growth, the lighter and drier the soil best adapted to
it, as a rule, and vice versa. The Cuthbert is one of
our most vigorous growers, and usually succeeds well
on upland, while some of the more feeble growers,
like Hansell, may do better on lowlands.
LOCATION
The cooler the spot the larger and finer the berries.
This is the rule with wild berries. Hence a northern
exposure which will, in so far as possible, mitigate the
scorching sun and excessive heat likely to occur at
ripening time, is the one to be sought, particularly in
the mid -continental regions. A location which is too
hot may be much alleviated, however, by thorough-
going tillage.
FERTILIZERS AND PROPAGATION 45
FERTILIZERS
Red raspberries do not need heavy fertilizing unless
grown on very unproductive land. On such soil stable
manure can be used in limited quantities with good
results. Little nitrogen is required, and its application
is apt to be money wasted. It may also induce too
much growth of cane with ill -developed fruit -buds and
deficient fruitfulness. Potash is desirable but is not
needed in large quantities. It may be supplied in
muriate of potash or in wood -ashes. Fifty pounds of
muriate of potash per acre, annually, will supply more
potash than the fruit will remove. It should be remem-
bered, however, that part of what is applied must inva-
riably be lost. If phosphoric acid is needed an application
of two hundred fifty pounds of floats or ground bone,
harrowed in before setting the plants, will supply it.
The grower should carefully experiment upon his own
soil to determine whether commercial fertilizers are
really needed, and if so what. Let the humus -supply
be first considered, the chemicals later.
PROPAGATION
Red raspberries attend to their own propagation
without aid. The grower is more concerned with
destroying the plants which appear than with increas-
ing their production. Most varieties sucker freely, and
these suckers must be kept down to obtain satisfactory
fruit -production. If it becomes desirable to hasten the
propagation of new and desirable varieties they may be
46 B USH-FS. UITS
increased more rapidly by disturbing or cutting the
roots and by means of root cuttings, in exactly the
same manner as described for blackberries. As else-
where stated, care should be exercised in taking up
the plants for setting. They should always be lifted
by thrusting some tool beneath the roots and loosening
the earth above. They should never be pulled up
directly, for this is altogether likely to break the shoot
from the root from which it sprang, leaving only a
straight stem, with very few fibrous roots on it, from
which to develop the root system of the young plant.
In this instance, as in every other, good results are to
be expected only when the operator informs himself as
to methods, and then does the best he knows how.
PLANTING
Most of the directions given for planting the black-
berry will apply equally well to the red raspberry, and
like that, it is adapted to either spring or fall planting.
The chief difference between the two, so far as plant-
ing is concerned, is that the red raspberry requires less
room. About the same arguments will apply in both
cases in regard to the time of planting and to the
method, whether in hills or check rows. If in rows,
the usual distance is six feet apart and about three feet
in the row. The young plants will very soon fill in
the intervening spaces, making a solid row unless cut
down. Just this fact, moreover, is a very good argu-
ment in favor of hill planting. So many suckers are
thrown up that the hedge gets denser and broader
PLANTING THE REDS 47
as the plants keep crowding outward and narrowing
the space between the rows. The result is that soon
only weak and spindling canes can be developed, and
the whole plantation is virtually crowded out. Of
course, there is a remedy for this in persistently and
vigorously thinning out, but this is tedious and ex-
pensive work, and is very rarely done as it should be.
While this difficulty cannot be wholly overcome by any
system of planting, still if the plants are in hills and
the cultivator kept going thoroughly in both direc-
tions, it is largely obviated. Five feet apart each way
is about the most satisfactory distance for reds in hills,
though some growers plant them as close as four feet.
This may prove sufficient for the smaller -growing va-
rieties, but for the more vigorous -growing sorts it is
likely to prove too close, though four feet one way
might do. It is sometimes recommended to set the
plants two and one -half feet apart in one direction, on
high-priced land, then tear out every alternate plant
after the first two crops and cultivate both ways, the
idea being to thus utilize the land more fully at the
beginning.
