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Page 33
The question may arise in some minds, Why buy plants? Why not get
them from the woods and fields, or let Nature provide bushes for
us where she will? When Nature produces a bush on my place where
it is not in the way, I let it grow, and pick the fruit in my
rambles; but the supply would be precarious indeed for a family.
By all means get plants from the woods if you have marked a bush
that produces unusually fine fruit. It is by just this course that
the finest varieties have been obtained. If you go a-berrying, you
may light on something finer than has yet been discovered; but it
is not very probable. Meanwhile, for a dollar you can get all the
plants you want of the two or three best varieties that have yet
been discovered, from Maine to California. After testing a great
many kinds, I should recommend the Souhegan for early, and the
Mammoth Cluster and Gregg for late. A clean, mellow soil in good
condition, frequent pinchings back of the canes in summer, or a
rigorous use of the pruning-shears in spring, are all that is
required to secure an abundant crop from year to year. This
species may also be grown among trees. I advise that every kind
and description of raspberries be kept tied to stakes or a wire
trellis. The wood ripens better, the fruit is cleaner and richer
from exposure to air and sunshine, and the garden is far neater
than if the canes are sprawling at will. I know that all
horticulturists advise that the plants be pinched back so
thoroughly as to form self-supporting bushes; but I have yet to
see the careful fruit-grower who did this, or the bushes that some
thunder-gusts would not prostrate into the mud with all their
precious burden, were they not well supported. Why take the risk
to save a two-penny stake?
If, just before the fruit begins to ripen, a mulch of leaves, cut
grass, or any litter that will cover the ground slightly, is
placed under and around the bushes, it may save a great deal of
fruit from being spoiled. The raspberry season is also the hour
and opportunity for thunder-showers, whose great slanting drops
often splash the soil to surprising distances. Sugar-and-cream-
coated, not mud-coated, berries, if you please.
In my remarks on raspberries I have not named many varieties, and
have rather laid stress on the principles which may guide the
reader in his present and future selections of kinds. Sufficient
in number and variety to meet the NEEDS of every family have been
mentioned. The amateur may gratify his taste by testing other
sorts described in nurserymen's catalogues. Moreover, every year
or two some new variety will be heralded throughout the land. The
reader has merely to keep in mind the three classes of raspberries
described and their characteristics, in order to make an
intelligent choice from old and new candidates for favor.
It should also be remembered that the raspberry is a Northern
fruit. I am often asked in effect, What raspberries do you
recommend for the Gulf States? I suppose my best reply would be,
What oranges do you think best adapted to New York? Most of the
foreign kinds falter and fail in New Jersey and Southern
Pennsylvania; the Cuthbert and its class can be grown much further
south, while the Turner and the black-caps thrive almost to
Florida.
Raspberries, especially those of our native species, are
comparatively free from disease. Foreign varieties and their
hybrids are sometimes afflicted with the curl-leaf. The foliage
crimps up, the canes are dwarfed, and the whole plant has a sickly
and often yellow appearance. The only remedy is to dig up the
plant, root and branch, and burn it.
A disease termed the "rust" not infrequently attacks old and
poorly nourished black-cap bushes. The leaves take on an ochreous
color, and the plant is seen to be failing. Extirpate it as
directed above. If many bushes are affected, I advise that the
whole patch be rooted up, and healthy plants set out elsewhere.
It is a well-known law of Nature that plants of nearly all kinds
appear to exhaust from the soil in time the ingredients peculiarly
acceptable to them. Skill can do much toward maintaining the
needful supply; but the best and easiest plan is not to grow any
of the small fruits too long in any one locality. By setting out
new plants on different ground, far better results are attained
with much less trouble.
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