The Canadian Hori icui.tukist. 



43 



BLACKBERRIES. 



Their Culture ; The Sex Best Sorts, and Why they are the Best. 



UFFICIENT cultivation to keep the weeds and grasses 

 from choking them the first year or two, and liberal mulch- 



S^ ing afterwards, will secure excellent results. Many claim 

 £/ that blackberry bushes encumber the ground with briers 

 not easily removed. This is not so. With us they are 

 as easily dug out as red raspberries. W T e live in a sec- 

 tion of country that is unrivalled for its crops of wild black- 

 berries. Most of our neighbors depend on the wild ones for their supply. The 

 whole family will take a day in the busy harvest time to go blackberrying. They 

 do not know that one hundred plants, with less labor put upon them than is 

 required to gather the wild ones, will, in two years, produce enough fruit for an 

 ordinary family throughout a long season, affording fresh fruit every day when 

 wanted. Many people claim that the wild berries are of better quality than the 

 cultivated ones. The wild berry is less tart than most of the cultivated ones, 

 but it lacks character. The Taylor and Agawam are sweeter than wild 

 berries, and have character enough to make one know what he is eating. 



Culture. — The best time to set out blackberries is in October or early 

 November, but I have set them out with success in spring, as late as June 15. 

 VVhen set out in spring, however, the season should be favorable, with plenty of 

 rain. Should the spring be dry, even if the plants have been set out early, the 

 fall set plants are apt to make twice as much growth as those set out the follow- 

 ing spring. But if it be spring when you make up your mind to set a patch of 

 blackberries, don't wait till fall, and vice versa. 



Blackberries will grow on any well-drained soil, but they succeed best on a 

 sandy loam. They won't thrive on wet ground, no matter how rich it is. Rich 

 soil produces an enormous growth of canes too tender to endure the winter. 

 Soil can hardly be too poor for blackberries, if it be deep and porous, allowing 

 the roots to go down deep and ramify in all directions for food and moisture. 



Blackberry plants are of two kinds, suckers and root cuttings. Suckers are 

 plants that come up from the roots when they have spread in the ground. Root 

 cuttings are secured by digging up roots, and cutting them into pieces about 

 three or four' inches long, and planting in drills like peas or potatoes. Each 

 root sprouts and develops to a plant, which may be taken up the following 

 season. Root cuttings are considered superior to suckers ; but if the suckers 

 be taken up with the cross root attached it is practically just as good. The life 

 of any blackberry plant is in the horizontal root from which grows the cane, and 

 if this cross root be torn off by careless digging the plants are about worthless. 



