218 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



There is no reason, at all valid, why the farmer cannot have a fult 

 supply of berries, both fresh in their season and canned or dried, as 

 well as the richest city people, and better, too. He is an object of 

 envy to them, because he can have fresher milk, cream and butter 

 than they can, and so he mi^ht have fresher berries, right from the 

 vines, against theirs that have been jolted over hundreds of miles and 

 exposed one to several days, necessarily often becoming more or less 

 stale. By far th§ larger part of the berries I grow are used for can- 

 ning, which people prefer to do themselves, because they get them 

 fresh and better than factory product, as well as cheaper. 



If 1 were to fit up another location for the support of a moderate 

 sized family I would never think of planting less than half an acre of 

 berries, nor putting it off for a single season. We used and put up in 

 my own family of about ten persons, ninety gallons of berries last 

 season, and many were picked for immediate use and not kept account 

 of, besides all the pieplant, currants, gooseberries, grapes and apples- 

 we chose to use. Some seasons a quarter acre would furnish that 

 much, and others the half acre might come short of it, though they 

 are generally at least as sure a crop as corn and moreso than apples. 



I would plant them in the orchard. In a young orchard they will 

 do quite as well as by themselves. In an old orchard I would manure 

 the ground and give plenty of room, and with good cultivation they 

 would be the means of saving the orchard from destruction by meadow 

 sod, as well as making a bountiful direct return. Plant rows six to 

 eight feet apart and two to three feet between plants. Keep the ground 

 well cultivated, so as to never be swamped in weeds or grass, begining: 

 early in spring. Top raspberries and blackberries as soon as there are 

 two — not over three feet high. Out back the branches agam about one 

 foot from the stem in the spring. Plant strawberries also as much as 

 five feet between rows, and keep cultivating aiid laying the runners 

 so as to make a matted strip, which will bear the next year. After 

 the crop is oflF, prepare the unoccupied strip and let the runners spread 

 over it, after which the old strip should be prepared for them to spread 

 j'Oung plants on next year. These alternations can be continued for a 

 number of years. 



I aimed to make these instructions short, and certainly succeeded 

 in that, though I can see no essential additions needed, when supple- 

 mented by the judgment that every good farmer has. There is noth- 

 ing intricate or difficult about it, at least no more than in growing 

 corn. People are more liable to fail, as they do in growing fruit trees^ 

 by imagining that because many such things grow wild therefore we 



