462 Transactions of the American Institvts. 



will fertilize each other. Of course no evidence of this cross- 

 fertilization will be apparent in either form, size, color or flavor; 

 but if the seed of these berries are sown, the young plants will 

 show the effects of this cross fertilization by being either better or 

 inferior to their parents. In raising seedlings, this fact must be 

 borne in mind, that if we take a cutting from a plant and induce 

 it to produce roots, we do not change its character. It Avill be pre- 

 cisely the same as the stock it came from, and frequently inheriting 

 whatever diseases it may be subject to. But when we raise a new 

 variety from seed, it is a new plant, and, although it may show 

 traces of its origin, it rarely is precisely like its parent. The 

 raising of plants from seed is both pleasing and instructive. When 

 the seed is deposited in the ground, and after a time the young 

 germ bursts forth from its prison, and sends up its tiny shoots to 

 the rays of Heaven, we are reminded of the time when our bodies 

 shall be quietly laid in the earth, and our souls, at the call of the 

 great Creator, shall spring up and be matured in eternit3^ It also 

 teaches us to be patient in adversity, for how vexatious it is, after 

 several years spent in carefully watching and attending to what we 

 fondly hoped might prove sometliing wonderful, to find we have 

 spent our time for no other object than to throw our pet plant on the 

 compost heap. Raspberry s^ed is generally saved bj' reducing the 

 fruit to a pulp and mixing it with dry white sand, which absorbs 

 all the moisture. When the sand is dry, the seed may be sepa- 

 rated, or it may be sown with the sand. If the seed is sown in 

 the fall, it would be well to cover the bed with some kind of litter. 

 This will protect them, in a slight degree, and prevent heavy rains 

 washing them out. The plants will come up in the spring and 

 fruit the second season. The proportion of plants that will be 

 found worth keeping is not more than three or four per cent of the 

 whole, and it generally takes four or five years to fix the character 

 of a fruit. 



Diseases. — The raspberry, fortunately for growers, is not subject 

 to many enemies. The raspberry brand or rust is sometimes seen 

 in plantations that have been neglected or not well drained. Poor 

 cultivation, we think, will be found to be the source of many, if 

 not all our troubles in fruit raising. The blackberry borer fre- 

 quently attacks the young canes. The beetle, which is the parent, 

 lays its eggs on the leaves and tops of the young shoots. The 

 grub when hatched, bores through the soft wood, and on reaching 

 the center, feeds upon the pith, causing the tops of the young 



