CHAPTER XX. 



RASPBERRIES PRUNING STAKING MULCHING WINTER 

 PROTECTION, ETC. 



T TSUALLY, there is no pruning either in the field or the garden beyond 

 LJ the cutting out of the old canes and the shortening in of the new 

 growth. There is a difference of opinion as to whether the old canes 

 should be cut out immediately after fruiting, or left to natural decay, and 

 removed the following fall or spring. I prefer the former course. It cer- 

 tainly is neater, and I think I have seen increased growth in the young 

 canes, for which more room is made, and to whose support the roots can 

 give their whole strength. The new growth can make foliage fast enough 

 to develop the roots ; still, I have not experimented carefully, and so 

 cannot speak accurately. We see summer pruning often advocated on 

 paper, but I have rarely met it in practice. If carefully done at the 

 proper season, however, much can be accomplished by it in the way of 

 making strong, stocky plants, capable of standing alone plants full of 

 lateral branches, like little trees, that will be loaded with fruit. But this 

 summer pinching back must be commenced early, while the new, succulent 

 growth is under full headway, and continued through the busiest season, 

 when strawberries are ripe and harvest is beginning. It should not be 

 done after the cane has practically made its growth, or else the buds that 

 ought to remain dormant until the following season are started into a late 

 and feeble growth that does not ripen before the advent of early frosts. 

 Few have time for pruning in May or June. If they have, let them try it 

 by all means, especially on the black- cap species. It does not require so 



