62 RASPBERRIES 
fruiting canes are subsequently cut out. A great deal 
has been written and said for and against the removal of 
fruiting canes directly the crop has been harvested, but 
this question would not assume much importance if the 
early thinning out of the canes and removal of all suckers 
that attempt colonisation were more generally practised. 
We remove the fruiting canes as soon as they cease to 
bear fruit. | 
All the further pruning that is necessary is to shorten 
back the canes in spring, to firm well ripened wood, to 
induce the formation of stout side branches that will yield 
sprays of fine fruit; or, if no artificial support is pro- 
vided—as in the case of market gardens—to shorten the 
canes back so that they are of themselves able to support 
the fruit crop and keep the fruit from being damaged 
when a sharp storm splashes the dirt about. In this 
latter connection, it must be remembered that raspberry 
canes do not fruit from base to tip, side buds not being 
formed on the lower part. Injudicious pruning, or 
rather excessive shortening of the rods would curtail 
the crop. The shorter growing varieties are best 
adapted for cultivation where no artificial support is 
provided. 
The autumn fruiting raspberries need quite different 
pruning to those that fruit in the summer, as their 
stems have to be treated as annual instead of as biennial. 
Cut down all the canes to the ground early in the new 
year, and in spring limit the number of new growths to 
three or four per crown, remembering that, as these 
have to ripen fruit at the end of September and 
during October, it is of the greatest importance that 
overcrowding be avoided, and that the canes retained 
receive ample light and air. As the fruit is mostly 
produced from the upper half of the cane, shortening is 
neither necessary nor desirable. 
