588 THE RASPBERRY. 



as they will bear transportation to market much better when 

 cool and dry." 



Good raspberry plantations will yield at the rate of fifty or 

 sixty, and sometimes a hundred, bushels per acre. 



PROPAGATING BY SEED, 



to produce new varieties, is easily performed by washing the 

 ripe seed from the pulp, mixing with damp sand, and sowing 

 in autumn in fine soil, about half an inch deep, covering till 

 early spring with a moderate coat of leaves or litter. They 

 will produce young plants, which may be taken up and heeled- 

 in late in autumn, and set out the second spring, after cutting 

 down closely. The second and third year they will begin to 

 bear and to exhibit the characteristics of the new sorts. 



RULES FOR THE CULTURE OF RASPBERRIES. 



1. Any good strong mellow soil, that will raise good corn, 

 and which has been deeply pulverized, will raise good rasp- 

 berries. 



2. Set the plants in rows that will admit of free cultivating, 

 say five to eight feet one way and two or three feet the other. 



3. For blackcaps, pinch back early, or when the young 

 canes are about two feet high, to keep the bushes snug and 

 compact, and to obviate staking. 



4. As the canes grow in one season and bear the next, cut 

 the bearing canes away as soon as they drop their leaves, or 

 never defer the work later than early the succeeding spring. 



5. Suckering sorts, to bear well, must have the suckers 

 hoed away when they first appear above ground, or be treated 

 like weeds. Leave four to six new canes to each hill. 



6. Increase the crop by clean, mellow culture, and if practi- 

 cable by mulching for winter as well as for summer. 



Most of the cultivated sorts of the raspberry are varieties 

 derived from three species of the genus Rubus. The Ant- 

 werps, and others resembling them, are varieties of Rubus 

 Idaus, the European Garden raspberry, which is distinguished 

 by the stems being mostly rather tall and nearly erect, beset 

 more or less with straight slender prickles, many of which are 



