96 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



for your own table or for market. Next in importance to the straw- 

 berr}^ aud as a paying small fruit for market, is the delicious, 

 indispensable and very useful fruit, the raspberry. A few years 

 ago the wild berry was very abundant. It was found in plenty on 

 the timber choppings all over the State. They were brought to 

 raarket by the bushel, we might say by the ton, as they were sold 

 by weight, and our markets in the past have been glutted with them, 

 the price being as low as four cents per pound some seasons. In 

 some localities they are abundant at present, but nearly all of the 

 favorite clearings have yielded their last crop^. The bushes have 

 been browsed down by the cattle or choked out bj' a growth of 

 bushes and weeds, so that we must depend largely upon the culti- 

 vated plant in the future. It is not only an excellent fruit for the 

 table, but one of the finest for canning and preserving. Raspberry 

 jam is an important article of commerce, has a ready sale, and the 

 right sorts, properly grown, will prove a paying crop near a good 

 market. 



It is most regular in bearing, does not require a large amount of 

 labor, and nearly always brings good prices and compares very 

 favorably with ordinary farm crops as a matter of profit, while soil 

 must be good and well vrorked to produce good vegetables, it is not 

 requisite with the raspberry. Many kinds of small fruits yield the 

 heaviest and are much more hardy on poor soil than on highly cul- 

 tivated lands, while a little compost or commercial fertilizer thrown 

 close around the plant once a j'earwill keep up productiveness, even 

 if this is not done, thorough cultivation will do nearly as well. In 

 fact in our northern States it is safer to plant on a rather poor or 

 new soil than on one that has been richlj' fertilized for this reason. 

 Nearly all varieties run less to plant or bush and more to fruit, they 

 are more hardy, and stand our winters better. The weeds and 

 suckers can be kept down on a poor soil by thorough cultivation, 

 and hoeing without injury. While with the same practice on rich 

 land, we force the plant into a rapid growth and make them very 

 tender, so that the}' winter kill easily. There is another point, 

 plants on a poor soil generalh' produce the earliest fruit. This does 

 not seem consistent with Nature, but we always get the first straw- 

 berries on our old worn out beds, and find the wild raspberry in the 

 market before we have picked a berry from our cultivated plants in 

 the garden. This rule applies more particularly to raspberries and 

 blackberries. I have rarely seen a soil toa rich for strawberries. 



