76 PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF PRUNING 



72. The bramble fruits (raspberries, blackberries, dew- 

 berries, etc.), like currants and gooseberries, develop new 

 canes from their stools or crowns, as the starting points 

 of their clumps are called, but these canes never live 

 longer than two seasons. This year the cane grows and 

 becomes more or less woody. It may develop few to 

 several side branches. In some cases (St. Regis rasp- 

 berry) flowers and fruits may be borne during the latter 

 part of this summer, but normally not until next season. 

 In other words, the resting buds normally push out in 

 spring into shoots which terminate in flowers usually 

 borne in clusters. (Figs. 55, 56). Thus the branches 

 bear fruit on this season's leafy shoots produced from 

 resting buds on last season's wood. 



Because the fruits are borne terminally the shoots can- 

 not extend to form long canes, as in the case of the grape 

 57). As soon as the fruit has ripened the canes begin 

 to decline. They are of no further use to the plant be- 

 cause they will die next winter. Therefore, many rasp- 

 berry growers cut them out as soon as they have fruited ; 

 others leave them until the following winter. The argu- 

 ment in favor of the former practice is that they are a 

 menace to the well being of the plant, since they interfere 

 with air circulation and light, and are sources of infesta- 

 tion both of insects and diseases. The argument in favor 

 of cutting them out during winter is that there is then 

 less danger of injuring the young canes by roughly pull- 

 ing the old ones out, that the danger of infestation and 

 the advantages of light and air are over-estimated, and 

 that the pruning can be done at a season when work is 

 not so pressing as during the summer. 



73. Grapes resemble the bramble fruits in one respect, 

 but differ in another. Like the brambles, their leafy 

 shoots, developed from resting buds on last season's or 

 older wood, produce fruits this season, but unlike the 

 brambles their fruit clusters are not terminal. Therefore, 



