SMALL FRUITS AND HOW TO PROW THEM [ 
25 
Root Cutting (Plant ready to set). 
literally fill the ground with a mass of feed- 
ix\g roots close to the plant, so you know 
where to put fertilizing- so the roots can g-et 
it, and where to cultivate to conserve moist- 
ure. Plants g^rowti in this way send up 
comparatively few suckers. 
Wliat i.s a (-iilhms? It is the brinsfing: 
tog-ether of certain wood cells in a root, and 
the g-rowth of a gfristle-like substance out of 
which a new root will grow. It is a law of 
nature extending to plants as well as ani- 
mals, that wherever a cut or injury is 
inflicted that the plant shall expend its 
energies in repairing the damage and for 
this reason it should be placed under the 
most favorable conditions to accomplish this 
end. To form a callous requires a good deal 
of time, and if kept at a low temperature 
many more will form, and be more perfect 
than at a higher temperature, besides if 
warmer there is a great risk of starting- 
g-rowth, causing- a loss of all the cuttings. 
Cut tlie root.s in the fall and keep them 
at a temperature within three degrees of 
freezing. The roots will utilize the long 
winter months for forming these callouses, 
which being- perfect and in great numbers, 
very few fail to start a new root at once 
when planted out in warm ground. As all 
start at once, or nearly so. they receive the 
same support from the foliage and start a 
vigorous growth of leaves early in the 
spring, filling the g-round with a perfect 
mass of feeding roots. 
It iH'ods no ar}>-iiiiioiit to show that 
a plant supported by such a root system can 
produce and bring- to perfection a great crop 
of berries without exhaustion to the plant, 
and therefore enable it to accomplish the 
same work for a long series of years. Such 
a plantation should fruit heavily from ten 
to fifteen years and not only produce an 
extra amount of fruit but under proper cul- 
tivation it should put into the berries a 
quality that cannot be apjn-oached in the 
old way of starting- a plantation. 
<>h.i«'<ti<>ii,s to .siukov plants. It is 
well known that the roots of a blackberry 
Root Cutting (Plant showing roots after one year). 
grow from the end and each year's growth is 
added to the previous year. So that within 
five years they have been known to g-row 
more than fifty feet long, and send up 
suckers all along- their length which makes 
them an interminable nuisance in cultivat- 
ing to say nothing of taking- the strength of 
plants. 
There must be a balance between root and 
branch and as long as these long-, wander- 
ing roots take the streng-th of foliag-e no 
new roots will start out. 
If on tlie contrary we dig- up a sucker 
plant in the spring and set it out at once the 
few roots already there will start a growth 
at the ends and absorb the strength of the 
foliag-e so that comparatively few roots will 
start as there is little encouragement for 
callouses and new roots to form and if new 
roots do start, it will be late in the season. 
Tlio <li}>5;i>»S' of suclv«>r plants cuts off 
the feeding roots and mutilates others so 
that if persisted in the g-eneral health and 
vigor of a fruiting- plantation will soon 
decline. All suckers should be treated as 
weeds and cultivated up as fast as they 
appear, and while the row may form a 
hedge, it should never be allowed to grow 
over one foot wide in order that the entire 
surface may be cultivated to prevent 
evaporation. 
Hardiness of l)lafkborries depends 
on getting a vigorous growth early in the 
spring and maintaining it all summer. 
Many growers stop the cultivator before 
berry picking beg-ins. The ground is packed 
by the feet of pickers, tlie 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 
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. 
Tlic oneniy of blax-Uborry growing 
is the summer drouth. All this can be man- 
aged with entire success. As soon as the 
g-roxind is dry enough to start the Planet jr. 
4 
