568 



THE RASPBERRY. 



small garden the red and yellow Antwerp and the twice-bearing red are 

 recommended ; and for a cold and late situation the early prolific, Barnet, 

 red Antwerp and yellow Antwerp. 



1232. Propagation,, soil^ and other points of culture. — The only mode of 

 propagation is by suckers, except by seeds, which is only resorted to when 

 new varieties are wanted. Seedlings carefully treated will produce fruit the 

 second year. The suckers are separated in autumn, either by taking up the 

 whole plant and dividing it, or by slipping them off from the sides and roots 

 of the main stock. They may be planted at once where they are finally to 

 remain in a compartment by themselves, in rows from north to south, four 

 feet apart every way. They will grow in any good garden soil, and if on the 

 lower part of a slope towards the north, east^ or west, the soil will be kept 

 moderately moist by its position, and the situation will not be so much 

 exposed to light and heat as if it sloped to the south. The raspberry groM's 

 naturally in soft, peaty, or vegetable soil, shaded by woods, and always 

 moist ; but it is most prolific in fruit, and the fruit is better flavoured, in the 

 more substantial and drier soil, and opener situation, of the garden. In 

 making a plantation three or more suckers are allowed to each stool, and 

 planted in a triangle at six inches apart. The plants will produce fruit the 

 first year, but if this fruit, or even a third part of it, can be dispensed wdth, 

 the suckers for the succeeding year will be greatly strengthened by cutting 

 the stems of the newly-planted plants down to within six inches of the 

 ground. The plantation being established, the future treatment consists in 

 going over the stools every year early in May, and selecting six or seven of 

 the strongest suckers from each stool for next year's bearing wood, and 

 destroying all the rest, unless they are wanted for a new plantation. In 

 autumn, as soon as the fruit is gathered, the stems which have borne it 

 should be cut down to the ground to give light and air to the suckers ; but 

 as these are sometimes liable to be injured by frost, they should not be 

 pruned till the following March. They may then be shortened to two- 

 thirds or three-fourths of their length, by cutting ofi" the weak w^ood at the 

 extremities of the shoots. If large fruit is wanted, but few stems (canes) 

 should be left to each stool, and these should be tied singly to stakes placed 

 round the stool in a circle, at about a foot distance from it, so that the canes 

 when tied to the stakes shall be bent outwards ; which position at once 

 facilitates the development of the buds all along the canes, exposes the fruit 

 more freely to the sun and air, and allows room for the suckers to rise 

 upright from the stool without shading the fruit-bearing canes. Some- 

 times, instead of a circle of stakes round each plant, a line of rails or of 

 iron-wire, or long rods with the bark on, is placed between every alternate 

 two rows of raspberries, supported at about three feet from the ground by 

 stakes ; and to these rails, wires, or rods, the canes from the adjoining plants 

 are bent over and fastened by ties of matting or willow-twigs. In this way 

 every alternate space between the rows is covered by the bearing canes 

 which are bent over it, and the other spaces are left open for gathering the 

 fruit. Where a large crop of fruit is wanted, without regard to the size of 

 the berries, half the number of the canes on each plant may be bent over, so 

 as to meet the half of those of the adjoining plant, and a foot or more of the 

 points of the canes of each plant may be interwoven and made fast by 

 matting. A row of raspberries thus treated will present a series of arches 

 of fruit-bearing branches, alternately with columns of suckers ; the bending 



