Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-06-20
Raspberries ana Blaekberries.

immediate successor we have a fruit that
is prominently adapted to the farmers
use. In a measure self-asserting and
under favoring conditions good for doz-
en- years, the farmer can plant the black
cap raspberry with considerable faith that
he can keep it clean and receive an
abundant annual reward of a fruit that
has the least waste of any grown. The
first work after once established is to take
out the old wood, and in snowy and wind
latitudes the most advanced cultivators do
not take this out until after mid-winter.
On any mild day in February or March,
armed with the thicke5t gloves, the old
canes can be broken out and laid in the
space between the rows to be removed
with pitchfork. In cleaning out weeds
and grass from the space about two feet
wide in the row cannot be reached with
the cultivator. have found that taking
time by the forelock and doing it just as
the frost is entirely out is the most profit
able way. The ground is soft and the
weeds are not nearly so tenacious in their
hold upon the soil as when allowed to
make some Roadway in the summers
growth. The same is true of cultivation
between the rows, and it is far better TO
do it at the time of early garden making
than later.
My plan is to clean out with the hoe
such weeds as know cannot be reached
by anything else, and then plough with a
plough toward the plants, throwing the
earth pearly to the stems. Then I go
along the rows with the hoe again, and
hoe the mellow soil into the walk between
the plants wherever L think it necessary.
Two weeks later I go through with a
Planet, Jr., set wide, and by wearing buck
skin gloves can stir the soil up to the
stems. Cultivation is given thereafter as
needed, until the new growth and the
roofing of the tips make it impossible.
In cultivating harness that will allow of
the freest swing and sideways crowding
of the oultivator is desirable, and / find
such to be simple collar with names and
trace-chains leading directly to the Whit
f1etree, without back strap. By the way,
one of my neighbors uses such harness
for blowing. The chains hitch to the
names by hooks, and when quitting work
and dropped upon the ground, still at
tached to the plough. The line is tied
upon the hame, and upon reaching the
stable the collar, without uEbuckllng the
names, is reversed and taken off with the
bride, leaving the horse to cool off and
eat his dinner unfettered by mass of
sweaty leather.
Where farmer or other raspberry grow
er has an abundance of straw it is a very
nice way to mulch with seven or eight
inches deep of straw, renewing each
spring and not cultivating at all. A
friend of mine, large farmer, grew an
acre in this way for ten years, simply
pulling up suoh weeds as found their way
through the straw, which were not many.
A neighbours two girls picked and market
ed them for half, and the berries-great,
fat, overgrown Doolittles-soid readily
at 10 cents per quart, it proved profitable
for both parties. This was in the early
rows of the Doolittle, and / think that
once he sold $40 worth of plants, the tips
roofing beneath the rotton straw. Red
raspberries of the suckering verieties
are quite troublesome as compared with
tip-rooting ones, and the only way to
deal with them is to treat the surplus
suckers as weeds. The rows are general
~ kept too broad. Six inches is wide
enough, as the berries will be enough
larger 10 pay, and bearing canes will lean
out to either side, while the new growth
grows erect in the middle and does not
impede picking as when in a hedge Is or
20 inches wide.
Blackberries from their aggressive
nature, are generally detested by farm
ers, but they are at the same time very
desirable fruit to have. They thrive
almost anywhere, and a very good
way to grow them is in little groups not
more than six feet across with a clear
space of four or five feet all around.
Keep the spaces clean with brush scythe,
throw plenty of course, strawy manure
among the plants in the spring, cut out
the old canes end shorten the new ones
at the same time, and if the winter is not
so severe as to Kill peaches the grower.will
be rewarded with an abundance of fruit
from the middle Of July until September,
and thus round out three months of ber-
rying.