Success with Small Fruits by Edward Payson Roe

Author:Edward Payson Roe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: garden, gardening, berry, berries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, growing
ISBN: 9781781667668
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited 2012
Published: 2012-06-19T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XIX

RASPBERRIES - SPECIES, HISTORY, PROPAGATION, ETC.

I have given the greater part of this volume to the subject of strawberries, not only because it is the most popular fruit, but also for the reason that the principles of thorough preparation of the soil, drainage, culture, etc., apply equally to the other small fruits. Those who have followed me carefully thus far can soon master the conditions of success which apply to the fruits still to be treated. I shall now consider a fruit which is only second in value, and, by many, even preferred to all the others.

Like the strawberry, the raspberry is well connected, since it, also, belongs to the Rose family. It has a perennial root, producing biennial woody stems that reach a height of from three to six feet. Varieties, however, differ greatly in this respect. Usually, the stems or canes do not bear until the second year, and that season ends their life, their place being taken by a new growth from the root. The flowers are white or red, very unobtrusive, and rich in sweetness. The discriminating bees forsake most other flowers while the raspberry blossoms last. The pistils on the convex receptacle mature into a collection of small drupes, or stone fruits, of the same character as the cherry, plum, etc., and the seeds within the drupes are miniature pits. These drupes adhere together, forming round or conical caps, which will drop from the receptacle when over-ripe. I have seen the ground covered with the fruit of certain varieties, when picking has been delayed.

All peoples seem to have had a feeling sense of the spines, or thorns of this plant, as may be gathered from its name in different languages; the Italian term is Raspo, the Scotch Raspis, and the German Kratsberre, or Scratchberry.

The Greeks traced the raspberry to Mount Ida, and the original bush may have grown in the shadowy glade where the "Shepherd Alexandre," alias Paris, son of Priam, King of Troy, gave his fateful decision in favor of Venus. Juno and Minerva undoubtedly beguiled the time, while the favored goddess presented her claims, by eating the fruit, and perhaps enhanced their competitive beauty by touching their cheeks with an occasional berry. At any rate, the raspberry of the ancients is Rubus Idoeus.

The elder Pliny, who wrote not far from 45 A.D., states that the Greeks distinguished the raspberry bramble by the term "Idoea," and, like so many other Grecian ideas, it has found increasing favor ever since. Mr. A. S. Fuller, one of the best-read authorities on these subjects, writes that "Paladius, a Roman agricultural author who flourished in the fourth century, mentions the raspberry as one of the cultivated fruits of his time." It thus appears that it was promoted to the garden long before the strawberry was so honored.

While it is true that the raspberry in various forms is found wild throughout the continent, and that the ancient gardeners in most instances obtained their supply of plants in the adjacent fields or forests, the late Mr.

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