10 



BULLETIN 274, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



There is a general belief that potash makes the berries firmer and 

 betters the keeping and shipping quality, and therefore this one 

 element is seldom omitted. 



Before the harvesting season commences the growers usually go 

 through the patches and cut out a considerable portion of the new 

 canes and separate the bearing canes from the new ones in order to 

 facilitate picking. The harvesting of berries is facilitated also to 

 a considerable extent by various methods of training, some of which 

 have already been described. Proper training methods, the cutting 



Pig. 9. — A yard of red raspberries trained in accordance with the Streblow system, 

 using rails instead of wires for holding the bearing canes. 



out of surplus new canes, and the separation of the remaining ones 

 from the bearing canes prior to harvesting greatly lessen the liability 

 to rough handling and injury in picking. 



HANDLING AND SHIPPING RED RASPBERRIES. 



The first shipments of red raspberries are usually made about the 

 middle of June, but car-lot shipments are seldom made until the lat- 

 ter part of Jnne or the first of July. The earlier berries are shipped 

 by express, either in crates to near-by cities or in pony refrigerators 

 to Spokane and Montana markets. Later in the season, when car- 

 load shipments commence, usually only such markets as Spokane and 

 others within about the same distance are supplied with raspberries 

 in these pony refrigerators. The berries shipped in this way during 



