when raised 

 up straight. 



A Convenient Box Holder.— Thay- 

 er's berry-pickers' box carrier {see Fig. 13) 

 for use in picking raspberries and black- 

 berries, is made of tin of a size to easily 

 hold a berry box. It has straps to fasten 

 around the waist of the picker, and a slat- 

 ted bottom, so the berry box may be easily 

 pushed up from the under side when taken 

 out. Its chief advantage is that it leaves 

 both hands of the picker free to gather 

 fruit and keeps dirt out of the boxes. 



Diseases. — There is a great diiference 

 in the liability to diseases of \ he different va- 

 rieties of the raspberry. Some of the kinds ^^' ^^' 

 producing the finest fruit are so weak in constitution as to render 

 them valueless for cultivation, and only those kinds are profitable 

 \v hich are strong ahd vigorous in constitution and resist diseases 

 without recourse to special treatment. High cultivation will be 

 found the best preventive of disease, but there are three diseases 

 that are occasionally very injurious even in the best cultivated 

 plantations. 



(1) Leaf Curl.— This name is indicative of one of the early 

 stages of the disease. The leaves curl up, and though they may 

 remain green all through the season the plants make a poor, weak 

 growth. The fruit is dull in color, small in size, and rather bitter 

 in taste. Later the plants kill out, and any healthy sets with 

 which they may be replaced soon succumb to the trouble. This 

 disease spreads very slowly, and, as a rule, there are only a few 

 infected spots in a plantation, which slowly increase in size from 

 year to year. The spread of the disease may be prevented to a 

 great extent by pulling and burning the diseased plants as fast as 

 they appear. In setting out a new plantation use only land which 

 hivs not been in raspberries for several years, and to take great 

 care to have young, healthy sets. Do not accept plants from a 

 weak plantation on any account. 



(2) Red Orange Rust {Caeortia lurnbiatuni). — This is most hurt- 

 ful to the black cap raspberries, though it frequently injures other 

 kinds. It produces a weak appearance in the canes and foliage, 

 and in the latter part of the summer the underside of the foliage 

 becomes completely covered with a thick coating of brilliant orange 

 colored spores, which easily rub off. One soon comes to know the 

 plants that are diseased even before the spores appear, and they 

 should be pulled and burned at once. This is especially necessary 

 with the black-cap varieties ; but even with these, if the affected 



