122 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



berries are harvested. Throw if you will, a shovel of well rotted compost about 

 each hill every fall, and you will be repaid many fold for your labor. 



There are several species also, of the blackberry. I know of but one, that is 

 called the high blackberry, which is worthy of cultivation, of which there are 

 many varieties. The Kittatinny, the Wilson, the Dorchester, and Lawton, 

 are hardy, and perhaps as good as any for this locality. They should be set in 

 rows eight feet apart, and three feet apart in the rows, allowing them to till in 

 the rows about two feet in width, treating all between these as weeds. Culti- 

 vate and keep clean the first season, and seed among them with white clover 

 after. They should not get too rank and succitlent in growth. Pinch off the 

 tips when three or four feet high. This is an excellent fruit, but not as sure a 

 crop for every season as the raspberry. 



Of grapes, the number of cultivated varieties is legion, and many are deter- 

 red from raising them partly on account of the difficulty of selecting a good 

 and hardy variety from the many offered for sale, and from the great diversity 

 in modes of cultivation, either of which modes will do, but not all of them on 

 one poor defenseless vine. Not too many doctors, my friend, lest the patient be- 

 injured. Any soil that is good for corn will do for the grape. Do not let ped- 

 dlers impose upon you by their jars of magnified fruit, prefaced by the recitation 

 of their piece so well learned, and so well said. Procure plants of some reliable 

 nurseryman. I would recommend the Concord for the million. It is as: 

 hardy as the wild grape of our forests, and palatable enough for a king. It 

 may be grown on a stake, a trellis, an arbor, the house side, the tree, and the 

 fence. I have raised very good ones on the ground after the manner of pump- 

 kins. Understand I do not recommend this slip-shod plan. If you wish good crops 

 of good grapes, you must care for them the same as for every other crop you would 

 raise. The stake plan is as simple and perhaps as good as any. Set your plants 

 six feet apart each way, drive two stakes for, and near each plant, train a vine 

 upon each stake, the one for fruit and the other for renewal, cutting back the 

 old or fruiting vine in the late fall, and retaining the renewal for the next year's 

 fruiting ; which should be cut back to match the height of stake in the fall or 

 before the sap starts in the spring. Pinch off the tips of the new growth, and 

 pick off fruit so as to keep a balance between top and roots. 



The cranberry, although classed among the small fruits that are cultivated, 

 is not within the province of the ordinary farmer. It requires a peculiar soil 

 for its cultivation, a wet bog, covered with bank sand or gravel, and so situated 

 that it can be flowed with water at the pleasure of the cultivator. Many kinds 

 of upland or dry land cranberries have been advertised for sale, but so far I be- 

 lieve none have been grown successfully. 



Now in a few words let me recapitulate. I do this because I am anxious that 

 every farmer should, as I am sure he could, raise small fruits for family use. 

 If you do not know about it, ask the children, ask the lady of the house if they 

 are not good smothered in cream and sugar? good dried? good canned? good 

 to eat out of hand? I take it for granted that all raise currants. 



Strawberries. — Set in rows four feet apart and eighteen inches in the row. 

 Let them run together in the rows forming a matted row, but not between the 

 rows. 



lied llaspberries. — Eight feet between the rows and three feet in the row.--. 

 Let them run together in the rows, and treat as weeds between the rows. 



Blackberries. — The same as red raspberries, and pinch off the tips when three' 

 or four feet high, and seed with white clover after second year. 



