The culture is the same for all these, and they should be planted in
liberal quantities, so that there may be plenty to preserve, as well as
a full supply for the table. In my own kitchen garden I have two rows
of Wilson’s Early Blackberry, one row Gregg Black Cap, and one row each
of Philadelphia and Cuthbert Raspberries, and still the family cry for
more, so I shall add about two rows of Wilson, Jr. Blackberries, and
one of Lucretia Dewberry, in the spring. The dewberry will ripen before
the blackberries, and thus prolong the season, as is already done with
the two varieties of red raspberries.
The plants should be planted as early in the spring as the ground can
be gotten into suitable condition, and if purchasing from a nursery,
select those plants which are grown from root-cuttings, for they will
not “sucker” so much, and where the garden is constantly well fed
and cultivated this will save much in working, and the plants being
carefully trimmed will last for years without replacing. The rows
should be ten or twelve feet apart, so as to admit of free passage in
cultivating and picking. As they do not grow so wildly until after
the fruit has been picked, a couple of rows of peas or a row of early
corn can be grown between each row. I have tried planting at closer
distances, with the invariable result that by fall the berry patch was
an impassable jungle. For manuring the berries coarse manure should
be applied in the fall, or short, well-rotted manure in the spring;
in either case plowing it under as applied; if plowed in the fall the
furrows should all be thrown toward the rows, thus partly banking them
over for the winter.
In the first warm days in the spring these bushes should have their
trimming; all the old wood that has borne fruit will be dead and should
be cut out at the ground. Three or four good healthy young shoots
should be selected to each plant, cut off at three and a half or four
feet in height, and the side shoots cut back to three or four inches;
cut off all the rest of the suckers. This is important, for if too many
are left there will be but a small crop of inferior fruit. When the
whole patch has been trimmed and cleared up it should be staked; or
each plant may be staked as trimmed, but the trimming will have to be
left until a week or so later, as the stakes cannot be driven in the
frozen ground. For this purpose I use old fence rails, sawing them in
the middle and then splitting each piece into two or three stakes, or
the large limbs, say one to two inches thick, left from trimming brush,
can be used; the fence-rail stakes, however, last longer than the fresh
cut poles, and are much more easily driven.
It will be a great help in picking-time if the row is gone over with
a large pair of hedge shears, and the longest of the young shoots
shortened in, so as to allow easy access to the row. Where it is more
convenient, the bearing wood may be cut out as soon as the crop is
gathered, thus throwing all the strength of the plant into the young
shoots.
Where there is not plenty of manure, bone dust or phosphate can be sown
on after the plowing in the spring and worked down with the harrow
or cultivator. It, of course, takes a good deal of rope to tie all
these and a good patch of grape vines up every spring, so I go to a
printing office and buy the old Sisal rope which comes on the bundles
of paper; this is strong, and can be bought very cheaply, as it is all
in short lengths, in fact, most offices would be glad to oblige a good
subscriber by giving it to him. The bushes should be planted eight feet
apart in the row.