The young shoots of red raspberry plants can be
successfully planted early in the summer, and it is
often a desirable way of doing. Certainly where the
grower can get them from his own fields it is much
better to plant them in the early summer while young,
than to wait till the following spring to set the same
plants, if he is ready to plant and is only being de-
layed by the lack of plants. Such plants become well
established and are ready for a much more vigorous
48 BUSH-FRUITS
growth the following spring than one-year-old plants
just set. They will also bear some fruit without
injury. In fact, a young plant taken up and carefully
reset when a few inches high is to be preferred, on the
whole, to a one-year-old plant which has had to be
shipped some distance from a nursery, and has been
planted in the spring of the same year.
In the hot, dry climates of the West, some shade is
an advantage to these fruits, and if it can be secured
without so close proximity to trees that the moisture
and fertility is already sapped from the ground by
their roots, it is desirable to get it. Ordinarily this is
not an easy thing to do, and the injury is likely to be
as great as the benefit.
POLLINATION
The need of planting different varieties together to
insure proper fecundation of the blossoms has come to
be well recognized in orchard planting, but has not
been thought worth considering in planting bush -fruits.
It has been taken for granted that the varieties commonly
grown are self -fertile. Indications point to the con-
clusion that many of them are not fully so. I have
observed much evidence of imperfect pollination with
Early Cluster and Ancient Briton blackberry, Mayes
dewberry and Fontenay raspberry, when growing alone.
Others may be equally deficient. The Cuthbert bears
an abundance of pollen and is apparently fully self-
fertile. Its blossoming season is long and it is therefore
an excellent sort to plant with other reds.
TILLING 49
The Crimson Beauty is an instance of a variety
which, while possessing many good points, proved a
practical failure over the country at large, mainly owing
to its inability to properly fecundate its own blossoms.
TILLAGE
The cultivation of red raspberries should be such
that it will not only keep the ground loose and friable,
thus diminishing evaporation and unlocking plant -food,
but will also destroy the suckers. To this end a culti-
vator with teeth square on the end instead of pointed,
or with a knife attachment, as explained in the discus-
sion of tools, is of great advantage. Of course this
assumes that the object is fruit, and does not apply to
the man who is growing plants for sale. In spite of
the repetition, perhaps attention ought again to be
called to the very great importance of frequent cultiva-
tion, up to the time of ripening. This alone may easily
add 50 per cent to the quality and quantity of the crop.
As already stated, this is the best substitute for irriga-
tion, and in many cases is nearly equal to it. Late
tillage, up to the time of frost, gives especially good
results with the red raspberry, and no one need fear
to keep the cultivator going until that time in most
localities.
PRUNING
In the pruning of red raspberries, the practice of
growers is widely at variance, especially with regard
to the summer pruning. A few years ago the com-
mon advice, or rather, perhaps, that which appeared
D
50 BUSH-FRUITS
most frequently, was to treat them the same as black-
caps, by pinching the growing canes in summer and
trimming back the laterals in spring. Individually,
growers all over the country have been coming to
doubt the advisability of this plan, and to omit the
summer pruning. Pinching back the canes in summer
seems to have a tendency to increase the number of
suckers thrown up, which in itself is a disadvantage
unless the plantation is being run for purposes of
propagation. Unless pinched low while still very
young, the plants do not throw out strong branches,
like the black -caps, possibly owing to the fact that the
energy of the plant is more readily directed in the
line of producing suckers than in the line of develop-
ing branches. The effect of stopping the cane after
it has reached a height of three feet or more, is only
to force into growth lateral buds which might better
remain dormant until the following spring. As a rule,
they make only an imperfect development, do not be-
come well ripened before growth stops, and are apt to
be more or less injured by the following winter. Both
my own experience and the information gathered from
the experience of others, lead me to believe that the
better way to treat the red raspberry is to allow it to
grow unmolested during the whole season, merely cut-
ting the canes back to within three, or in some cases
even two feet of the ground the following spring. If
the canes are to be supported by stakes or trellis, as is
sometimes done in garden culture, they may be left
longer, say four, or even five feet. Treated in this
way, the canes will throw out a sufficient number of
PRUNING RED RASPBERRIES 51
laterals in spring to produce all the fruit which a plant
ought to carry. Moreover, these branches are vigorous
and healthy, and in better condition to develop a fine
crop of fruit than if produced the preceding year,
weakened by the winter and now called upon to throw
out fruit -bearing shoots. The lessened expense of
pruning is an added advantage secured by this method
of training.
