8 
The Colorado Experiment Station. 
be plowed in the fall to the depth of eight to ten inches and in the 
spring put in thorough tilth before planting. 
Planting .—The plants should be set in rows eight feet apart 
and the plants five or six feet apart in the row. Yearling plants 
should be used. Thorough cultivation should be practiced through¬ 
out the growing season. The blackberry requires a large amount 
of water during the fruiting season and if it is not supplied, the 
fruit will be small, hard, and worthless. The blackberry is more 
tender than the red raspberry and the black cap, and requires win¬ 
ter covering or protection. This is done as in the case of the red 
raspberry, by bending over the canes and covering with four or five 
inches of soil. 
Pruning .—The blackberry requires constant and careful prun¬ 
ing. The first year after planting, the canes are permitted to grow 
undisturbed. The pruning begins with the second season. The 
growing canes should be cut off when two and a half to three feet 
high. This will start them to branch. Later in the season it may 
be necessary to pinch off the tips to prevent the canes growing too 
long. Only a small crop is obtained the second year. In the fall 
of the second year or as soon as the fruiting season is over, the old 
canes or the canes that bore fruit, should be cut out and burned, as 
they will die naturally after fruiting. From ten to twelve canes 
should be covered. This number provides for extra canes should 
any be broken during the process of covering and uncovering. Or¬ 
dinarily four to six canes are all that each plant can support and 
the rest should be cut out; otherwise they will weaken the product¬ 
iveness of the plants. 
Winter protection is necessary in almost every locality in the 
State. While some years protection may not be necessary so far 
as the canes or wood growth is concerned, it has been found 
from experiment that the canes are considerably weakened if un¬ 
protected and that as a consequence the quality as well as the quan¬ 
tity of the fruit is considerably curtailed. The bushes are laid down 
and covered in the same manner as the red raspberry, only more 
care must be taken as the canes are more brittle and are apt to break 
if extra care is not taken in bending the canes. 
In order to get abundance of soil as well as room for the canes 
they should be bent over so as to form an angle of 45 degrees with 
the rows. If the canes are bent in line with the row and covered, 
there is a tendency for the rows to become elevated or ridged. This 
encourages the roots to grow in the ridges and close to the surface, 
causing short-lived plants and making it more difficult to get water 
to the bushes. 
