50 BUSH-FRUITS 



most frequently, was to treat them the same as black- 

 caps, by pinching the growing canes in summer and 

 trimming back the laterals in spring. Individually, 

 growers all over the country have been coming to 

 doubt the advisability of this plan, and to omit the 

 summer pruning. Pinching back the canes in summer 

 seems to have a tendency to increase the number of 

 suckers thrown up, which in itself is a disadvantage 

 unless the plantation is being run for purposes of 

 propagation. Unless pinched low while still very 

 young, the plants do not throw out strong branches, 

 like the black -caps, possibly owing to the fact that the 

 energy of the plant is more readily directed in the 

 line of producing suckers than in the line of develop- 

 ing branches. The effect of stopping the cane after 

 it has reached a height of three feet or more, is only 

 to force into growth lateral buds which might better 

 remain dormant until the following spring. As a rule, 

 they make only an imperfect development, do not be- 

 come well ripened before growth stops, and are apt to 

 be more or less injured by the following winter. Both 

 my own experience and the information gathered from 

 the experience of others, lead me to believe that the 

 better way to treat the red raspberry is to allow it to 

 grow unmolested during the whole season, merely cut- 

 ting the canes back to within three, or in some cases 

 even two feet of the ground the following spring. If 

 the canes are to be supported by stakes or trellis, as is 

 sometimes done in garden culture, they may be left 

 longer, say four, or even five feet. Treated in this 

 way, the canes will throw out a sufficient number of 