An exception to this plan may be advisable in case
of young and vigorous plantations, or an exceptionally
rampant -growing variety. Young plants have not the
root development to start out so stocky a cane, and
naturally produce a more slender and comparatively
longer growth, so that allowing the main canes to
grow uninterruptedly, and cutting them back to the
desired height the following spring, is likely to remove
too great a proportion of the wood, and leave only the
weaker and poorly developed buds near the base. For
this reason there are some good growers who find it
an advantage to pinch back the plants the first one or
two years, but not after that. Whenever it is de-
sirable to do this, the important point to remember is to
merely pinch off the tip while the plants are young and
only a few inches high. Six to eighteen inches is bet-
ter than higher, provided it is done when the plant
reaches that point, but they should never be allowed
to grow higher and then be cut back to this point. If
stopped at this early age, the main cane will increase
in height somewhat, and will be able to throw out
strong and vigorous branches, forming a stocky, self
supporting bush, well prepared to endure the winter
52
BUSH-FRUITS
and produce a good crop of fruit the following year.
Such, a bush of the Cuthbert variety is shown in Fig.
11. An undesirable form of training is shown in
Fig. 12.
AUTUMN FRUITING
Certain varieties of raspberries possess a strong ten-
dency to bear fruit in autumn on wood of the present
Fig. 11. Well trained.
Fig. 12. Improperly trained.
season's growth, and it is sometimes recommended to
take out the old canes in spring in order to induce
this habit. A single experiment was made at the Cor-
nell gardens to determine whether our common varie-
ties would yield to this treatment. Plants of Fontenay,
Cuthbert and Shaffer were mowed off with a scythe
in the spring, before the young canes started. The
PICKING 53
results were very definite, but not encouraging. The
young canes made a vigorous growth, but not a single
cluster of flowers appeared on either the Cuthbert or
Shaffer plants. There were two or three fine clusters
of fruit among the Fontenay plants thus treated, but
this is one of the European varieties, which are charac-
terized by more or less continuous fruiting throughout
the season. Just as good clusters were to be found,
and apparently as many of them, where the plants were
treated in the ordinary manner.
The only advantage in autumn fruiting is the pro-
duction of a small amount of fresh fruit for family
use late in the season, but this trial seems to show
little prospect of inducing tardy fruiting by means
of encouraging a late seasonal growth.
HARVESTING AND MARKETING
Red raspberries ought, if possible, to be picked
every other day, for they deteriorate rapidly when once
they are ripe, a process which is not prevented by their
being allowed to hang on the bushes. Moreover, since
they are a soft, difficult berry to ship, at best, it is
advisable to start them on the way at the earliest pos-
sible moment. The longer they remain after ripening,
the softer, duller in color and poorer in quality they
become. They are best marketed in pint baskets.
These are oblong in shape, and the size is such that
an ordinary bushel crate will just hold sixty of them.
The smaller quantity in each basket enables them to
carry much better than when marketed in quarts. Care
54 BUSH-FRUITS
should be taken never to pick the fruit when wet, and
to keep it in a cool, well ventilated place until sent to
market. A home market is by far the most desirable.
For evaporating, berries may be batted off (Fig. 13;
and see discussion in next chapter).
USES
The red raspberry is essentially a fruit to be sold
on the market fresh, unless the grower chances to be
Pig. 13. Berry harvester. (See page 74.)
