328 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



July, 1906 



Black raspberry plant before pruning. The old canes should have been cut out after fruiting 



this should be done every summer. Some 

 people prefer to leave the old canes standing 

 until the spring pruning, claiming that they 

 protect the young canes somewhat; but the 

 liability of their being diseased is a weighty 

 argument against this practice. 



The second spring after planting, and 

 every year thereafter, brambles need pruning. 

 Two things need to be done — thin out weak 

 or crowding canes and cut back laterals. 

 First remove all very small canes, leaving 

 only a limited number — eight to twelve per 

 plant of red raspberries or blackberries 

 planted in hills; or about eight inches apart 

 if planted in rows. Fewer canes of black 

 raspberries should be left, since these natur- 

 ally make more branches. 



The second operation is to cut back the 

 canes. The chief purpose of this is to thin 

 the fruit. The laterals of black raspberries 

 and blackberries are shortened to one to 

 four feet, depending upon the variety and 

 the development of the buds. Each bud 

 should give rise to a shoot bearing a cluster of 

 berries. The buds on the ends of the 

 branches were developed last and may not 

 be mature enough to give fruit. Cut back 

 to strong buds, thus reducing the amount 

 of fruit that will be borne and getting only 

 large clusters. Varieties differ somewhat 

 in fruit bearing; a few sorts bear their best 

 clusters on the ends of the laterals but most 

 varieties bear better lower down. If there 

 has been winter injury cut to green wood. 



The same plant as above after pruning. The old and weak canes are cut out and the strong ones headed 

 back. Red raspberries and blackberries are pruned in essentially the same way 



Unbranched red raspberry canes may 

 be shortened to about four or five feet 

 high. The spring pruning may be done 

 with hand shears, but a hooked knife or 

 "hack," inserted into a wooden handle 

 about two and one-half feet long makes the 

 task less onerous. In windy sections the 

 canes may need some support. A wooden 

 stake five feet high answers very well if the 

 plants are grown in hills. If grown in rows 

 the canes may be tied to a trellis such as is 

 used for grapes, or they may be supported by 

 two parellel wires or rails, one on each side 

 of the row and about three to four feet from 

 the ground. If the canes are headed low 

 there is much less necessity for this. 



FRUIT WORTH THE TROUBLE 



There should be a small crop of fruit the 

 second year, and a full crop the third and 

 subsequent years. When a man has once 

 tasted fresh, dead-ripe berries of his own 

 raising, he will never be satisfied to go back 

 to the half-ripe, sun-baked and fly-specked 

 berries of the grocer. It is impossible to get 

 really first-class blackberries and raspberries 

 in the open market. The reason is that the 

 berries have to be picked before they are 

 fully ripe in order that they may endure the 

 shipping. A blackberry is not ripe when 

 it is black, any more than a winter apple is 

 ripe when it is well colored. The apple 

 must get soft, and so must the berry, before 

 it is really ready to eat. 



CHOICE VARIETIES TOR THE AMATEUR 



The blackberries and the hybrid raspber- 

 ries, like Shaffer and Columbian, usually 

 yield more than the black raspberries and 

 red raspberries, but the fruit garden should 

 have a short row of each. The varieties 

 are much more numerous than is commonly 

 supposed. Since the introduction of the 

 Dorchester blackberry in 1841 and the Ohio 

 Everbearing in 1839, both pioneer varieties, 

 the improvement that has been wrought in 

 these native fruits is remarkable. Our native 

 flora of the genus Rubus is very numerous 

 and very variable ; we may expect even greater 

 progress in the future. At the present time 

 our bramble growing is practically indepen- 

 dent of Europe, for varieties. A few Euro- 

 pean sorts, especially the Red Antwerp, are 

 grown in the Hudson River valley, in the 

 Pacific Northwest and in a few other places ; 

 but for the most part the European sorts are 

 not hardy enough nor vigorous enough for 

 American conditions. All of our varieties of 

 blackberries, black raspberries, and dew- 

 berries, come from native species; prac- 

 tically all of our varieties of red raspberries 

 are likewise of American lineage. The 

 purple cane raspberries, which are hybrids 

 between the native red and the native black 

 raspberries, are common in the wild. They 

 are valuable in the home garden for canning, 

 because of their great vigor and productive- 

 ness. Their fruits are soft, and of rather 

 poor color when fresh, but they assume an 

 attractive color when canned. The most 

 popular and cosmopolitan varieties of the 

 brambles seem to be Gregg, Kansas and 

 Ohio of the black raspberries; Cuthbert 



Ift 



