SMALL FRUITS AND THEIR CULTURE

Quite as important as garden vegetables is the small-fruit department of each home that is living up to its privileges. Of course there will be no room for raspberries and blackberries on the little home lot, but one can have a row of strawberries there, in almost all cases, and a few currant-bushes can be tucked away in nooks and corners where quite likely nothing else would be grown if the tiny space were not given up to them.

There are places all over the country where a collection of small fruit ought to be grown, but which are without it. Why?

There are several answers to the question. One is: Neglect to live up to the possibilities of the place because of carelessness, or possibly because the owner is distrustful of his ability to grow them successfully. Another is: The impression that these plants are so exacting in their demands that none but skilled gardeners are warranted in undertaking their culture. And a third one is: The uncertainty of being unable to take them through our severe Northern winters safely.

The first objection is met with the argument that the man who is obliged to work for a living, and has a family to support, has no excuse for neglecting to avail himself and those dependent on him of all the good things that can be grown from the plants named, if he owns a piece of ground large enough to accommodate a small collection. The second objection is not justified, because it is an easy matter for any man to learn how to care for small fruits if he sets about it with the intention of mastering its details. There is really no basis in fact for the third one, for we have, to-day, varieties of each kind of small fruit that are entirely hardy at the North if properly cared for in the fall.

There should be a strawberry-bed, large or small, in every garden, if I had my way about it.

Here I suppose some reader will meet me with the objection that "strawberries don't pay. They require too much care, and the beds soon run out, and then everything has to be done over again."

Now I claim that strawberries do pay if they get the right kind of treatment. No one has a right to expect much from them if he simply sticks a plant into the soil and leaves it to take care of itself thereafter. Strawberries cultivated in this manner don't pay, I admit. And it is well that they do not, for no one has a right to expect much, if anything, from a plant of any kind that he isn't willing to take good care of. While the strawberry will not take care of itself, it really requires no more attention than most other crops. And as to "running out," that cuts no figure, when you come to think about it, because "doing things all over again" amounts to no more than planting vegetables each season. This has to be done yearly, and strawberries will demand only annual attention, thus putting the two classes of plants on practically the same basis.

I am aware that some writers on strawberry culture have ventilated a good many far-fetched ideas of their own in print relative to the culture of this plant, and so elaborate and complicated are some of these theories that many an amateur has, after reading them, abandoned the idea of having a strawberry-bed. But it is a fact susceptible of proof by any man who gives it a trial that strawberry culture may be made a success without adopting the views of persons who seem to think that theory is more important than common sense.

The simplest method of strawberry-growing that I know anything about is what is called the "one-crop system."

Set the plants in rows three feet apart, to allow the use of the cultivator between them. Let the plants be a foot apart in the row. Keep the ground between the rows well cultivated, and in the second summer, when the plants are bearing their first crop of fruit, allow them to send their runners into the space between the rows and take root there. When these young plants have fully established themselves—which will be by the end of August, as a general thing—take a spade and cut down between them and the old plants. Then dig up the old plants, making the place where they grew a space between rows. Next season train runners from the bearing plants back into the old row. By thus alternating the location of the plants you keep the garden supplied with one-year-old ones from which you get but one crop of fruit. This method is so simple that any one can understand it, and it has the indorsement of some of our most up-to-date gardeners who recognize the fact that one full crop of berries is about all that can be expected from the strawberry. Of course older plants will bear fruit, but never of the quantity and quality which is obtained from strong, healthy young plants whose vitality has not been drawn upon by the production of a heavy first crop.

This one-crop system makes it possible to grow fine berries without giving the plants more care than is required by ordinary vegetables.

The soil for strawberries should be rich and mellow, and should be kept entirely free from weeds.

It is a good plan to spread clean straw between the rows before the crop ripens, to keep the fruit from coming in contact with the ground or having sand washed upon it by heavy rains.

The best variety of strawberry that I have ever grown is Brandywine. It is very productive, bears large berries, has a most delicious flavor, and is never hollow-hearted. It ripens in mid-season.

The best late variety, allowing me to be judge, is Gandy. This kind requires a very rich soil. Where it can be given this, no more satisfactory late-cropper can be grown. The two varieties named above combine all the best qualities of this most popular fruit.

Several times in the last few years the announcement has been made that a fall-bearing strawberry has been produced, but as it was of European origin it did not prove satisfactory under American conditions. Of late, however, some of our most progressive small-fruit growers have succeeded in growing two varieties that promise to be really good fall-croppers. These produce, if allowed to do so, their main crop at the same time as other varieties, and keep on bearing until frost. But in order to secure a good crop late in the season it is advisable to cut away all buds that appear in June, keeping the strength of the plant in reserve for the fall crop. It is well to mulch these plants during the hot, dry weather of summer. These fall-bearing varieties are on the market under the names of Superb and Progressive.

The blackberry responds generously to good treatment, bearing enormous quantities of large, juicy berries of most delicious flavor when given proper care.

