FEBTILIZEBS AND PROPAGATION 45 



FERTILIZERS 



Red raspberries do uot need heavy fertilizing unless 

 grown on very unproductive land. On such soil stable 

 manure can be used in limited quantities with good 

 results. Little nitrogen is required, and its application 

 is apt to be money wasted. It may also induce too 

 much growth of cane with ill -developed fruit -buds and 

 deficient fruitfulness. Potash is desirable but is not 

 needed in large quantities. It may be supplied in 

 muriate of potash or in wood -ashes. Fifty pounds of 

 muriate of potash per acre, annually, will supply more 

 potash than the fruit will remove. It should be remem- 

 bered, however, that part of what is applied must inva- 

 riably be lost. If phosphoric acid is needed an application 

 of two hundred fifty pounds of floats or ground bone, 

 harrowed in before setting the plants, will supply it. 

 The grower should carefully experiment upon his own 

 soil to determine whether commercial fertilizers are 

 really needed, and if so what. Let the humus -supply 

 be first considered, the chemicals later. 



PROPAGATION 



Red raspberries attend to their own propagation 

 without aid. The grower is more concerned with 

 destroying the plants which appear than with increas- 

 ing their production. Most varieties sucker freely, and 

 these suckers must be kept down to obtain satisfactory 

 fruit -production. If it becomes desirable to hasten the 

 propagation of new and desirable varieties they may be 



