202 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
t September G, 1883. 
be administered by the thumb and finger or the watering can. 
A small dressing of Clay’s may be given once a week until the 
buds are a good size. I then add a small portion of guano at 
each dressing, which answers admirably for foliage and flower. 
A change of Standen’s manure is very good about the middle of 
October. This improves the colour and development of the 
flowers. 
Large-flowering plants should be raised on inverted flower 
pots or anything that is available, so that the pots can be made 
secure after being placed there, as the wind has great power 
upon plants raised in this way. Why I recommend this practice 
is in order that the plants can have all the air possible. This is 
a good preventive of mildew, which always shows itself on the 
foliage nearest the soil. When it appears means must be 
promptly adopted to stop its progress. Sulphur or soot (which I 
prefer) are both good, but the latter disfigures the plants. 
Insects will now be troublesome, e-pec; ally earwigs. I know 
of no preventive. The only way to keep these pests down is to 
examine the plants very carefully early in the morning and kill 
all the insects that can be found. Aphides will not be so 
numerous now as they were a month or six weeks earlier. Tobacco 
powder or snuff are good remedies, also cigar or tobacco ashes.— 
Grower and Exhibitor. 
CULTIVATION OF RASPBERRIES. 
When well grown it is questionable if any small fruits are more 
remunerative than Raspberries, and none can be produced with less 
labour providing the ground is suitable. A heavy crop of fine fruit 
is certain to be obtained from well-grown canes, as they come into 
flower late in the season and are consequently safe from spring 
frosts. Nevertheless, in spite of the freedom with which the Rasp¬ 
berry fruits under the negligent systems of cultivation, it is in most 
cases worse treated than other small fruits, as may be seen by the 
poor appearance of plantations in many gardens. 
The Raspberry thrives best in xvhat may be termed an inter¬ 
mediate soil—neither too light nor too heavy ; yet on light as well as 
on heavy soil the canes, by good management, attain a height of 
10 feet and fruit abundantly. To achieve success the first consider¬ 
ation of importance is to make light soil heavier and heavy soil 
lighter. This can be done by adding a moderate per-centage of cla}^ 
to the former, and coal ashes, coarse sand, or other gritty material to 
the latter. _ The best system of incorporating clay with light soil is 
to reduce it to powder, which can only be accomplished by drying it 
either in the sun or by artificial means, and then store the powdered 
clay until the ground is ready for trenching. It can then be worked 
into the ground as evenly as possible as the work of trenching 
proceeds, and then the whole turned back again, thus finishing where 
the first trench was opened. This entails nearly double the labour, 
but the mixing is thoroughly done and the foundation for success 
laid. During the second turning a liberal quantity of manure should 
also be worked into the ground. Heavy ground can be worked in a 
similar manner with the materials advised. 
Planting should be done early in autumn where practicable, after 
the young canes have turned brown and before the foliage falls, and 
then secured to the wires or stakes to be employed for training them 
to. When planting is deferred until after the foliage has fallen, the 
young canes should be pruned back to within 8 inches of the ground, 
which will prevent them producing fruit the first season, and mode¬ 
rately strong growths will be the result, which the second year will 
bear an average crop of fruit. It is a great mistake to allow canes 
to carry fruit the first season they are planted, which they naturally 
will do if left their full length, the result being puny growths and a 
small crop of inferior fruit the second year. 
. After planting, a good layer of clay should be scattered on the 
soil between the rows to become pulverised by the action of the 
weather, and when dry in spring it will crumble to pieces, and 
should then be forked into the surface soil at the first opportunity. 
I prefer planting in rows about 1 foot from root to root, and the 
rows about 8 feet apart. This is a greater distance than generally 
given, but if they grow strongly they would be better 2 feet further 
apmrt. I am convinced nothing is gained by planting too closely, 
and thus have double the quantity of rows on the same space. On 
the contrary, one good row fully exposed to light and air will pro¬ 
duce equally as much fruit as two rows planted closely. The row 
exposed to light and air will fruit abundantly down to the base, but 
crowded canes will not do so. 
I prefer, for the purpose of training the canes, to have three 
moderately strong wires running lengthways of the rows, and sup¬ 
ported at each end with angle irons secured into stone and supported 
v i h an iron stay. Upright iron bearers can be used along the rows 
at intervals to support the wires and keep them straight. The angle 
iions should stand at the least 5 feet 6 inches out of the ground. 
