1909. 
SOME RASPBERRY POINTERS. 
How Grown in Northern New York. 
We are told—and I have no doubt that it is cor¬ 
rect practice—that for raspberries the ground should 
be plowed deeply and thoroughly pulverized before 
setting; that rows should be six feet apart and the 
hills four feet in the row; the first year only two 
canes to the hill should be allowed to grow, and there¬ 
after four or five, the tops and branches of which 
should be cut back 12 or 14 inches in the Fall. Having 
only one horse, I have never been able to plow deeply 
or properly fine the soil. My land being gravelly 
probably accounts for the fact that there have been 
no apparent bad results from poor preparation of the 
soil. But great care must be used to see that the 
ground is well drained. One spot set last year has 
heaved so badly that some bushes are thrown clear 
out of the ground. At another wet point heavy 
winds in the late Fall have swept around a hill and 
loosened the young bushes at the surface as you roll 
a bar around in making a stake hole. I believe stony 
ground is preferable, because the long, interlacing, 
horizontal roots get fine foothold among the stones 
Of course deep snow is bad for rasp¬ 
berries, so I set mine on an east side 
hill, where the snow drifts over the 
top of the hill from the west and stops 
farther up the hill than the berry patch. 
But after the first year, if the hills are 
tied tightly together with binder twine, 
they will stand pretty deep snow, pro¬ 
vided they have grown thriftily, say, 
six to seven feet high before pruning. 
The field should be set so as to culti¬ 
vate both ways if possible, but it is no 
great job to keep them clean in any 
case. Plow a few shallow furrows to¬ 
ward the row before the leaves are 
out, and with one thorough hoeing a 
little- later, the bushes will shade the 
ground so as to discourage weeds. 
Either yearling canes or new shoots may 
be set. The former are like trees, may 
he shipped, heeled in and set any old 
way; but don’t set too deep, or the new 
eyes, if they ever reach the surface, 
will be weak and spindling. After the 
sprouts have made a few inches’ growth, 
cut off the old wood at the surface «>r 
it will bear fruit. If new shoots are 
set, treat them as carefully as cabbage 
plants, but use more care to see that 
plenty of dirt sticks to the roots. By 
Fall you could not tell which kind had 
been set. 
1 suppose that along about the first 
of August cultivation should cease and 
a cover crop be sown, so as to ripen 
the wood for Winter. I have never 
done this, but intend to do so in the 
future. We have not been troubled by 
winter-killing, as here on the shore of 
Lake Ontario cold weather holds off 
until late, and the wood has a chance 
to ripen. For this reason I do not ad¬ 
vocate cutting out old canes as soon as 
the picking season is over, because it 
will start a new growth on the .young 
canes, and cause new canes to start, 
and this new wood might not ripen in 
time. Also in the Fall there is more 
leisure to do the work. 
At the same time (after the leaves are 
off) the new canes may be pruned and tied up for the 
Winter and left tied till the next Fall, when they are 
cut out as “old canes.” I have tried stakes and wires to 
tie to. Either is all right; neither is necessary. Four or 
five sturdy canes a few inches apart at the bottom 
tied together about four feet from the ground will 
resist quite a weight of fruit or snow. If there 
should happen to be a hill falling over with the fruit, 
drive a stake by it. That is better than dirty berries. 
lc sometimes pays to mulch the first crop just before 
picking, in order to keep berries clean. A large grow¬ 
er at one of our horticulture meetings last Summer 
advised cultivating during the picking season. Grown 
women make the best pickers, as the fruit is con¬ 
venient to pick without bending the back, and good 
money may be earned at the prevailing price, three 
cents per quart (in pint boxes). T use handies with 
legs two feet long, but the usual practice is to tie 
the carriers around the neck or hang them to a belt. 
I he. worst disease to which raspberries are subject 
is root gall. If the leaves on a bush look as if they 
had been varnished and the leaves crinkle and the 
berries shrivel, pull it up and all its progeny and 
burn them. This disease will walk right along the 
row. taking everything, and perhaps side-step into the 
next row. I usually find one or two hills each year. 
THE RURAL N tC W - YOR KER 
As to how long a field may be profitably picked I 
cannot say. Those set six years ago look and yield 
as well as ever. I never have had any blight that was 
noticeable. I have wondered if it was partly because 
I use hen instead of stable manure. Probably not, but 
my pears have not blighted either. 
I started growing raspberries partly because, having 
to cultivate my pear orchards anyway, it is not so 
much more work to have rows of berries between 
them and use a cultivator than it is to harrow the 
orchards, and both berries and pears seem to do as 
well as if set separately. The trees, however, are 
either so young or so old that they do not shade 
the ground very much. Every third row of trees, 
room should be left between the berries to drive 
through. As to returns, I consider $200 per acre 
good enough. The canning factory pays five cents 
per pint, furnishes boxes and crates and collects the 
berries. The main points are a thorough cleaning out 
in early Spring, frequent cultivating till mid-Summer, 
keeping superfluous canes from growing, three weeks 
of hurry and worry during picking, any time before 
deep snows to tie up and cut out old wood and prune. 
