Pruning Staking Mulching Winter Protection, Etc. 169 



and on light soils. In keeping down the weeds through the long summer, 

 a mulch of leaves, straw, or any coarse litter, is often far less costly than 

 would be the labor required. 



Staking raspberries is undoubtedly the best, simplest and cheapest 

 method of supporting the canes of most varieties and in most localities. I 

 agree with the view taken by Mr. A. S. Fuller. " Chestnut stakes," he 

 writes, " five feet long and two or three inches in diameter, made from large 

 trees, cost me less than two cents each, and my location is within twenty 

 miles of New York city, where timber of all kinds commands a large price. 

 I cannot afford to grow raspberries without staking, because every stake 

 will save on an average ten cents' worth of fruit, and, in many instances, 

 three times that amount." Of course, split chestnut stakes look the 

 neatest and last the longest ; but a raspberry bush is not fastidious, and I 

 utilize old bean-poles, limbs of trees anything that keeps the canes from 

 sprawling in the dirt with their delicate fruit. Thus, in many instances, 

 the stakes will cost little more than a boy's labor in preparing them, and 

 they can be of various lengths, according to the height of our canes. As 

 they become too much decayed for further use, they make a cheery blaze 

 on the hearth during the early autumn evenings. There are stocky 

 growing varieties, like the Cuthbert, Turner, Hers tine and others, that by 

 summer pruning or vigorous cutting back would be self-supporting, if not 

 too much exposed to high winds. The question is a very practical one, 

 and should be decided largely by ex- 

 perience and the grower's locality. 

 There are fields and regions in which 

 gales, and especially thunder -gusts, 

 would prostrate into the dirt the 

 stoutest bushes that could be formed 

 by summer pruning, breaking down 

 canes heavy with green and ripe fruit. 

 In saving a penny stake, a bit of 

 string, and the moment required for 

 tying, one might be made to feel, after 

 a July storm, that he had been too 

 thrifty. As far as my experience and 

 observation go, I would either stake 



all my bushes that stood separately and singly, or else would grow 

 them in a loose, continuous, bushy row, and keep the fruit clean by some 

 kind of mulch. Splashed, muddy berries are not fit either to eat or 

 to sell. 



22 



a. Canes snugly tied. b. Canes improperly tied. 



Right and Wrong Ways of Tying Canes. 



