Beeton's gardening book : containing full and practical instructions concerning general garden operations, the flower garden, the fruit garden, the kitchen garden, pests of the month, with a monthly calendar of work to be done in the garden throughout the year.

  • Beeton, Samuel Orchart, 1831-1877
Date:
[between 1870 and 1879?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Beeton's gardening book : containing full and practical instructions concerning general garden operations, the flower garden, the fruit garden, the kitchen garden, pests of the month, with a monthly calendar of work to be done in the garden throughout the year. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    not trodden in wet weather. The pruning of raspberries is an easy matter. Ill June the bushes should be gone over, and all suckers removed, except about six of the strongest. These, at a later period, may be reduced to foirr, and if the parent plant be weak, two or three will be sufficient. There is great benefit in cutting the canes of different heights, for as the top buds grow strongest, the young fruit-bearing shoots are more equally divided, and enjoy more air and light. The ground in which raspberries are grown should not be broken up, but have a top dressing of good rotten manure yearly. The most useful varieties of the raspberry are the Ecd Antwerp, Fastolf, Prince of Wales, and Vice-President, the Yellow Antwerp, and Large-fruited Monthly. By a little management, raspberries may be made to bear a crop of fruit during autumn. There are sorts called Double-bearing Raspberries, but the result is greatly due to pruning. For late bearing, as soon as root suckers show them- selves in June, the old canes should be cut away entirely', so as to prevent summer fruiting; and encouragement given during July and August to such suckers as show blossom-buds, for these will bear fruit in autumn. Autumn- bearing raspberries must be kept thin, or they will not prove successful. The canes for this purpose should be planted in single rows, and not in threes, as recommended for summer-fruiting. They should stand about 1 foot apart. 260-STRAWBERRIES. Good sorts are Keen’s Seedling, Oscar, the British Queen, Dr. Hogg, Alice Maud, Eleanor, Sir Harry, the Black Prince, Goliath, and Carolina Superba. 201.—STRAWBERRY-BEDS. The proper time to make new strawberry-beds is the month of August; but if space of ground cannot then be had, or the time spared, it is an excellent plan to take the runners at that time, and set them only a few inches apart in peat soil, on a north border, where they will soon make good root, and become strong plants. In the early spring they should be taken up separate, with a ball of earth, by means of a trowel, and planted a proper distance from each other in the bed intended for them. An American writer, Hiram W. Buckley, New York, gives the following novel method for forming new strawberry-beds:—“Whenever I wish to make a new strawberry-bed, I allow the old bed to run into mass. Then, at any time during the autumn or early spring, I line strips about 7 inches wide and 20 inches apart through the length of it, and cut them into squares. These squares I take up with a spade, about 3 inches deep, and set them 18 inches apart in furrows previously made 2 feet apart, in a new bed. As the roots are not disturbed, they bear a full crop the first season, and this pays well for the heavy labour of removing so much earth. I make no account of the large number of roots required, since they spread so rapidly as to cover the ground in a single season, even when runners are kept back till after fruiting. The trenches made in the old bed are filled with rich earth and manure, and the bed