1914. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
l the new berry culture. 
Part II. 
The most important point in all this 
system is thorough cultivation, which 
means cultivation right through the pick¬ 
ing season. With the new canes nearly 
full grown and the bearing canes matur¬ 
ing a crop of berries in the hottest and 
driest time of the year, it is of the great¬ 
est importance that we save every drop 
of water possible. The pickers tramp 
the surface until the sun has the best 
possible chance to get the water. For 
best results the patch should be culti¬ 
vated after each picking. Any lack of 
moisture at this time will quickly, and 
surely reduce the crop and under the 
common system, where cultivation is dis¬ 
continued when picking begins, this lack 
becomes so serious as to bring an exces¬ 
sive strain on the vitality of the plant, 
which shortens its lifetime. This is one 
reason why cane berry plantings are ex¬ 
hausted and useless at four, five, or six 
years, when they should be vigorous and 
profitable at twice the age. 
We allow not more than six canes of 
red raspberries in one hill, and four or 
five of blackberries are plenty. All new 
canes are carefully removed between 
hills. It is worse than useless to allow 
more canes to grow than are needed, as 
we are certain that we get more fruit 
from this number of canes than we could 
from twice as many. It is very import¬ 
ant that the row be kept narrow. All 
canes that come up outside the row are 
taken out, no matter how vigorous they 
may be. The canes are allowed to grow 
to their full height without any cutting 
or pinching back. 
The red raspberries are spread out fan- 
shape and tied, spacing them so that they 
are an equal distance apart all along the 
upper wire. Then the tops are cut off, 
leaving them 5% or six feet high. Were 
we sure of plenty of moisture we would 
not trim at all. With the blackberries 
there is an important difference in prun¬ 
ing, because they positively will not pro¬ 
duce berries on the part of the canes 
that was much shaded last year. The 
first year there is no shade; the second 
not much, as the new growth is much 
higher than that of the first year, but 
after the caues reach their full size, the 
new shoots must push their way up 
through a mass of bearing canes, and 
the first four or five feet is so shaded 
as to be almost useless as far as the fruit 
it bears is concerned. This may be the 
reason some say the second crop is the 
best they ever get. After the second 
year we bend the canes down over the 
upper wire, tying the tip to the lower 
wire onto another cane when more con¬ 
venient. If they have branched freely 
we cut out part of the branches, or take 
out entire canes, always remembering the 
top is the best part of the cane. Then 
our new canes grow up from three to five 
feet above the old growth, and have the 
full benefit of the sunshine, while the 
bearing canes ripen their crops just as 
nicely while partly shaded. 
This tying takes time and patience, 
but we must have the canes all snug in 
a space which should not be more than 
a foot wide at the bottom so that the 
cultivator may be run close. We have a 
cultivator four feet wide with adjustable 
handles which may be set to one side, 
so that after the fruit spurs grow and 
the rows spread out above, the cultiva¬ 
tor may be held close to the row with¬ 
out scratching the hands. It also has a 
set of V-shaped sweeps, which are used 
to cut off all the suckers that come up 
between the rows. Two horses and a 
spring-tooth harrow may be used for 
awhile in the Spring, but after the ber¬ 
ries form and the rows have widened out 
we use the single cultivator. 
The soil should be good, but the ber¬ 
ries do not seem to require heavy fertil¬ 
ization. We use commercial fertilizer 
rather than manure, as we have been 
getting all the cane growth we want, ex¬ 
cept when our red raspberry canes were 
damaged by .Tune freezes the last two 
years. I consider the moisture problem 
far more important, and difficult than the 
fertility, for, with berries selling at from 
$2.50 to $5.10 per bushel, we can easily 
afford to buy all the fertilizer needed. 
Few growers realize how sensitive the 
red berries are to any lack of moisture, 
or that they almost never get the entire 
crop to mature. The crop may be re¬ 
duced one-third to one-luilf without the 
grower having noticed that, unlike the 
other berries, the red raspberry, when 
the moisture runs short, will concentrate 
its energy on the berries that are fairly 
well formed, maturing them nicely, while 
the small ones and thousands of blossoms 
which should have made berries die. The 
cultivation should be just deep enough to 
maintain a good dust mulch, as deep 
plowing breaks up the roots and does 
more harm than good. 
This system requires about 275 posts 
per acre and 320 pounds of wire. We 
use posts somewhat higher than average 
fence posts, and if set with a digger 
many posts may be used that could not 
be driven. This seems like a heavy ex¬ 
pense to begin with, but it is done once 
for several years, and when the crop 
returns are from $200 to $400 per acre 
we can well afford it. We claim for this 
system that it produces very much larger 
yields, that the berries are more easily 
picked, and that the profitable lifetime of 
the planting is doubled, compared with 
berries allowed to grow too thick and not 
well cultivated. The writer saw in one 
day one patch of blackberries, one of red 
raspberries and one that contained both 
which were 14, 15 and 17 years old re¬ 
spectively, and all were still vigorous, 
and profitable. These berries were grow¬ 
ing on a very deep soil which, while the 
surface was well drained, had a perman¬ 
ent supply of water only a few feet be¬ 
low. It was on this soil that the large 
yield mentioned was grown. Within a 
mile was another field of red raspberries 
on a different type of soil which pro¬ 
duced very well for the first few pick¬ 
ings, then stopped short, while those 
with plenty of moisture were just about 
in the middle of their harvest. We need 
a fertile soil, but fertility is of little 
value when the water is exhausted, for 
plants can take their food only in a 
liquid form, and we cannot make soup 
without water b v Egbert. 
