Small I^ridts—7he -Borer, JS'lc. 275 



■ 2il, Mammoth Cluster and Doolittle. These excel as a market berry, are firm and 

 easily picked. Are sometimes cut down to half or one-third of a crop by winter-kill- 

 ing, or some unknown cause. 



3d, Ohio Overbearing. This variety I am still testing. So far, it gives me great 

 satisfaction. I may conclude it one of the very best. 



4th, The Purple Cane and EUisdale. 



T am testing other varieties, but concerning them have as yot nothing to say. I 

 have discarded the Clark as of no account here, and the Davison Thornless as too 

 tender. 



I use no supports, making summer pruning give the bush such form that it will 

 support itself. I have gathered over a gallon from a single bush. Same fruit 

 writers say they will sometimes yield two gallons. As I have not reached that point 

 I have concluded I must manure heavier. I aim to keep the ground perfectly clean 

 with bright and sharp hoes. I have adopted the plan of planting two feet apart in 

 rows — rows eight to ten feet apart. This makes the bushes support one another, 

 and gives plenty of root room, light, air and sunshine. 



Whatever may be said of Iowa as a fruit country, we can stick a peg down 

 here and say, that no country can excel us in raising this delicious fruit ; yet 

 even here they must have good care or they will not give satisfaction. It must be 

 intelligent care, too. The three main points in their culture are good plants to start 

 with ; ground deeply plowed and well manured ; and weeds kept entirely off the 

 ground, then prune as best you know how. 



I give these items as the result of six years experience and experimenting. I am 

 still learning much as to the mode of culture and value of varieties each year. 



Your correspondent refers to my mode of treating apple tree borers. I have for 

 five years practiced scraping away the earth from around the trunks of the trees, 

 about the middle of June or first of July, down two or three inches and scrapino- off 

 the bark, restoring the earth in the fall. None of the trees so treated have had 

 borers in, while some not so treated have been badly injured before I had noticed any- 

 thing wrong with them. 



I am not a professional fruit raiser, only cultivate my four-acre garden as a relaxa- 

 tion from the severer labors of the law, yet I will not yield the palm to any of 

 our professional fruit men in the matter of an intense interest in the subject, that I 

 may learn and tell how best to raise the choice fruits of the world about our Iowa 

 homes. Let me add this word to close. One acre, well prepared, planted and 

 tended, will raise more fruit than four acres badly managed ; and not one in five of 

 your readers will believe me when I say so. 



Remarks — We fully concur with our correspondent in the estimation he puts 

 upon the English Morello. Those who have planted the Early Richmond, for mar- 

 ket — as has been the case generally — mainly to the exclusion of the Morello, will 

 find it a great oversight. Of the two, English Morello is the most fruitful and 

 reliable for an annual crop, and what is of no small importance to the producer, bears 

 a higher price in the market by fifty per cent. The fruit is larger, and though a 

 little astringent, takes precedence for canning with those who know it best. It is in 