located near a canning factory. There is no difficulty
whatever in evaporating it, but the shrinkage is so great
that it is hard to secure a price for the dried product
which is high enough to yield a fair price per quart of
fresh fruit. A heaping quart basketful of fruit will
weigh about four ounces when dried, varying some-
what with seasons and other conditions, so that one
cannot expect over seven or eight pounds of dried
EVAPORATING THE BEDS 55
fruit per bushel of green fruit. Moreover, the true
reds dry to a dull, unattractive color, which must ever
prove a hindrance to their sale. It is difficult to get
people to, pay a satisfactory price for a thing which
does not look well. The Shaffer is one of the best va-
rieties for evaporating purposes. It is a prolific, often
an enormous yielder. It is intermediate between the
red and black, rich and of good flavor. Moreover,
when dried it has a much more attractive appearance
than the Cuthbert. There is, therefore, reason to sup-
pose that the cultivation of this for evaporating pur-
poses might pay, though probably not so well as the
cultivation of black -caps. Certain it is that, whatever
the variety, if the market should become glutted at any
time during the season, and facilities for evaporating
are at hand, it should be done by all means, rather
than let them waste. The dried fruit is sure to find a
market, and probably at a price which will yield a
fair return for the crop. If the fresh fruit will sell
at reasonable prices the question of evaporating need
never be considered. The conditions hardly warrant
planting them for evaporating alone ; certainly none
of the true reds, though Shaffer may pay.
DURATION OF PLANTATIONS
Like the blackberries, red raspberries can be made
to continue producing from the same plantation for a
number of years, though it is doubtful whether it ever
pays to do this. There are so many causes tending to
weaken the plants, and render them less productive
56 BUSH-FRUITS
as they grow older, such as disease, reduced fertil-
ity of the soil, over -crowding, etc., that it is almost
impossible for them to yield a good return after
having borne two or three crops. Especially are the
various diseases which affect cultivated crops coming
to be such an important factor that it is necessary
to adopt every feasible precaution to prevent their
ravages. Not only are the older plantations likely to
become diseased so as to greatly lessen their own pro-
ductiveness, but at the same time they become most
effective breeding grounds for the spread of these dis-
eases, and injurious insects as well, to new and
healthier fields.
Moreover, the continuous production of suckers is
likely to fill the rows or hills so full of plants in a few
years that they are of necessity small and weak unless
vigorously thinned out. Even that does not fully over-
come the difficulty. The rows are almost sure to be-
come filled with weeds, and grass as well, and cannot
be kept clean without too great expense. It is on the
whole, therefore, better to get three or four good crops,
then plow up the field and depend upon another plan-
tation ready for the purpose. The fruit will be larger,
hence more marketable, and the results more satisfac-
tory in every way.
Although persistent, it is not very difficult to rid a
field of the plants by the same treatment recommended
for the blackberry. They may continue to appear for
some time, but they are not so strong but that they may
be easily controlled in whatever way the land is used
afterward.
WINTER INJURY 57
HARDINESS
As a rule the reds do not equal the black -caps in
hardiness, though some varieties are seldom injured in
favorable locations in the middle latitude of -the United
States. It seems probable that the lack of hardiness
as frequently comes from want of ability in the leaves
to endure the hot suns of summer as from lack of ability
in the canes to endure the cold of winter. If by any
means the function of the foliage during the growing
season becomes impaired, the vitality of the plant is
lessened, and it goes into winter poorly prepared to
meet the conditions laid upon it during that period.
Hence it seems but reasonable that lack of hardiness
or winter -killing may result from insect or fungous
injury inflicted during summer, as well as from un-
favorable climatic conditions. It is an interesting
fact that small, late -growing canes generally stand the
winter better than the more vigorous ones of the whole
season's growth. Cuthbert canes produced at the Cor-
nell gardens, after cutting away all young canes July
G, 1892, came through the winter in better condition
than the earlier, undisturbed canes in the other part of
the same row. These later canes were alive to the tip
in spring, and at the time the leaves were opening
they were more uniformly green and farther advanced
than the others. They produced fine fruit, but since
they are smaller than canes of the full season's growth,
the yield might be less. One Iowa grower reports
that in two seasons' trial, blackberry canes produced
after pulling up all young shoots about the last of
58 BUSH-FRUITS
June, were loaded with fine berries, while older canes
alongside had but few. Although such canes are later
it does not necessarily follow that they are immature.
Starting later, when the conditions do not favor so
vigorous a* growth, it is altogether probable that the
wood is firmer and its vitality greater at the beginning
of winter than that of the earlier canes.