. Oswego Co.. N. Y. geo. m. coe. 
A FUNGUS DISEASE FOR THE SCALE. 
Successful Treatment in Florida. 
A reader in Virginia sends us a letter from people 
in Florida who offer to sell him a fungus for de¬ 
stroying San Jose scale. It is claimed that this fun¬ 
gus spreads a disease among the insects, and that it 
has proved a cheap and effective way of getting rid 
of the pest in Florida. Our friend seems to be 
afraid that this is some sort of a fake scheme, and 
he writes us to know about it. He need not be afraid 
that it i- a fake or fraud. A bulletin from the Flori¬ 
da Experiment Station gives the details of a number 
of experiments which turned out well. This fungus 
disease does actually spread when the conditions are 
right throughout trees, and kills the scale when it 
reaches them. In order to apply it properly little 
pieces of twig bearing the fungus are tied throughout 
the tree, so that the bark will touch. Damp, hot 
weather is necessary for best results, and after a few 
days of such weather the disease on the bark from 
the tree spreads, and wherever it goes destroys the 
insect without hurting the tree in the least. In a 
number of cases in Florida every fifth tree has been 
inoculated or handled in this way, with the result 
that the scale, while not killed entirely, was kept so 
630 
thoroughly in check that it did very little damage. 
All this is true in Florida, but it does not follow that 
the fungus will be a help in northern portions of the 
country. We understand that in southern Georgia 
and in other Gulf States this fungus has been tried 
and has given fair results, but most of the experi¬ 
ments north of there have proved failures, largely 
because of the fact that the weather was so cold that 
the fungus did not develop and spread as it does in 
the warmer climate of Florida. This is a fair state¬ 
ment of the matter. Florida growers will do well 
to experiment with the fungus, but in places farther 
north they should consider it only as an experiment 
and not expect too much from the treatment. 
COW PEAS AND SUMMER FALLOW. 
I am just plowing a field of three acres, which 
failed to catch in clover seeded in oats last year. It 
has quite a growth of green weeds, etc., to he turned 
under. Soil is sand and clay loam mixed. I had 
thought I would Summer-fallow field and sow to rye 
this Fall. Could I sow cow peas or Soy beans about 
July 1, and cut them from this field in time to sow 
to rye in Fall, and would it benefit 
land as much as Summer fallow? llow 
many peas or beans to the acre should 
I sow? Would you sow in rows and 
cultivate, or sow broadcast? I have 
some manure to top-dress lightest parts 
of field. Would you advise planting 
cow peas this month in the rows of 
drilled field corn? Would they be a 
help to corn and land, or would you 
not advise planting in corn? j. l. 
Fullers, N. Y. 
R. N.-Y.—The cow pea is by nature 
a warm climate crop. North of Phila¬ 
delphia you cannot hope to get as much 
from it as farmers do in South Jersey 
or in Delaware. We know of cases 
north of Hartford, Conn., where, after 
several years of culture, cow peas do 
well. We shall plant several acres this 
year to cow peas and Soy beans in 
northern New Jersey. Wherever they 
do make even a medium growth you 
can always see results in improved 
crops. We have yet to find a crop that 
will improve poor land quicker than a 
good stand of cow peas. Albany Co., 
N. Y., is pretty far north for them, and 
perhaps Soy beans will be surer. We 
should try cow peas—Whippoorwill, if 
we could get the-variety—if not. New 
Era, Early Black, or other quick-grow¬ 
ing varieties. Sow the seed in drills 
about as you would fodder corn, only 
not quite so thick. Begin to cultivate 
at once before the peas sprout, and keep 
it up thoroughly while you can get 
through the vines. This will give you 
the effect of a light Summer fallow 
and also a crop of pea vines. If you 
will plow them under and then seed to 
rye you will have a great crop. Of 
course, if you cut the vines and take 
them for hay, you will not*have as good 
soil for the rye. One trouble with the 
use of cow peas on poor soil is that 
farmers expect this crop to give them a 
good yield of grain and vine and also 
improve the soil. That is too much to 
expect. We use about three pecks of 
seed to the acre for drilling. We would not advise 
sowing cow peas in the corn. This plan is suitable for 
some Southern places, but not for the North. We 
should sow a mixture of Crimson clover and Cow- 
horn turnips, or turnips and rape, at the last cultiva¬ 
tion. _ 
There seems to be no doubt that quite a number 
of western farmers feel that their farm lands have 
gone to a price at which they can sell to good ad¬ 
vantage and invest the money in cheaper land else¬ 
where. The West and South are chief competitors 
for this trade. In both sections can be found good 
land at fair prices. Northwest Canada offers chances 
for those who do not mind the cold Winters. Af¬ 
ter all, however, it is doubtful if any part of the 
country can make a better bid than the East, New 
England, New York, Pennsylvania and the Delaware 
peninsula. It seems like a strange thing that the 
East should compete with the West for immigrants, 
yet it is doing so, and offering superior attractions in 
land, location and markets. 
Putting the most favorable construction upon the crop 
reports, it seems definitely settled that the grain supply 
will l)e below the average for the past 10 years, and con¬ 
siderably below that of last year. 