The top wire of the three should be as near the top as possible, the 
lowest 18 inches from the ground, and the middle one at even 
distance between the two. The canes, when secui'ed to this, trellis, 
h ive a neat appearance, and when substantially erected it gives no 
further trouble for some years. 
Attention is needed during the early summer months, and espe¬ 
cially at the present time or immediately the fruit has been gathered. 
Early in the season, after the young growths have fairly started, 
some of the weakest should be thinned out instead of being allowed 
to crowd the row until late summer. These should not be thinned 
too severely, but a third more canes than are required to be 
retained at pruning time may be left, and then cut down close to the 
ground, and from these the following season strong canes will be 
produced. At this season of the year all the old fruiting canes 
should be removed, and those for next season’s fruiting secured to 
the wires, so that every opportunity will be given for ripening the 
wood thoroughly. Shorten the canes to the desired height as soon 
as all fear of the lower buds bursting is past. I do this while the 
foliage is quite green ; in fact, the necessary pruning is accomplished 
when in this stage, except the few canes to be removed, and this is 
done directly the foliage commences falling. By carrying out a 
system of early pruning the buds are plumped from the base to the 
top, and the canes in consequence fruit freely near the ground. This 
feature is most prominent especially with those that have ample 
room from row to row. I may add the canes are left 1 foot above 
the top wire, making them 6 feet 6 inches high. 
Pruning and tying are completed early before the weather is severe 
or cold, and then at the first opportunity the annual dressing of 
manure is wheeled on and spread between the rows, in which con¬ 
dition we prefer to leave it. Digging amongst Raspberries cannot 
be too strongly condemned, as it injures numbers of roots, which are 
always near the surface. Often for the sake of appearance this has 
to be done, and in cases of this description the manure employed 
should be short and pricked in as lightly as possible with forks. 
The Raspberries here grow on light land, and were very unsatis¬ 
factory when I took charge of them ; but by giving them the treat¬ 
ment detailed they have attained great size and bear heavy crops of 
large fruits. I may add I have found an occasional application of 
lime very beneficial. The variety grown is Prince of Wales.— 
Wm, Bardney. 
GARDEN CHEMISTRY. 
SULPHUR. 
Sulphur is one of the essential elements. Without its 
presence in the soil plants could not grow, nor albuminoid be 
formed. It is always present in plants as sulphuric trioxide, and 
in their ash as sulphuric anhydride. For long it has been applied 
in Germany and in America in the form of gypsum, generally 
with benefit; but the accounts of most of the experiments, 
especially the American ones, are very conflicting. In this 
country the use of gypsum has not produced results equal to 
what it is reported to have done in the countries named, and 
when it has succeeded abroad it is not always because of the 
sulphur afforded, but the lime. In France, Ville makes gypsum 
take an important place in what he calls normal manure, but. not 
with the idea of furnishing sulphur: it is to furnish lime. 
Gypsum (calcic sulphate) is readily soluble, calcic carbonate not 
so, hence M. Yille rejects the carbonate for the sulphate. It is 
to be regretted that lie did not try them pitched against each 
other, and then the value of the sulphur would have been seen, 
for calcic carbonate is soluble enough in ordinary soils. 
Peas, Beans, and Clover generally benefit from applications 
of calcic sulphate, yet sulphur is not largely present in the ash 
of Beans or Peas. One hundred parts of the ash of common 
Beans contain only from 1'3 to 2 - 4 of sulphuric anhydride 
(S O 3 ), and that of French Beans from 1‘5 to 3'9. Peas contain 
from 4 to 5 per cent., Clover from 1 to 2*5. This is very little 
compared with the phosphoric acid and potash in their ash. 
Turnips and Cabbages have at times been largely benefited 
by the use of calcic sulphate, and Messrs. Lawes and Gilbert 
have told how much the Clover crop increased by its use, as 
well as with sulphate of soda, magnesia, and potash. The ash 
of Swedes yields 10 per cent, of sulphuric, and of common Turnips 
as much as 20 per cent. In such a case one can understand how 
sulphates have a favourable effect on the Turnip crop, and can 
well believe that, sometimes at least, the favourable effect of 
superphosphate, in which calcic sulphate is largely present, is 
partly owing to the sulphur at the disposal of the crop as much 
as to the solubility of the phosphates, especially when we find 
insoluble phosphates giving equal results to soluble when 
ammonia sulphate is given along with it—nitrogen in equal 
quantities being supplied to both. The ash of Cabbages contains 
from 10 to over 20 per cent, of sulphuric acid, and in most mem- 
