AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 71 



The varieties of Biibus strigosus are very easily grown and for 

 most purposes are more satisfactory than the black caps. The 

 latter must be handled with great care at the time of setting or 

 fully fifty per cent of the plants will be lost. It is specially impor- 

 tant that the crown be placed not much below the surface of the 

 soil. The red varieties, on the other hand, sucker so freely and 

 grow so readily from root cuttings that no special care is required 

 except to comb out the small roots and see that the soil is pressed 

 firmly about the plants. It is well to dip the roots in water before 

 setting — a direction which will hold good in setting any trees or 

 shrubs. 



Red rasperries should be set about four feet apart in rows six 

 feet distant; thus requiring about 1,800 plants per acre. If kept 

 in "hills" only five or six of the strongest canes should be allowed 

 in each hill ; but a practice very commonly followed is to allow a 

 portion of the suckers to grow between the original plants, forming 

 a hedge-like row. 



Clean but shallow culture should follow transplanting. Go 

 through the field with a cultivator as often as once in two weeks 

 till the middle of August. It is, however, unnecessary to "hill up" 

 around the plants. All suckers, except those desired for filling 

 vacancies should be treated as weeds and should be hoed out as 

 they appear. 



Pruning is an operation which should receive attention. If done 

 too late in the season, after the canes have become hard and wood}', 

 the result will often prove more disastrous than total neglect, as new 

 shoots are developed and these fail to mature before frost. Our 

 practice is to head back the young canes when about two and one- 

 half feet high, and the laterals at about one to one and one-half 

 feet. This method insures strong sturdy growth which does away 

 with the necessity of stakes and trellises. The black caps are 

 treated somewhat differently since longer canes are desired. These 

 it is well to support with a stake. 



Winter protection is indispensable with some of our best varia- 

 ties. The operation, however, is very simple and inexpensive. It 

 consists simply in removing a shovelful! of earth from the side of 

 each bush, bending over the canes and holding them in place by a 

 little earth or other weight. With red raspberries growing in solid 

 rows our practice is to throw a slight bank of earth against the base 

 of the plants, bend them over and lay an old rail or other timber 



