The blackberry is a fruit that takes kindly to
cultivation, and improves under it.
The proper treatment is management rather than cultivation and
stimulation. It requires a sunny exposure and a light, warm soil,
yet not so dry as to prevent the fruit from maturing into juicy
berries. If possible, set the blackberries off by themselves, for
it is hard to prevent the strong roots from travelling all over
the garden. The blackberry likes a rich, moist, mellow soil, and,
finding it, some varieties will give you canes sixteen feet high.
You do not want rank, thorny brambles, however, but berries.
Therefore the blackberry should be put where it can do no harm,
and, by a little judicious repression, a great deal of good. A
gravelly or sandy knoll, with a chance to mow all round the patch,
is the best place. The blackberry needs a deep, loose soil rather
than a rich one. Then the roots will luxuriate to unknown depths,
the wood ripen thoroughly, and the fruit be correspondingly
abundant.
Let the rows be six feet apart; set out the plants in the fall, if
possible, or EARLY spring; put two plants in the hills, which may
be four feet apart. If the ground is very poor, give the young
plants a shovelful of old compost, decayed leaves, etc. Any
fertilizer will answer, so that it is spread just over the roots
to give the plants a good send-off.
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