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THE ILLINOIS FARMEK. 



October 



abundant supply of good food to an occasional 

 taste of a rare dainty. 



Nature has wisely graduated our taste to the 

 fruits sent us in their season, and we cannot say 

 that the strawberry or the raspberry is the most 

 delicious, for both of them are onl}' so in their re- 

 spective seasons. While the strawberry acts as 

 an alterative on the system, the raspberry furnish- 

 es the solid food to enable one to stand the wear 

 and tear of hard summer toil. It enables us to 

 dispense with pork and greasy dishes or demoral- 

 izes the appetite for cake, preserves and other 

 hurtful dainties with which our tables are too of- 

 ten loaded. 



Every owuer of a city or village lot can grow 

 raspberries simply by training them against the 

 fence or wall, if they can have the sun for a part 

 of the day, all right, they will have good crops — 

 that is if you have the right kind. 



THE BLACK CAP. 



The American Black Cap stands the king among 

 the raspberry tribe. It is by no means the most 

 delicate berry, but its adaptability to all soils, its 

 hardiness throughout the temperate zone, its pro- 

 fuse annual crops, its solidity, enabling it to stand 

 carriage and its long keeping quality all combine 

 to render it the raspberry of commerce; whether 

 in its ripe state or dried An ordinary crop of this 

 varieti^ may be set down at fifty bushels to the acre. 



Perhaps it would be well to figure up the cost 

 and profits of an acre. The Doolittle Black Cap 

 is only a selected variety from the woodland. I 

 have numerous plants from the woodland, in all 

 respects equal to the Doolittle, though I prefer to 

 plant the latter, for the simple reason that they 

 will average larger and better than those taken in- 

 discriminately from the woodland. But those who 

 have not the money to spare for the plants should 

 go to the groves for them. The usual prices at the 

 nurseries are for tips — which never buy if you can 

 get one year old plants at four dollars per hundred 

 when tips are offered you at half that price. The 

 land should be either trenched plowed or sub-soil- 

 ed a foot deep ; &et the plants in rows eight feet 

 apart, and four feet in the row, which will reqinre 

 about 1200 plants to the acre. If you get those 

 from the woodland, the outlay will be two or three 

 da}s' labor; if at the nursery, about |30 for the 

 Doolittle. When taken from either the woodland 

 or nursery, they must be cut back to within six 

 inches of the ground. This will enable them to 

 throw up strong canes for the next year's crop. 

 They will produce a few berries the first season, a 

 moderate crop the second, and a good one for mar- 

 ket the third. The first year the intervening space 

 in the rows can be used for cabbage or beans. In 

 March the canes are cut back about one-third their 

 length, and will need no staking or tying up. The 

 ' ihlfd season the canes should be shortened back 

 in July and August. This will make them more 

 stocky and give larger fruit. This variety does 

 not sucker, only sending up canes from the old 

 stalks and new ones from the tips or ends of the 

 caues which bend over and take root. These take 

 root late in the autumn, and the following spring 

 furnish plants called tips, but it is much better to 

 let them grow one season before transplanting, un- 

 less they are to be removed a short distance. 



The ground for new plantations should be pre- 

 pared in the autumn, so as to set the plant the last 



of March or the fore part of April, as late setting 

 is not advisable. Cultivate early in the season 

 with cultivator, and then again after the picking 

 season. At this point this commences about the 

 25th of June, and lasts about three weeks, though 

 the season of marketing will not much exceed two 

 weeks. A good hand will pick 30 qts. a djy, tho' 

 the avcrnge of boys, girls and women may be set 

 down at 20 qts. 



A bushel of berries are reckoned at 32 qts ; this 

 at four cents a quart makes the picking of a bush- 

 el amount to the sum of $1 20 



Express freight, say 60 



Commission at 10 per cent 60 



$2 50 

 Allowing them to be sold at $6 the bushel, the 

 grower has for the use of his land, superintendence 

 and use of drawers for shipping, the nice little sum 

 of $3J|^ a bushel, or on a yield of fifty bushels to 

 the acre, $1*75. Who will not say that the rasp- 

 berry of our woodland transferred to the field will 

 not pay equal to the best of farm crops. 



Berries are shipped in drawers of half a bushel 

 each, three of which form a case. They hold 16 

 qts. Dry measure, but when retailed by the Wine 

 quart, hold out at least eighteen quarts. 



THE PURPLE CANE. 



This is a variety of the Black Cap, with the 

 same habit, and requires the same treatment. It 

 has a more vigorous growth, and bears larger 

 crops, but the fruit is too soft to send a long dis- 

 tance to market, and in hot weather will sour with- 

 in 24 hours after picking. The fruit is very rich, 

 and to most tastes preferred to the Black Cap. — 

 For jam it is the most desirable ; it also makes a 

 valuable wine for invalids. It is the farmer's ber- 

 ry and should be in every garden in the country. 

 Its season is four to five weeks. It begins to ripen 

 with the Black Cap. 



HUDSON RIVER ANTWERP. 



Which freezes down, while the 



LAKE SUPERIOR, 



So valuable for jam in its native wilds, is but a 

 poor bearer here. 



Among the English sorts, none have stood the 

 test as compared with the first named sorts. 



BRINKLE'S ORANGE, 



The most delicious, perhaps of all raspberries, c"»n 

 only be grown when covered during winter, and 

 will cost at least a dollar a quart. The same is the 

 case with the 



MERVILLE DE QUARTRE SEASONS 



With which our city and village gardens have been 

 regaled at 50 cents a plant. 



THE YELLOW CAP. 



This is similar to the Black Cap in habit, but is 

 said to be a poor bearer. I have never fruited it. 



THE CATAWISSA. 



This is another variety of the Black Cap, said to 

 be productive, bearing ail the season. 



The shoots mostly lie on the ground, and the 



fruit becomes dirty. The berries are large, of a 



purple color, and in taste resembles the Purple 



Cane. As a market berry, I think it has littie val- 



; ue, being worth more to the nurseryman at $3 a 



