FORCING BUSH-FRUITS 29 



of bearing age were dug about, and, when frozen, 

 the ball of earth, with the plant, was lifted and trans- 

 ferred to boxes about twenty inches square in the 

 forcing -houses. They were placed in a cool or lettuce 

 house and came on very slowly, the temperature evi- 

 dently being too low for them, and no fruit ripened 

 before April. One plant placed in a warmer house 

 came on much more rapidly. As spring approached, 

 bringing higher temperature and more sunshine, the 

 plants began to blossom freely. At first no hand -pol- 

 linating was done, but it did not take long to see 

 that no perfect fruit would be formed without it, and 

 afterwards the flowers were pollinated as they appeared, 

 with good and perfectly normal fruit as the result. 

 This can be quickly done by knocking off the pollen 

 and catching it in a spoon or a small watch-glass set 

 in a convenient handle of wood, the pistils then 

 being dipped in this pollen. 



With young plants, started in boxes or large pots 

 in spring, so as to be well established when transferred 

 to the forcing -house in the fall or winter, there seems 

 to be no reason why good crops of raspberries and 

 blackberries cannot be grown under glass. They 

 appear to require a comparatively high temperature, 

 however, and demand artificial pollination. 



SUGGESTIONS ON PICKING 



Always avoid picking when the fruit is wet, unless 

 made absolutely necessary by continued showery 

 weather. Fruit put in the baskets wet can seldom 



