while the buds are dormant.  After these begin to grow, keep the ground mellow and free from weeds.  The first effort of the young plant will be to propagate itself.  It will sprawl over the ground if left to its wild impulses, and will not make an upright bearing bush.  On this account put a stake down by the young sprout, and as it grows keep it tied up and away from the ground.  When the side-branches are eight or ten inches long, pinch them back, thus throwing the chief strength into the central cane.  By keeping all the branches pinched back you form the plant into an erect, sturdy bush that will load itself with berries the following year.  No fruit will be borne the first season.  The young canes of the second year will incline to be more sturdy and erect in their growth; but this tendency can be greatly enhanced by clipping the long slender branches which are thrown out on every side.  As soon as the old canes are through bearing, they should be cut out and burned or composted with other refuse from the garden.  Black-caps may be planted on any soil that is not too dry.  When the plant suffers from drought, the fruit consists of little else than seeds.  To escape this defect I prefer to put the black-caps in a moist location; and it is one of the few fruits that will thrive in a cold, wet soil.  One can set out plants here and there in out-of-the-way corners, and they often do better than those in the garden.  Indeed, unless a place is kept up very neatly, many such bushes will be found growing wild, and producing excellent fruit.

The question may arise in some minds, Why buy plants?  Why not get them from the woods and fields, or let Nature provide bushes for us where she will?  When Nature produces a bush on my place where it is not in the way, I let it grow, and pick the fruit in my rambles; but the supply would be precarious indeed for a family.  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.  Why take the risk to save a two-penny stake?