Show ft horticultural hints ff CLEANING UP A BERRY PATCH it can usually 13 be a brought back to productive state by careful judicious pruning A path patch of small fruit which has hag been allowed to grow as it vt III for a season or two Is a tough proposition but it can usually lie be brought back to a productive state by careful and judicious pruning berries should be grown in rows they should never be allowed to form a bramble patch and grow where they will sucker plants springing up from the roots ot of parent bushes is what cruses causes them to form forin the bramble patches and it is likewise these suckie plants which so tax the roots that fl cruit alt production is an impossibility define rows at least six feet apart in tour our patch then alien grub out all the other plants and bushes bushe if you want to use them for additional planting the work can tie he done early it tile spring while the canes fire are in dormant and tile the roots to other rows put but remove th iwer plants grub them out and beep them out if in the future by cultivation aurill during the growing sou ion on the canes should all he cut back to six to fight eight inches in height and the growth of new canes cane encouraged allow only three new canes to form to the bush and when abl they y are two and one half feet high about tile the middle of the following summer top them olt off with a it liand and sickle this will stop any f urther further growth in these canes cane will make them strong and stocky so EO that they will stand upright without trellis or support it also causes lateral brau branches chei to bit be sent out and it Is on these lateral branches that the fruit Is borne these laterals literals late rals are all allowed oiled to grow as they will but the following spring just before fruiting they are pruned back one half in order to improve the quality of the fruit produced ey by following this plan the old berry patel unless it Is hopelessly diseased can be restored to productivity within one year getting a berry crop is merely a question of pruning and of t I 1 4 1 4 I 1 A 1 w 1 t to 03 43 i vf 31 I 1 4 X w 01 1 ilir Z if 16 1 raspberry 6 aberry canes meld held upright by linear system of culture sufficient moisture and the moisture in an ordinary berry season can be supplied by constant cultivation during the growing season for it is just as important that the growing cunes canes which are to bear next years crop of oe berries should have a plentiful supply I 1 y of moisture as for the berries these aliese canes are largely formed after tile the fruiting season and if cultivation and the consequent conservation of mols mois lure fure is discontinued after the ille fruiting has taken place these canes will of ne cei ity not lie as strong well developed and sturdy as they should be bruning of berries and all cane fruits should preferably be done one in the spring just before the sap sal com bences to flow and after all bimer of kill killing iniz frosts are past dinger of where full fall or winter pruning is practiced Is great because bebau e the open olien enil end of the cane permits the frost to travel down tile the soft center of the lie canes to the roots that F is why spring pruning la Is to be preferred erred in this pruning remove all dead canes from the previous sea seasons ons fruiting canes and a also so thin down doin tile the frelent canes to not ot more than throe three or four sturdy ones to each om old established root stock Quil quality lity berries are worth more than a quantity of inferior ber 11 P mid these quality berries tire are an only where the roots art are not 0 overtaxed er taxed derries Berries kept it in a strong stron sturdy condition hy by careful anil and systematic pruning ond by contant jut just ns its one lie cultivate hie file cornfield will remain productive roi fol yeara A good bood manure roani ire mulch every fall fail will ald aid them during the winter whiter find will keep up tile the available supply of plant food |