By all means get plants from the woods if you have marked a bush
that produces unusually fine fruit. It is by just this course that
the finest varieties have been obtained. If you go a-berrying, you
may light on something finer than has yet been discovered; but it
is not very probable. Meanwhile, for a dollar you can get all the
plants you want of the two or three best varieties that have yet
been discovered, from Maine to California. After testing a great
many kinds, I should recommend the Souhegan for early, and the
Mammoth Cluster and Gregg for late. A clean, mellow soil in good
condition, frequent pinchings back of the canes in summer, or a
rigorous use of the pruning-shears in spring, are all that is
required to secure an abundant crop from year to year. This
species may also be grown among trees. I advise that every kind
and description of raspberries be kept tied to stakes or a wire
trellis. The wood ripens better, the fruit is cleaner and richer
from exposure to air and sunshine, and the garden is far neater
than if the canes are sprawling at will. I know that all
horticulturists advise that the plants be pinched back so
thoroughly as to form self-supporting bushes; but I have yet to
see the careful fruit-grower who did this, or the bushes that some
thunder-gusts would not prostrate into the mud with all their
precious burden, were they not well supported.
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