It prefers a rather sandy soil.

In order to secure a fresh stock of wood for each season's crop the old canes should be cut away as soon as they have ripened their fruit, thus throwing all the strength of the plant into the production of new canes from which fruit is to be expected next season.

While the two leading varieties, Kittatinny and Snyder, are quite hardy, it is well to take the precaution of giving them some protection to guard against the possible loss of some of the unripened growth of the season. This is done to the best advantage by removing two or three spadefuls of soil from the base of each plant, close to its roots, and then tipping the bush over until it lies flat on the ground. This could not be done without running the risk of breaking some of the stiff and brittle canes if the excavation were not made. When the bushes are spread out on the ground, where they are held in place by laying boards across them, throw some coarse litter over the base of the plant, and scatter a covering of straw over the branches. As soon as the frost is out of the ground in the spring, lift the bushes and replace the soil that was taken away in the fall.

Raspberries are second only to strawberries in deliciousness of flavor, and should have a place in all gardens where there is room for them. They do well in almost all soils, if well drained. A sandy loam, however, is the soil that seems to suit them best. Their old canes, like those of the blackberry, should be cut away at the end of the fruiting season.

Cuthbert is the leading red variety. Cumberland is the favorite black kind.

I notice that one of our most prominent growers of small fruit offers an ever-bearing raspberry this season, under the name of Red Ranere. I have no knowledge of its merits other than that which I gain from the grower's announcement in introducing this sort to the market, but from intimate personal acquaintance with the man I am quite confident that the plant must possess real merit, for he is not a person given to exaggeration. I quote from what he has to say in reference to this variety in a leading horticultural magazine:

This is not only the earliest red raspberry, but it is a perpetual fruiting one. Its main crop is greater than that of any other variety I grow. It continues to bear on its old canes until late in August, at about which time the canes of the season's growth come into bearing. These produce a large amount of fine fruit until late in the fall. The berries are very attractive, being a bright, rich crimson. They are of good size, and of very superior quality, with a rich, sugary, full raspberry flavor.

I would advise the amateur gardener to give this variety a trial. Raspberries late in the fall would be thoroughly appreciated by those with whom this fruit is a favorite.

The currant is one of the garden's indispensables. It furnishes us with fruit of just the right degree of tart acidity to fit the season in which it is at its prime, and who does not get a deal of enjoyment out of a green-currant pie?

No kind of small fruit is easier to grow successfully. Worms frequently attack the bushes in spring, and often ruin the crop unless steps are taken to put a prompt end to their depredations, but spraying with Nicoticide infusion will rout them in most cases. Application of this insecticide should be repeated at intervals during the earlier part of the season.

Fay's Prolific is a standard variety for home use. This is a dark, rich red, most beautiful to behold. White Grape is an ideal white variety. Combine the two and you have a table decoration quite as colorful as that furnished by any flowers, and almost as attractive.

The currant is one of the housewife's most valued fruits for jam- and jelly-making. One enterprising dealer has recently introduced to this country a French sort known as Bar-le-Duc, or Preserving Currant. This variety has a flavor that no other variety can lay claim to, and another feature of merit peculiar to it is that it is almost seedless. For a good many years the entire output of this currant was under the control of a French fruit company who manufactured it into jam which has been extensively sold in this country under the name of Confiture Bar-le-Duc. So superior has it been considered to home-made as well as imported jams, that it has readily sold at double the price of them. I would advise the amateur to procure a few plants of this variety and experiment with it.

The gooseberry must not be overlooked in this connection. Many persons claim that the bush mildews to such an extent that the crop is oftener than not a failure. This can largely be prevented by planting the bushes farther apart than the currant, and thinning out the branches so that there will at all times be a free circulation of air about them. It is well to give a heavy mulch of coarse manure in the hot weather of summer. Spray with the infusion recommended for currants to prevent injury from worms. If mildew of an apparently fungous nature attacks the plants, spray with Bordeaux mixture.

This hardly seems the place in which to say much about the culture of the apple, plum, pear, and cherry, for that is a phase of gardening quite distinct from that which this little book aims to interest the homemaker in. However, the writer would urge having all these fruits when conditions are favorable to their culture. The more fruit we eat the healthier we will be.

All kinds of small fruit can be planted in spring to better advantage than in fall, though the nurseryman will tell you, if you consult him, that it makes little difference whether you plant in spring or fall. The writer has tried both methods, and he has always been most successful when plants were put out in April and May, provided they were sent from the nursery that spring. If they are sent in fall they should be "heeled-in" over winter. "Heeling-in" consists in burying the roots in a place where they will be kept dry during the winter. It will not be necessary to cover all the top, though there is no objection to this if the owner thinks it safer to do so. Care should be taken to keep the plants well protected from storms. This can be done very effectively by spreading tarred paper over them, pains being taken to weight it down with stones or something else equally heavy to prevent its being blown out of place.

Plants that have been "heeled-in" over winter should be set out as soon as possible in spring.