MAY. 
143 
cation of it suggested by Mr. Powell in your last number; though 
not in consequence of Mr. Powell’s suggestion, for I did so before that 
article appeared ; and the effects I may describe to you, when I know 
what they will be. Here is another I wish were added to the list; my 
brother-in-law, with whom I am now staying in Norfolk, one who is, 
without exception, the best cultivator I know of everything he takes in 
hand. I have never elsewhere seen anything like his Auriculas: not 
now only, but it is every year the same. 
My object now, however, is to express my obligations to Mr. Radclyffe 
by endeavouring to answer his questions about Raspberries ; for I have 
always a large, indeed a super-abundant crop of them, and I have had 
gardeners come several miles to see them. Whatever sort is chosen 
—and after trying several I think none superior to the old Antwerp— 
the habit of the race is similar and requires similar treatment; the first 
of which is protection from winds. Mine are sheltered on the north 
and east by a row of trees. The foliage is naturally much exposed 
and singularly fragile ; and one day’s high wind will often so strip a 
cane of its leaves, or so damage them, that a crop on that cane for that 
year is impossible. I am persuaded that many failures arise from this 
cause which are attributed to other causes. Again, on lifting an old 
stool, the vast mass of matted roots will indicate that without good 
drainage health must be impossible; the clump will decay below, and 
disease upwards must follow. And yet, on the other hand, from the 
habit of the plant to throw up many suckers, it is equally plain that a 
sufficient supply of moisture is indispensable, if the bearing wood is to 
be kept in vigour to mature its crop. Few plants, indeed., show such 
immediate effects of watering in fruiting time; hence the soil at first 
should be rich and light, if possible, but, at any rate, such as wet will 
not stagnate in. There is another part of its root habit, which, trouble¬ 
some as it sometimes is, enables the cultivator to meet all its little 
necessities more easily than those of almost any other denizen of his 
kitchen garden ;—and that is, the throwing out long roots laterally in 
every direction in search of food. For though these roots are also 
emigrant ships, and send up colonies of suckers in the middle of walks 
and of beds many yards away, where they are not wanted, yet, owing to 
this habit, I have kept a plantation in health and fruitfulness for twelve 
years, without removal, and probably could for a century, if 1 lived so 
long. The method is as follows :—the rows are 4 feet apart, the plants 
in them 3 feet apart, and the ground between plant and plant in the 
rows is neyer disturbed except to keep it clean from weeds and the sur¬ 
face open. In October, after the first frost, which is the proper time to 
form a bed, a trench a foot wide and 14 or 16 inches deep is drawn from 
end to end, between each pair of rows, and a good dressing of unmixed 
well-rotted manure laid in, covered with soil and trodden down. Cow- 
dung is said to be the best, but I use what I happen to have, seeing 
only that it is not recent. Three, four, or five canes are left to each 
stool, not shortened, but tied over to the next, each pair of stools thus 
forming an arch, whereby not only staking is saved, but the lower buds 
are brought to point upwards, so that they push, and the fruitfulnesss of 
each cane is increased quite a third part. Besides the fruit is more 
