282 PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF PRUNING 



lowing season. In fact, it is the most important single 

 factor in the growing of first-grade black cap raspberries. 

 Wires, stakes and other supports are rarely used in com- 

 mercial raspberry plantations because the canes may be 

 made to support themselves. When pinched low (18 to 

 24 inches), they will do this far better than if pinched 

 high (30 to 36 inches), for the stems are not only more 

 stocky, but the laterals are also. High canes frequently 

 bend over to the ground and often break from the weight 

 of fruit. Frequently also the fruit becomes soiled. 



Generally, in commercial plantations, the fruited canes 

 are removed in the winter, at which time also the laterals 

 are shortened to 8 to 12 inches, depending somewhat on 



FIG. 240 BRAMBLE CANES IN POSITION FOR COVERING WITH EARTH 

 FOR THE WINTER 



the grower's ideal, but more by the positions of the fruit 

 buds upon them. In some varieties those buds are borne 

 rather far from the main canes ; in others closer. Nothing 

 will take the place of personal observation of the behavior 

 of the variety in hand. 



210. Pruning and training blackberries. What has 

 been said above concerning the suckering of red rasp- 

 berries and the pinching of black cap raspberries applies 

 more or less strikingly to the blackberry. But since this 

 fruit is often trained in other ways it may be well to 

 condense and quote what G. M. Darrow* has to say and 

 to show the various forms of training he illustrates. What 

 he writes will apply with more or less force to the man- 



* Farmers' Bulletin 643, Pages 5 to 7. 



