THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, October 12, 1853. W 
The greatest improvement, and the best thing which Mr. 
Donald has yet done here, is the way he restored the old Yews in 
the garden-front of the Palace entrance, to perfect health and free 
growth, from a premature bundling to the wood-yard, by cleaning 
and clearing out from under them, and by making beds over the 
roots, to encourage young ones to the surface. D. Beaton. 
PECULIARITIES OE THE RASPBERRY. 
Between very high and very low culture, what a vast 
difference in almost everything! And this difference is 
owing to two matters,—well-conceived plans, based on the 
aptitude of the plant, and on a due application of labour. 
But who is he that can take hold of all the subjects of 
even an ordinary garden, and say, “I will cultivate every¬ 
thing alike in the very highest order of which it is 
capable P ” So that we lind that one man makes one thing 
his pet, and another man something else ; and thus, as 
Cowper remarked, “Bit by bit the pig is eaten.” 
In no fruit is the difference more great than in the 
culture of the Raspberry. The difference between a good 
crop of Raspberries and a bad one is enormous. In the 
one case, a few lean, half-starved stems, surmounted by a 
tuft of half-sized, half-flavoured fruit, the stems beneath 
giving no return ; in the other, an uniform amount of 
finely-developed foliage, and bouncing, luscious fruit, 
from the bottom of the stem to the top. Words can 
scarcely describe the difference. And how is all this to 
be accounted for P By ignorance of the plant’s habits and 
aptitudes in the first place, and the want of high cultural 
principles in the second. There are two things as to their 
habits, to which I would particularly draw attention,— 
their love of a permanency of moisture, and their extreme 
aptitude for rooting near the surface. On these two then, 
as pivots, their general culture should be founded. 
As to soil, any unctuous kind will be found suitable, 
that is to say, one of somewhat strong loamy character. 
I have generally known them succeed best in a darkish- 
coloured soil, which was what might be called rather 
greasy after rain. In speaking of the tendency to produce 
surface roots, I did not mean to the exclusion of strong 
roots beneath, for such are ever found in the Raspberry. 
But, in proportion as surface culture is promoted, so in 
like proportion will the plant betake itself less to those 
wiry and deeper roots. About three or four years since, 
I formed an idea that they would be better cultivated in 
a trench, like Celery. I had found that piling surface- 
dressings above the ground level, on our sandy soils, did 
not fully accomplish what I had intended,-—the very 
manure, however moist it might be applied, becoming 
dried in hot weather. This trench system I have car¬ 
ried out, and find it excellent. The mode of preparing 
the ground is this :—a trench is excavated nearly a yard 
in width, and about half a yard in depth ; on this ex¬ 
cavation is spread half-rotten manure, and on this the 
Raspberries are set, and a slight coating of rotten manure 
spread over their fibres ; soil is then added, but only a 
little ; and, after the planting is over, the whole is at least 
six inches below the ground level. Here, then, is a 
hollow, or receptacle, for future top-dressings, without 
ever rising above the surface of the soil; for I find by 
experience, that about two, or more, inches of manure, 
spread over their roots annually, or biennially, subsides 
into a bare inch in the course of the year. We may here 
see, that Raspberries planted thus are always in a position 
to receive and retain the rains of summer; and, although 
such a course may be impolitic on wet soils, yet I may, I 
think, aver, that two-thirds of the Raspberries in the 
country would be benefited by such a procedure. It will 
be seen, that my purpose here is not to say all that might 
be said of this useful fruit, but, agreeably to the heading 
of my remarks, to show forth a few features which I deem 
peculiar. 
Let me, then, direct attention to their aptitude for 
surface roots, providing inducements are held out to 
them. It is surely too late in the day, to use milch argil-* 
ment to persuade good people, who possess gardens, that 
surface fibres, as they are called,—albeit a misnomer,—arci 
of immense importance to all fruit-bearing trees. Now, 
if any mere tyro was to look into such a question for the 
first time, he would at once suppose that surface fibres 
signified roots rising above the ground level; and indeed, 
in the case of the Black Currant and Raspberry, they 
doubtless would, could we keep up a perpetual fog, or 
watery mist, during May and June, But the alternations 
of drought check these aspirants for the treasures of the 
atmosphere, and, like bees venturing too far from home 
under untoward circumstances, hundreds perish by the 
way. Nevertheless, this must not frighten us from the 
principle itself,—it is only suggestive of caution. What 
I want to prove is, that these fibres, or bundles of fibres, 
just under a nourishing medium, are of more importance 
than the meagre and “ beggarly account ” of fibres, by 
which deep and stringy roots are terminated,—and that 
they differ in their mode of working, as also the con¬ 
ditions they are placed under. 
But let me now pass on to the natural habits of the 
Raspberry, as evinced in its above-ground growth. The 
first thing that strikes us, is its prodigiously prolific cha¬ 
racter with regard to its progeny. We have in some 
cases a score or more suckers, where only five are ulti¬ 
mately required. But these suckers must be understood to 
be robbers in a certain sense; yet, since the Raspberry 
is renewed, and brought into a kind of new existence by 
means of these suckers, we must see what can be done 
with them. Our readers may rely upon it, that every 
sucker detracts, not so much from the parent stool imme¬ 
diately, but from the virtues of the soil, or compost, 
around the original stem. Therefore, let everyone who 
can spare time pull away every sucker not wanted, the 
moment they can fairly handle them, and they may rest 
assured that they are removing what would ultimately 
detract from the fruitful bush. 
Let me now pass on to another feature of importance 
in Raspberry culture,—the mode of pruning. Although 
I would not give an over-prominence to mere pruning 
matters, there is a feature in this which, I think, well 
deserves particular notice. We all know', that, by the 
old practice, it was common to reserve from four to 
half-a-dozen canes, and to prune them about the same 
length. The effect of this has ever been to produce a 
series of sprouts all in one part, while the other portions 
below were entirely of a negative character. In practice, 
I know this to be a great error ; but why, in the name of 
common sense, must this be so ? Shoots should be left 
about five feet high, say the old writers; but they say 
nothing about the graduation in height. But, if w'e 
possess four good and proper canes, and one is left five 
feet, a second four feet, a third three feet, and a fourth 
thirty inches, is it not obvious that this mass of canes 
must be clothed progressively, and that a greater equalisa¬ 
tion of young spray must be the consequence ? It is so. 
But I do not insist on the precise heights here given,— 
that must ever depend, in some degree, on the character 
of the canes. Let, then, those who choose to push the 
cultivation of the Raspberry consider this matter, and 
just use what is generally termed common sense. Such 
is not unfrequently of more immediate use than even 
science itself, strange as it may appear. R. Errington. 
LOOKING ABOUT US. 
The Nursery or raE Messrs. Yeitch, at Exeter. 
W iiat a grand thing it is, not to grumble, but to have 
full power and privilege to do so. Shut up this great 
safety-valve, and what dire results would again take place 
among us, as respects, individuals, families, and com¬ 
munities ! John Bull is one of the freest and happiest of 
men, just because he may grumble to his heart’s content. 
