|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 30
Throughout southern New England, along the bank of the Hudson, and
westward, almost any raspberry can be grown with proper treatment.
There are exceptions, which are somewhat curious. For instance,
the famous Hudson River Antwerp, which until within a very few
years has been one of the great crops of the State, has never been
grown successfully to any extent except on the west bank of the
river, and within the limited area of Kingston on the north and
Cornwall on the south. The Franconia, another foreign sort, has
proved itself adapted to more extended conditions of soil and
climate.
I have grown successfully nearly every well-known raspberry, and
perhaps I can best give the instruction I desire to convey by
describing the methods finally adopted after many years of
observation, reading, and experience. I will speak of the class
first named, belonging to the foreign species, of which I have
tested many varieties. I expect to set out this year rows of
Brinckle's Orange, Franconia, Hudson River Antwerp, and others.
For this class I should make the ground very rich, deep, and
mellow. I should prefer to set out the plants in the autumn--from
the middle of October to the tenth of November; if not then, in
early spring--the earlier the better--while the buds are dormant.
I should have the rows four feet apart; and if the plants were to
be grown among the smaller fruit-trees, I should maintain a
distance from them of at least seven feet. I should use only young
plants, those of the previous summer's growth, and set them in the
ground about as deeply as they stood when taken up--say three or
four inches of earth above the point from which the roots
branched. I should put two well-rooted plants in each hill, and
this would make the hills four feet apart each way. By "hills" I
do not mean elevations of ground. This should be kept level
throughout all future cultivation. I should cut back the canes or
stems of the plants to six inches. Thousands of plants are lost or
put back in their growth by leaving two or three feet of the canes
to grow the first year. Never do this. The little fruit gained
thus prematurely always entails a hundred-fold of loss. Having set
out the plants, I should next scatter over and about them one or
two shovelfuls of old compost or decayed manure of some kind. If
the plants had been set out in the fall, I should mound the earth
over them before freezing weather, so that there should be at
least four inches of soil over the tops of the stems. This little
mound of earth over the plants or hill would protect against all
injury from frost. In the spring I should remove these mounds of
earth so as to leave the ground perfectly level on all sides, and
the shortened canes projecting, as at first, six inches above the
surface. During the remainder of the spring and summer the soil
between the plants chiefly requires to be kept open, mellow, and
free from weeds. In using the hoe, be careful not to cut off the
young raspberry sprouts, on which the future crop depends. Do not
be disappointed if the growth seems feeble the first year, for
these foreign kinds are often slow in starting. In November,
before there is any danger of the ground freezing, I should cut
back the young canes at least one-third of their length, bend them
gently down, and cover them with earth to the depth of four or
five inches. It must be distinctly remembered that very few of the
foreign kinds would endure our winter unprotected. Every autumn
they must be covered as I have directed. Is any one aghast at this
labor? Nonsense! Antwerps are covered by the acre along the
Hudson. A man and a boy would cover in an hour all that are needed
for a garden.
After the first year the foreign varieties, like all others, will
send up too many sprouts, or suckers. Unless new plants are
wanted, these should be treated as weeds, and only from three to
five young canes be left to grow in each hill. This is a very
important point, for too often the raspberry-patch is neglected
until it is a mass of tangled bushes. Keep this simple principle
in mind: there is a given amount of root-power; if this cannot be
expended in making young sprouts all over the ground, it goes to
produce a few strong fruit-bearing canes in the hill. In other
words, you restrict the whole force of the plant to the precise
work required--the giving of berries. As the original plants grow
older, they will show a constantly decreasing tendency to throw up
new shoots, but as long as they continue to grow, let only those
survive which are designed to bear the following season.
The canes of cultivated raspberries are biennial. A young and in
most varieties a fruitless cane is produced in one season; it
bears in July the second year, and then its usefulness is over. It
will continue to live in a half-dying way until fall, but it is a
useless and unsightly life. I know that it is contended by some
that the foliage on the old canes aids in nourishing the plants;
but I think that, under all ordinary circumstances, the leaves on
the young growth are abundantly sufficient. By removing the old
canes after they have borne their fruit, an aspect of neatness is
imparted, which would be conspicuously absent were they left.
Every autumn, before laying the canes down, I should shorten them
in one-third. The remaining two-thirds will give more fruit by
actual measurement, and the berries will be finer and larger, than
if the canes were left intact. From first to last the soil about
the foreign varieties should be maintained in a high degree of
fertility and mellowness. Of manures from the barnyard, that from
the cow-stable is the best; wood-ashes, bone-dust, and decayed
leaves also are excellent fertilizers. During all this period the
partial shade of small trees will be beneficial rather than
otherwise, for it should be remembered that sheltered localities
are the natural habitat of the raspberry.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|