YIELDS
The yield of red raspberries is less, as a rule, than
that of any other member of the genus, unless it be the
dewberries, the yield of which is more or less a question
of locality. The average yield of reds, as derived from
the replies of fifty -six growers, is about sixty -nine
bushels per acre. A few growers place the estimated
yield higher than that of black -caps, but this is excep-
tional. Moreover, this smaller yield is distributed over
a longer ripening "period, and is for that reason more
expensive to gather and market, so that the reds ought
always to bring one or two cents more per quart than
the black-caps, in order to prove equally profitable.
There can be no doubt that the average yield can be
largely increased by good care and by abandoning the
plantations sooner, for it is the old fields which give
the poor returns.
NORMAL PROFITS
Red raspberries are nearly always in good demand.
The grower who lives near a small town, where there
is not too much competition, and who can depend
THE HYBRID REDS 59
upon getting from eight to twelve cents a quart for
kis crop, will have no trouble in making red raspber-
ries pay. There is generally less likelihood of glut-
ting the markets with reds than with blacks, but
their smaller yield and poorer shipping qualities tend
to render their profitableness uncertain if the vicissi-
tudes of a city market at any distance from home
must be depended on.
The entire cost of cultivation, rent of land, fertil-
izers, etc., need never exceed fifty dollars per acre.
The cost of picking and marketing will range from
two to four cents per quart, usually, so that if the
crop can be made to net five cents a quart after de-
ducting cost of picking and marketing, there will still
be left a profit of about sixty dollars per acre, with
the average yield mentioned above. It will be readily
seen that this is a very conservative estimate, and by
no means equal to the results often obtained.
NOTE ON THE HYBRID REDS
There are really two classes of plants embraced in
this hybrid group. One of these propagates naturally
almost wholly by tips, like the black -caps. This is the
true Rubus neglectus, or Purple Cane type, and it is to
this class that the old Purple Cane, Shaffer, Colum-
bian and others belong. These demand the same
methods of planting, pruning and care as that given
to the black -caps. The other class propagates chiefly
by suckers, but can be made to root from the tips
with proper care. These are essentially red raspber-
60 BUSH-FRUITS
ries in character, and demand the same care and
treatment as red raspberries. Indeed, some of them
approach so closely to red raspberries that a donbt
arises as to whether they ought not to be classed with
the reds, instead of with Rubus neglectus. To this
class belong Philadelphia, Reliance and a few others.
Caroline is a pinkish yellow berry, belonging to this
category, and thought to be a seedling of Brinckle's
Orange, fertilized by some cap variety.
Many of these are excellent for the home garden,
owing to their great productiveness and rich flavor.
The great objection to them as a market fruit is their
dull, unattractive color and their poor carrying qual-
ity. Some persons who cultivate the Shaffer for mar-
ket overcome this difficulty, in part, by picking them
before they are fully ripe and while they are yet
red. At this time they carry better and look better
in market. In a home market, however, there is but
little difficulty in selling the Shaffer when fully ripe,
dark as it is, if people come to know what it is and
have once tried it. It is one of the best raspberries
grown for canning purposes. It combines something
of the flavor of both the reds and blacks, and the
color after cooking is no longer unattractive.
CHAPTER III
SLACK EASPBEBRIES
The black -cap raspberries are more homogeneous
in character than the red varieties. They are all true
American fruits, being developments from the common
wild black raspberries.
SOIL FOR BLACK -CAPS
Black -caps succeed on a wide range of soils, but
thrive best on one which is rich, deep, moist and well
drained. Sandy or clay loams are preferable. A loca-
tion where water stands for any length of time is never
permissible. Let the grower who has ever gathered
wild black raspberries recall how luxuriantly they
grow in newly-cleared land, abounding in leaf-mold,
and take a lesson therefrom. Virgin soil filled with
leaf -mold is no longer available, but it is possible to
greatly add to the humus in the soil which is to be
used, thereby approximating the conditions found in
the forest clearing. It should not be forgotten that
humus greatly increases the drought -resisting quality
of soils, a point of the utmost importance 'in berry-
growing. A soil rich in humus will do much toward