34 



culty being in destroying the crop the following spring. In our experi- 

 ments here a plat which was sown with a cover-crop in August gave 

 decidedly better results than an adjoining portion without a cover-crop. 

 In most of New England mammoth clover will prove a more reliable 

 plant for this purpose than crimson clover. The advantage of clover is 

 that it adds nitrogen as well as humus, and with a good growth little or 

 no nitrogen will be needed in the fertilizer. The past spring mammoth 

 clover on our grounds showed a uniformly strong, bright green cover, 

 while crimson clover was nearly all dead. Some winters the latter will 

 go through with little harm. 



Whether to keep blackberries and red raspberries in hills or allow 

 them to form hedge-rows must be decided soon after tillage begins. 

 Under favorable conditions, hills give good results, but with us hedge- 

 rows have yielded much better. The cultivator should be kept close to 

 the rows to prevent the hedge from becoming too wide. In older planta- 

 tions some thinning out may be desirable, but this is expensive and 

 should be avoided. It is usually better to replant in a new location 

 rather than spend much time in thinning an old hedge. 



Pruning. 



Pruning methods difter. Some prefer to let plants of all varieties 

 grow their own way during the summer, merely thinning out and cut- 

 ting back the canes the following spring. My own preference is to 

 pinch V)ack the growing shoots of blackcaps and blackberries while they 

 are still low, not over eighteen or twenty inches high. This induces 

 them to branch and form a self-supporting bush. Such a bush is not so 

 easily laid down for winter protection as when each cane is left xm- 

 pruued ; it also demands more work in the spring pruning. There is 

 likewise a further objection, that it forms a more compact plant which 

 does not dry out so quickly when in leaf, and is therefore apparently 

 more subject to the spread of plant diseases. Anthracnose is more 

 troublesome upon plants treated in this way than upon those allowed 

 to gi'ow as single canes. For the home garden, if a trellis is to be pro- 

 vided, to which the canes may be tied, it is doubtless as well to let them 

 grow in their own way. Red raspberries give best results in either case 

 if no summer pruning is done. It is important that this pinching be 

 done early, for if the canes are allowed to grow tall before being cut 

 back, the results are never so good. 



The fruiting habit of the variety should be considered at the spring 

 pruning. It should be remembered that that pruning is the fruit-thin- 

 ning process with these fruits. The amount of cane left determines the 

 amount of fruit to be borne. Some varieties differ noticeably in the 

 position of the first fruit-bearing clusters In some cases there may be 

 double the number of non-producing buds at the base of the branch that 

 will be found in others, ff the grower does not know his variety, there- 

 fore, the spring pruning had best be delayed until the fruit buds show 

 so that he can know how many buds he is leaving. 



Harvesting mid Marketing. 



Harvesting is a small matter in the home garden but is likely to be 

 the most troublesome of all in commercial plantations. It is absolutely 

 essential that the commercial grower shall have a liberal supply of 

 pickers availalale in order to succeed. The work is tiresome and trying, 

 and many who begin with the best of intentions will not persist to the 

 end of the season 



In the picking of blackberries it i^ important that the fruit should be 

 kept from tlie sun, since exposure to the sun, after being taken from the 

 bush, quickly turns the fruit red, greatly injuring its appearance. Another 