“ Aland's Wonder’’ Forage Plant. 
I have just seen in a 1914 catalogue 
a picture and a description of Aland’s 
‘‘Wonder Forage Plant ” The statement 
is made that the seed is unequalled for 
poultry food. Inasmuch as we are be¬ 
ginners in the poultry business, we 
would like to know if you are acquainted 
with its merits, especially as a food for 
chickens? p. p. ji. 
Connecticut. 
“Aland’s Wonder’ forage plant ap¬ 
pears to be simply Pearl millet, Pennise- 
tum typlioideum or P. spicata, of differ¬ 
ent botanists, a very rank-growing mil¬ 
let of unknown origin, long cultivated in 
Asia and Southern Europe for forage 
and to a less extent for its seeds, as food 
both for stock and humans. It was 
introduced to this country with con¬ 
siderable flourish by mail-order seed 
houses about 20 years ago under the 
names of Pearl millet and Penicillaria as 
a wonderful new plant for forage and 
chicken feeding purposes, though if had 
probably long been grown in the South 
in a small way. Although possessing 
much merit Pearl millet cannot endure 
competition with corn and the sorghums 
where these invaluable economic crops 
can be grown, and little is heard of it 
now, except as a novelty crop on the 
trial-packet basis. 
Pearl millet grows well under ordin¬ 
ary cover crop conditions, and if sown 
in rich soil with a long season and suffi¬ 
cient rain will grow many feet high and 
produce quite a lot of excellent chick- 
feed, but as good or better results with 
less labor may be had with any suitable 
variety of field corn or maize, or in drier 
localities the sorghums known as Kaffir 
or Egyptian corn. 
As a forage plant Pearl millet will 
produce under favorable conditions an 
extraordinary amount of green fodder if 
frequently cut during the growing sea¬ 
son, but if left too long the stalks soon 
become woody and are not relished by 
cattle. As a soiling crop for small areas 
of rich land in most warm localities 
Pearl millet is worth attention, but must 
inevitably retire before corn where the 
latter can be well grown. v. 
Mackenzie was having his first ex¬ 
perience of life in American forests. Fur¬ 
rowing a gun, he set off one day in 
search of game. Not long afterwards his 
companion saw Mackenzie in the dis¬ 
tance running at full speed, a big bear 
behind him. “Quick! Quick! Jock,” 
Mackenzie cried. “Open the door! I’m 
bringing him home alive!”—London 
Farm and Home. 
‘The farm house that’s so often untenanted.’ 
Change houses into homes! 
The original owner 
had liberal ideas— 
big, airy rooms; 
plenty of big win¬ 
dows to let in the 
light and whole¬ 
some sunshine; 
and big, arched open- 
ings between the 
rooms instead of cum¬ 
bersome doors. But 
he made the one big 
mistake-—he put in 
old-fashioned heating 
— and he and every 
succeeding owner and tenant has found the place “big and barny”— 
so full of chill corners, drafty passageways and cold floors. In 
thousands of such farm houses formerly handicapped by old-fashioned 
heating it has since been proved that the one unfailing way to cure 
houses of cold and lack of tenants is to put in an outfit of 
For the 3-room cottage up to the largest 
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and AMERICAN Radiators in every size 
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incomes of farmer, wage-earner or salaried 
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IDEAL Boilers are made in different forms to burn to highest heating advan¬ 
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heat regulation, etc. These 
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can be sure to get the highest 
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economies from every pound of fuel — 
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Need not be connected to water supply 
pipes; the same water is used over and 
over, for many years. 
Radiators 
Boilers 
Lam 
A No. 4-22-W IDEAL Boiler and 400 It 
ol 38-in. AMERICAN Radiators, cost¬ 
ing the owner $200. were used to heat 
this cottage 
At this price the goods can be bought 
of any reputable, competent Filter. This 
did not include cost of labor, pipe, valves, 
freight, etc., which are extra and vary 
according to climatic and other condi¬ 
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If you have a farm or town home, store, 
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IDEAL Boilers and AMERICAN 
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A meri can R adtat or fl ompany 
Write to Dept. F9 
Chicago 
ORIGINAL EMERSON 
The one that draws the easiest: no part of the Emerson Gear- 
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Emerson Haymaking Tools 
Send for Free Book “Making Hay the Emerson Way.” 
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Line backed by 60 years’ reputation. Address N 
Emerson-Brantinsham Implement Co. (Inc.) 
Good Farm Machinery 916 W. Iron St., Rockford, III. 
VU* 
m 
37554 
Buy custom-made, oak-tanned harness 
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KING HARNESS 
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CAN YOUR BOY DRIVE ATEAM? 
Then turn your 
walking plow into 
a sulky with a 
WINNER 
PLOW 
TRUCK 
and lei him plow 
while you do work 
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lewis Mfff. Co.. Box C, Cortland, N. Y. 
SAW 10 LOGS 
WITH AN 
AMERICAN 
SAW MILL 
Ten 16 foot logs averaging 14 inches thick 
make 1000 feet of lumber worth $25 to §40 
in your local market. Costs you only $4 to §5 to 
saw looo feet with an ** American” Portable Savr 
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gas engine and an “American” mill saws up to 
AND GET 
LUMBER 
WORTH 
$25to$40 
2500 feet per day. Get an ’’American" be¬ 
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Terminal Iliiilding. *e>v York 
Chicago Savannah New Orleans Seattle 
