Volume 17 — Raspberry as a Honey Plant. D. D. PALMER.

The raspberry can be grown in any land that will produce a crop of corn or potatoes. It furnishes a fine quality of honey, and a delicious fruit, coming immediately after strawberries. Sandy or light soils produce a better flavored fruit but not so much nor as large as clay soils.

The ground should be spaded or ploughed deep, and raked or harrowed thoroughly so as to pulverize it. If you get plants by mail, dip them in water as soon as received and bury the roots in moist shady ground until you are ready to set them out. Plants can be sent by mail with as much certainty of arriving in good condition as if carried personally or sent by express. Handle so as to expose the roots to the sun and wind as little as possible. For garden or field culture plant 2½ or 3 feet apart in the row and the rows 6 feet apart. A convenient implement to use in setting any small plants is called a dibble, made similar to a mason’s trowel, and cost me 25 cts. each. Make the holes deep enough to take in the long roots without doubling them up. Spread the roots out like a fan, fill with mellow soil and pack snugly among the roots, if the ground is dry pour in water before filling up, then fill up with dry or moist soil, leaving the surface loose and mellow. If dry weather prevails, remove the top soil and pour in plenty of water; after the water has settled replace the soil. They may be cultivated the same as corn, being careful not to cultivate too deep as some of the roots grow near the surface. Cabbage or other root plants may be planted and cultivated among them the first season. Fruit trees may be planted with them in the row.

There are several ways of training the bushes; some use stakes. This we consider an expensive practice, unless it be for garden planting, when very close planting is required and it is not wished to have a spreading bush. Our method consists in training them while they are growing. When 18 inches high pinch off with the fingers, or where a field is to be pruned we have found a pair of large scissors, with blades 5 inches long, to be an excellent thing to prune with; with them we can prune a row as fast as we can walk. You will need to prune the patch 2 or 3 times each season. In the spring, when the plants are one year old, prune or cut off all the laterals within 12 or 18 inches of the main stock before they start to grow; the second season out the dead wood and train the laterals so as to make the rows like a hedge; nip or cut off the new shoots when 3 feet high. In this way they bear larger and better fruit, are more convenient to pick, and are not blown down by the wind, as the bushes support each other.

The red varieties are increased by suckers or sprouts from the roots. They may be cultivated 2 seasons, and if needed for honey more than choice fruit, they may be allowed to occupy the ground. The black caps are increased from tips, i.e. by the ends of the vines taking root. The Doolittle, Mammoth Cluster and Home Sweet Home are especially adapted to cultivate in hedge rows, on account of their stock canes.

Farmers might load their tables with this delicious, health giving fruit the year round, by setting 25 plants of Doolittle for early, and 100 of Sweet Home for late use and canning.

New Boston, Ill.

For the American Bee Journal.