148 



CASSELL'S POPULAR GAEDENIJjG. 



Bowing and regular distribution, as well as to 

 prevent the seeds moulding. Sow in small quantities 

 in pots or pans of light soil, and place in a cold 

 frame; or in larger quantities in the open. The 

 plants' will come up in the spring, and will make 

 such good progress as to he fit to turn out in 

 nursery-beds, or rows, in the 'autumn. The next 

 season they will be fit to plant out permanently, 

 and within three years will form fair fruiting 

 plants. Seeds, however, of the ordinary strain 

 very seldom produce anything equal to themselves, 

 but seem to have a strong tendency to revert to 

 more primitive and worse forms, alike in size 

 and quality. 



The Planting The soil can hardly be too 



rich, deep, and moist for these plants. In good 

 loam, mixtm-es of peat and loam, and loam mixed 

 with leaf-mould, and half-rotted tree-leaves — in a 

 word, in almost all soils porous as well as rich, and 

 considerably mixed, the Easpberry is at home. It' 

 cannot make way in stiff loam, nor anything like 

 clay, that bakes and cracks in hot weather. If it 

 must be grown in such, they must first be burned, 

 and freely incorporated with heavy dressings of 

 cinder-ashes, mortar-rubbish, and farmyard manure. 

 A deep tilth of about a yard or more should be pro- 

 vided, and care should be taken to place the best 

 food about a foot from the surface, that being the 

 maximum feeding-line of Easpberry-roots. 



Mode and Distance to Plant. — So much 

 ha,s been said about disbudding and the removal of 

 suckers from other bushes and trees, that a caution 

 must be given here against the application of any 

 such methods to Easpberries. Leave all the root- 

 buds and embryo suckers intact. These are the 

 canes of the next year in embryo, and must not be 

 disturbed by any means. As to distance apart, that 

 varies in places from three to six feet between the 

 rows, and two to four from plant to plant. A yard 

 between the stools, and four feet from row to row, are 

 good average distances where the Easpberries are to 

 occupy all the ground. Some plant considerably 

 closer, and cut the canes lower, thus dispensing 

 with the necessity of stakes. But Easpberry planta- 

 tions treated thus have mostly a rather slovenly 

 appearance, and never look so orderly as those tied 

 up to stout stakes from three to four feet high, with 

 rope-yam, or willow, or rattifai grass, which lasts a 

 season well. For forming quadrants against walks, 

 or arched training in the line of the row — haU the 

 canes being carried one way, and half the other — 

 there are no better distances than from four to five 

 feet. Against walls, or espaliers, especially if these 

 exceed a yard or four feet in height, a greater pro- 



portion of root-force to area is most desirable, so as 

 to concentrate it into climbing, and covering the 

 space sooner. Hence, the canes might be planted so 

 closely as fifteen or eighteen inches, and each stool 

 limited to the production of not more than one or 

 two canes. In this way overcrowding is prevented, 

 and the utmost vigour insured. 



In ordinary planting three single suckers, as a 

 rule, are placed in one hole, either close together or, 

 better, to form a triangle six or nine inches long in 

 the sides. Plant rather deeply, an inch or so under 

 the level of the crown, and imless the canes are very 

 fine indeed, it is better to cut them down to within 

 six inches of the ground shortly after starting in the 

 spring. This treatment concentrates the energy of 

 the more thoroughly active roots into the production 

 of fine bearing canes for the following season. In 

 the case of specially strong canes, these might be 

 left a foot or more long, or permitted to bear some 

 fruit the first year. 



Pruning, Training, and General Culture. 



— The Easpberry receives no pruning in the sense 

 of that ^iven to other trees. The pruning consists 

 in the cutting out of the old wood down to the base 

 of the stool, so soon as the fruit is gathered, and the 

 thinning of the young canes in the growing season, to 

 from three to five. Towards the late autimin these 

 may also be topped, but this is by no means essential, 

 and unless done in September or October, is better 

 left intact till the spring, when the final shortening of 

 the fruiting canes should take place. If done before 

 winter, there is so much pith in Easpberry-canes 

 that it is apt to ' get soaked with water, and this 

 enables the frost and snow to split the canes, and 

 thus do serious injury. The top of the canes is also a 

 useful protection against severe weather. 



The training consists in tying to stakes, turning 

 or bending into arches, training over low arbours, 

 and displaying at regular distances, over walls and 

 espaliers, or improvised rails fixed against rough posts; 

 bending the fruiting canes down to rails two feet or 

 so from the ground, or, in a word, so disposing of the 

 fruiting canes as to expose the fruits as fully as need- 

 ful to light and air, and also allow the succession 

 canes a fair field to develop their strength, without 

 overcrowding or mixing with the fruiting canes. 

 The early thinning of the succession canes, to the 

 number likely to be wanted, prevents overcrowding. 

 The training of the fruiting canes away from the line 

 of succession ones, by means of a bar or rail, is also 

 an excellent and simple means of doing justice to 

 both sorts of canes. 



Treatment of Double - bearing Easp- 

 berries. — Most varieties of Easpberries develop 



