June 1896.] 



GENERAL AGRICULTURAL NOTES. 



57 



with three towers, or stacks, which would evaporate 5,000 

 quarts of raspberries per day, could be built in America for less 

 than 400£. ; while one with three towers, where 1,000 bushels 

 of apples could be dried in a week, would cost 280?. 



With regard to the proportion of the raspberry crop to be 

 evaporated, it seems that this depends upon the prices obtainable 

 for fresh fruit, and that when the prices fall below a certain 

 level the raspberries are put into the evaporator. 



The fact of there being an " efficient evaporator in any place, 

 even though it be a very small one, has a good effect both upon 

 the market and upon the grower. It keeps a surplus of green 

 fruit off the market, and it informs the buyer that he must keep 

 his price above water level or he cannot get the fruit. On the 

 grower's part it makes him in a measure independent of the 

 market, but more than that it leads him to save much of what 

 is generally a waste product, such as surplus berries, windfall 

 apples, and the like. It is unquestionable that much of the pros- 

 perity of the Wayne country and adjoining regions is attributable 

 to the garnering evaporators which are the property of so many 

 farms." 



In the same Bulletin an account is given of raspberry culture 

 in Western New York, which shows that the land known as 

 good wheat, or maize, land is always suitable for the raspberry. 

 It appears to be unnecessary to protect the raspberry stocks in the 

 winter in Western New York, as is done in some other parts of 

 the United States. The stocks are usually headed back when from 

 li to 2 feet high. It is important that this heading should be 

 done before the canes get too high. It is a great mistake to 

 head back raspberry plants too late, or too high, causing the 

 laterals to start nearer the top of the cane and thereby making 

 it top heavy. 



The chief varieties of raspberries grown in Western New 

 York are the Ohio and the Gregg. The latter, which is an 

 abundant bearer of fine large berries, is the most suitable for 

 evaporating. It appears that it is not profitable to let raspberry 

 canes stand for more than four years. Growers are said to make 

 a mistake in letting them stand just one year longer, thereby 

 encouraging poor culture and inviting the spread of yellows, 

 anthracnose and other " wandering guests." Land should not be 

 planted again with raspberries in less than three or four years 

 after tie stocks have been grubbed. A good yield, when the canes 

 are in full bearing, is 30 cwts. per acre, but it is said that the 

 average crop in the United States one year with another does not 

 exceed 14 cwts. per acre, which will seem to English growers a 

 somewhat low average production. 



To lessen the cost of picking, and to overcome the difficulty of 

 getting pick ers in remote places, the " berry harvesting machine " 

 has come into use. This is a canvas tray made by stretching canvas 

 over a light wooden frame about 3 ft. wide and 4 or 5 ft. long. 



