PRUNING BLACKBERRIES 433 



Pruning and Training. There is a little difference in the way 

 of training blackberries practiced in this State. Of course this does 

 not include the " let alone " system, which is not followed by any 

 good grower. The difference lies mainly in the use or disuse 

 of artificial supports for the canes the prevailing practice being 

 to dispense with them. In either case the pruning of the canes is 

 similar in kind but different in degree, for if no supports are used, 

 the canes are headed lower. 



At planting out, cut back the cane to near the surface of the 

 ground and mark the plant with a small stake. At first the top 

 growth should not be checked, but when new canes grow out 

 strongly they should be pinched at the tip to force out lateral 

 branches for fruiting the next year. Those who intend to tie 

 canes to a stake or trellis let them attain a height of five or six 

 feet before pinching off the terminal bud; those who intend to 

 teach the cane to stand alone pinch when it is from two to four 

 feet high. All agree to pinch off the ends of the lateral branches 

 at about twelve inches from the main stem. This pinching of 

 blackberry canes may be done by the watchful grower of a few 

 plants, with the thumb and finger, but thrifty blackberry plants 

 are such rapid cane growers that in large plantations cutting back 

 is often done with a sickle or corn hook or sharp butcher-knife, 

 several times in the course of the summer. It is also advisable to 

 thin out the suckers with the hoe while cutting out weeds, leaving 

 only about as many is it is desired to have for fruit the next season. 

 This method gives stout canes, with plenty of short side branches, 

 well supplied with buds, which will send out fruiting shoots the 

 following spring. If supports are used, the four to six canes which 

 are left to each stool are gathered within a loosely-drawn bale rope 

 and tied to the stake; or if a trellis is used, the branches are 

 brought up to the wire or slat so that the distance is about evenly 

 divided between the shoots. 



Though these systematic methods of summer pruning are prac- 

 ticed and advocated by the most careful growers, it should be 

 stated that there are large plantations which are conducted upon a 

 more simple system. The pruning consists in cutting out old 

 canes in the winter, and the only summer pruning is slashing off 

 these canes which interfere with cultivation. The canes are some- 

 times held up by tying bunches of them together with ropes. Of 

 course this system costs less than the more careful one which has 

 been described, and yields profit enough to induce adherence to it. 

 No doubt quite as great weight of berries could be had from a 

 smaller area by a better system of growing. 



After the leaves fall, the canes which have borne fruit during 

 the summer are all cut off even with the surface of the ground 

 with long-handled pruning shears or with a short hooked knife with 

 a long handle, and all debris removed from the rows. 



