Vol. LXVI. IS'o. 2985. 
NEW YORK, APRIL 13, 1907 
WEEKLY, $1.00 PER YEAR. 
GROWING AND PRUNING RASPBERRIES. 
The Whole Story Well Told. 
Part I. 
ADVANTAGES'OF THE CROP.—There are very 
many who do not fully appreciate the good qualities 
of this excellent fruit; and perhaps not a few have a 
real resentment at the idea of cultivating it, like my 
father, who had toiled patiently for years to rid his 
farm of the thorny growth of wild raspberries and 
blackberries which persisted 
in coming up along fences. 
Although he grew strawber¬ 
ries and other fruits for 
market, to every suggestion 
of planting these he always 
replied that he had worked 
too hard to get rid of them 
to have any patience with 
planting briers. A neglected 
patch or plantation of rasp¬ 
berries is little more than 
an eyesore and a nuisance, 
but the proper care is not 
difficult, and when given is 
richly rewarded. Wherever 
pickers can' be secured and 
a good home market is 
available the raspberry of¬ 
fers some special advan¬ 
tages. It is an almost cer¬ 
tain and uniformly heavy 
cropper; aside from picking, 
most of the labor required, 
which consists largely of 
pruning, may be done at a 
time when other work is not 
pressing. While raspberries 
are grown in a large way to 
some extent for shipment, 
Owing to difficulty of ship¬ 
ping in good condition they 
are not nearly so largely 
grown in this manner as 
strawberries, and coming in 
just at the close of the 
strawberry season, a brisk 
demand at good prices is us¬ 
ually assured. 1 have about 
three acres of different vari¬ 
eties of both red and black 
raspberries, and the greater 
part of these have been in 
constant bearing for the last 
five years, and while now 
apparently declining they 
are probably good for sev¬ 
eral more fairly profitable 
crops. Striking an average 
for that period, 1 find the 
annual value of the crop 
was $155 per acre, the value 
of the crop of an acre for 
a year ranging from $100 
to $1100. The average value 
was considerably reduced by loss of fruit during two 
seasons of moist, rainy weather when it was impossible 
to secure a sufficient number of pickers to gather the 
crop between showers. Some of the berries were sold 
at retail on the open market, but by far the greater 
portion were sold by the crate to storekeepers and 
dealers. As near as 1 can tell from memory the aver¬ 
age price per box received for blacks was about seven 
cents and about 10 cents for reds This statement is 
not given is anything remarkable, either in profits or 
yield, but simply to show what opportunities the crop 
affords with reasonable care and under moderately fa¬ 
vorable conditions. My raspberries are grown on a 
western slope with soil consisting of a well-drained, 
mixed, gravelly sand and clay loam, intermingled with 
a considerable quantity of small stones. The natural 
fertility is very moderate; hut vigorous growth has 
been secured by a free use 'of high-grade commercial 
fertilize rs. 
PRACTICES IN CULTIVATION.—Some of these 
may be open to criticism, and friendly criticism is in¬ 
vited. 1 think proper pruning is the key to satisfactory 
raspberry culture; so we will take up that subject first. 
If there were no better methods of management than 
those most common among small growers in this sec¬ 
tion I would have nothing to do with the crop. This 
involves laborious tying of canes to stakes or wires 
in the Spring and fighting through the maze of tangled 
briers of the new growth at picking time for the blacks, 
and in the reds a distressing search for the fruit, of 
inferior quality, in a wide, densely grown row. To 
avoid this, 1 decided on close planting and close prun¬ 
ing, with a view to making the canes entirely self- 
supporting, and this has proved very satisfactory 
.with both varieties. To this end the rows were spaced 
five feet apart, and the reds planted at a distance of 
two feet, and the blacks 2/ 2 feet along the row. 
PRUNING BLACK VARIETIES.—There is such 
a wide difference in the nature of growth in red and 
black raspberries that in the matter of pruning at 
least it is necessary to consider them separately. As 
the blacks arc the most unruly we will consider them 
first. Their habit of growth the first. season after they 
are set out is especially puzzling to the beginner, who 
has made up his mind that 
they must support them¬ 
selves. They apparently 
just absolutely refuse to do 
it. Do what he may, they 
will sprawl all over the 
ground much like dewber¬ 
ries, and when Spring 
comes he is sorely tempted 
to believe that if he means 
to save his crop froln being 
hopelessly sanded and soiled 
he must furnish support. 
However, with proper prun¬ 
ing—and faith—this is not 
necessary. When the newly 
set plants start to grow and 
attain a length of from 12 
to IS inches pinch off the 
tips to make them throw out 
laterals. Let these laterals 
sprawl at will until time for 
the Winter pruning. Then 
with pruning shears in hand 
and a good supply of cour¬ 
age, clip them to such close 
proportions that the plant 
will be reduced to a low, 
stubby, compact bush. If 
stout and well grown the 
branches should average 
about a foot in, length, or 
perhaps a little more, the 
length varying with the 
strength of the vine. When 
the job is completed and the 
vines gathered up there Will 
not appear to be much left; 
but every bud will send up 
a strong fruit branch, pro¬ 
ducing fine berries of extra 
good size. These fruit- 
stalks will grow upright, 
and if the laterals have not 
been cut so long that they 
will twist under the weight 
of fruit gery few berries 
will be soiled. It is possible 
that a slightly larger crop 
might be secured this first 
season by furnishing sup¬ 
ports for longer canes; hut 
1 doubt if it would pay. The 
root is now fully developed, 
and future growth will be 
more upright. The proper future pruning will consist 
of an annual Summer and Winter pruning, as sug¬ 
gested for the first year, only that the proportions should 
he somewhat different. In Summer pruning the young 
shoots should be clipped at such a point that when they 
have finished their growth they will be about two feet 
high at the point where they have been clipped. If 
all the shoots were of even development, this would not 
he difficult; hut they are not even, and as this work 
comes at a busy season—in early June—if we want to 
save time by clipping them all at once a little nice 
judgment is required. Wait until the earliest shoots 
