=) SMALL FRUITS AND HOW TO PROW THBM 
Root Cutting (Plant ready to set). 
Sharp sand so it is solid around every root 
and kept as in the first winter when calluses 
form all along- the sides and ends of roots so 
that when planted out where they are to fruit 
in the spring- myriads of roots will start at 
one time and at the end of the season the 
ground will be full of fine feeding roots as 
above described. In keeping them in the 
callousing cellar it should be supplied with 
ice, for if perchance the cellar gets too warm 
the plants will grow and be lost. We are 
thus able to send them to customers while 
dormant and early in the spring. 
The common way is, as in the case of 
raspberries, to let a patch fruit as long as it 
will and then mow off the tops and let suckers 
come up from between the rows and the next 
season dig them up and start a new patch. 
Of course the weakness and exhaustion of 
the old patch is carried into the new. The 
roots on the plant are few and commence 
growing always from the end, and I have 
seen them extend several rods away, while 
near the canes the ground would not be oc- 
cupied at all. The sap having to come 
through these long roots to the leaves for 
assimilation they are continuously sending 
up suckers which become a nuisance. 
Digging sucker plant.s destroys a plan- 
tation very quickly and causes the sucker 
nuisance to increase. 
■ In cutting the roots, depriving the plant 
of its feeders when soon to be loaded with 
fruit exhausts and renders it unfruitful. 
Treat all suckers as weeds and cut them off 
a little under the surface. 
The location should not be on low or 
marshy ground. High land is better. 
Hardiness of blackberries depends 
on getting a vigorous growth early in the 
spring and maintaining it all summer. 
Many growers stop the cultivator before 
berry picking begins. The ground is packed 
by the feet of pickers, the water passes out 
and berries dry up; growth stops and buds 
form as if for winter. Later the fall rains 
come and these buds which should have 
Root Cutting (Plant showing roots after one year), 
formed late in the fall start to grow and do 
not mature before winter sets in, so it only 
requires a moderate freeze to kill these 
" sappy " half-ripened canes. 
Ttie enemy of blackberry growing 
is the summer drouth. All this can be man- 
aged with entire success. As soon as the 
ground is dry enough to start the Planet jr. 
horse hoe, cultivate every five days unless 
it rains, but cultivate immediately after the 
rain or as soon as dry enough and always 
after every picking the same day. 
Keep a flue rtust mulch on the ground 
all the time till the first of August and later 
if there is not an abundance of rain. The 
wood will ripen all right and as solid as an 
oak plank if you do not let growth stop dur- 
ing the great strain of maturing the crop. 
Never let the cultivator go deep enough to 
touch the roots but keep it going all sum- 
mer. If any one tells you there is no need 
of so much cultivating and that a recal- 
loused root cutting plant is not worth twenty 
times as much as a sucker plant, tell them 
for me they know nothing about great crops 
of blackberries and how to grow them. Do 
not pick of tener than twice per week. The 
berries should have been black at least two 
days before picking, then they are very 
sweet. A green berry is very sour. Let 
them get fully ripe. 
VARIETIES OF BLACK- 
BERRIES. 
All the plants here offered are large root 
cutting plants, thoroughly recalloused, and 
under good treatment should produce double 
the fruit every year of those grown from 
common sucker plants. This process is a 
great triumph in blackberry culture. 
The Western Triumph. For eighteeTi 
years the Western Triumph has yielded to 
us every season the largest crops of the 
finest berries. I have never given it winter 
protection nor witnessed a failure. It is a 
good size and free from core and has a deli- 
cious flavor. Its season is with Snyder and 
