392 Care of the Blackberry. 
use or disuse of artificial supports for the canes—the prevailing 
practise being to dispense with them. In either case the prun- 
ing of the canes is similar in kind but different in degree, for if 
no supports are used, the canes are headed lower. 
At planting out, cut back the cane to near the surface of 
the ground and mark the plant with a small stake. At first the 
top growth should not be checked, but when new canes grow 
out strongly they should be pinched at the tip to force out lat- 
eral branches for fruiting the next year. Those who intend to 
tie canes to a stake or trellis let them attain a height of five or 
six feet before pinching off the terminal bud; those who intend 
to teach the cane to stand alone pinch when it is from two to 
four feet high. All agree to pinch off the ends of the lateral 
branches at about twelve inches from the main stem. This 
pinching of blackberry canes may be done by the watchful 
grower of a few plants, with the thumb and finger, but thrifty 
blackberry plants are such rapid cane growers that in large 
plantations cutting back is often done with a sickle or corn 
hook or sharp butcher-knife, several times in the course of the 
summer. It is also advisable to thin out the suckers with the 
hoe while cutting out weeds, leaving only about as many as it is 
desired to have for fruit the next season. After the leaves fall, 
the canes which have borne fruit during the summer are all cut 
off even with the surface of the ground with long-handled prun- 
ing shears‘or with a short, hooked knife with a long handle, and 
all debris removed from the rows. This method gives stout 
canes, with plenty of short side branches, well supplied with 
buds, which will send out fruiting shoots the following spring.. 
If supports are used, the four to six canes which are left to 
each stool are gathered within a loosely-drawn bale rope and 
tied to the stake; or if a trellis is used, the branches are brought 
up to the wire or slat so that the distance is about evenly divided 
between the shoots. 
Though these systematic methods of summer pruning are 
practised and advocated by the most careful growers, it should 
be stated that there are large plantations which are conducted 
upon a more simple system. The pruning consists in cutting 
out old canes in the winter, and the only summer pruning is 
slashing off those canes which interfere with cultivation. The 
canes are sometimes held up by tying bunches of them together 
with ropes. Of course this svstem costs less than the more 
careful one which has been described, and yields profit enough 
to induce adherence to it. No doubt quite as great weight of 
berries could be had from a smaller area by a better system of 
growing. : 
Application of Manure—The blackberry loves very rich 
ground, and plenty of well-rotted stable manure or compost, as 
