, RASPBERRY. The species from which the cultivated varieties of this fruit have been derived is the Rubus Ideeus, a native of Britain and also of various other parts of Europe. The wide dispersion of the species is easily accounted for from the fact of its seeds resisting the powers of digestion in an eminent degree.
For a selection, the following varieties may be enumerated :—Red Antwerp, Yellow Antwerp, Barnet, Double Bearing, and Wilmet's early Red.
The best soil for raspberries is a light rich loam. They will thrive well in sandy peat, provided it is not too dry. In all cases the ground for a plantation should be well trenched and manured previous to planting. The plants from suckers, of which there are generally abundance, should be planted in rows five or six feet apart, and four feet from plant to plant in the row. When planted they should be cut to within six inches of the ground; for although this is not absolutely essen tial, yet by so doing the shoots for the following season are greatly strengthened.
Pruning should be performed in autumn. It consists in first clearing off all dead portions, and retaining only from four to six of the strongest summer shoots of each plant, which should be shortened according to their strength, generally at a bend, which indicates where the shoot becomes weak, near the extremity. In the
following summer the shoots just mentioned bear the fruit, whilst others spring up at their base for a succession ; and in all cases succes sion shoots should be disposed so as neither to crowd the fruiting portion nor each other. Stakes should be driven for the support of the plants, to which they should be loosely bound.
The ground of a raspberry plantation should be kept loose and sup plied with well-rotted manure, but in so doing a fork should be used in preference to a spade, in order to preserve the roots as much as possible, and the roots should not be at all disturbed after active vege tation takes place in spring. Nitwithstanding the best management in these respects, it becomes adviseable to make a new plantation hi fresh soil after four or five years; for the roots diffuse themselves so thoroughly in every portion of the soil near the stools, that it soon becomes exhausted.
The fruit of the raspberry is extensively used in a variety of ways, both by the cook and the confectioner, and also in the preparation of cordial spirituous liquors.