162 
A KITCHEN GARDEN 
For manuring the berries coarse manure should 
be applied in the fall, or short, well-rotted manure 
in the spring; in either case plowing it under as 
applied; if plowed in the fall the furrows should 
all be thrown toward the rows, thus partly banking 
them over for the winter. 
In the first warm days in the spring these bushes 
should have their trimming; all the old wood that 
has borne fruit will be dead and should be cut out at 
the ground. Three or four good healthy young shoots 
should be selected to each plant, cut off at three and 
a half or four feet in height, and the side shoots cut 
back to three or four inches ; cut off all the rest of 
the suckers. This is important, for if too many are 
left there wull be but a small crop of inferior fruit. 
When the whole patch has been trimmed and cleared 
up it should be staked; or each plant maybe staked 
as trimmed, but the trimming will have to be left 
until a week or so later, as the stakes cannot be 
driven in the frozen ground. For.this purpose I use 
old fence rails, sawing them in the middle and then 
splitting each piece into two or three stakes, or the 
large limbs, say one to two inches thick, left from trim¬ 
ming brush, can be used; the fence-rail stakes, how¬ 
ever, last longer than the fresh cut poles, and are much 
more easily driven. 
It will be a great help in picking-time if the row 
is gone over with a large pair of hedge shears, and 
the longest of the young shoots shortened in, so as 
to allow easy access to the row. Where it is more 
convenient, the bearing wood may be cut out as soon 
