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GARDENERS' CHRONICLE 



The Fruit Garden 



HOWARD N. SCARFF 



OF YOU who are fortunate enough to possess your 

 own garden, wlio has not felt tlie thrill of joy and 

 satisfaction in the height of strawberry season 

 to find your own vines loaded with this luscious fruit? 

 You picked a basketful and served them with cream, 

 or perhaps in a shortcake, for dinner, and truly you never 

 tasted berries of such delightful freshness and such deli- 

 cious flavor. They did not have that soggy, sluggish 

 taste as those from the market which were picked several 

 days before and which have lost their fine delicate flavor 

 and texture from exposure to the hot sultry atmosphere. 

 But the greatest satisfaction is not derived from this 

 almost super-flavor of the fruit. It is the fact that you 

 have planted the patch with the utmost care, guarded it 

 through its infancy, keeping the soil well cultivated, and 

 whenever spare time would permit, dealing the death 

 blow to every weed that came into view. You have seen 

 the plants respond to this care ; you have watched the 

 growth start with increased vigor on the addition of a 

 little fertilizer. Then through the cold bleak months, 

 as these little plants nestled snugl\- under their Winter 

 mulch, thcv kept you in mild anxiety and anticipation as 

 to what joy they might bring you for your efl:'ort spent. 

 Now as you stand in the midst of this little garden, whose 

 every breath is filled with the delicate aroma of the ripen- 

 ing fruit hanging in the clusters on the vines at your 

 feet, you feel the fascination and joy that comes to all 

 who have secured good results from their fruit garden. 



Bl'sii Fruits 



Strawberries are just one of the delicacies such a gar- 

 den will produce. Where space permits you will usually 

 find a row or more of raspberries, the blackcaps with their 

 clusters of pearly black fruit conspicuous among the green 

 and grey of the foliage or the Reds showing dull amber 

 in the simlight. ]\Iany of us are staunch friends of the 

 sturdy blackberry. Their late bearing brings them at a 

 time when most of the other bush fruits are gone. The 

 sweet juicy flavor of these is never so good as when just 

 picked from the bush. Perhaps none other of the so 

 called small fruits attracts the birds as does the black- 

 berry ; although I believe that all garden lovers are bird 

 lovers even if the birds do steal a few of the cherished 

 fruits. The trailing vines of the dewlierry produce large 

 juicy fruit similar to the blackl)erry. yet larger and 

 sweeter and with but little core. Tliey make an excellent 

 sweet wine besides their fine dessert qualities, and are 

 gaining in popularity in some sections. Currants and 

 gooseberries were always found in the older gardens until 

 a troublesome little worm infested tlie bushes stripping 

 them of tlicir leaves and thus resulting in an inferior 

 cro]) of fruit. Xow this pest can be so easily controlled 

 with insecticides that we need never omit them from our 

 plantings. Their culinary value for making pies and 

 jellies cannot be overestimated. 



TlIK EVERBE-ARERS 



The Fall-bearing varieties of strawberries and rasp- 

 berries lengthen the productive ])eriod of our gardens 

 even until checked in the .\utunin by frost. The suiK-rb 

 and progressive strawberries seem to give the greatest 

 satisfaction of this cla.ss and will bear both a Spring and 

 a Fall crop, although the latter will be much better if the 

 .Spring blossoms are i)inched off. Of the ras])berrics. St. 

 Regis has been the standard everbcarer. It produces a 



."Spring crop ripening nearly a week before the other va- 

 rieties, continuing to bear more or less until Fall. Ers- 

 kine Park, a newer variety, will produce perhaps the 

 heaviest Autumn crop of all. The LaFrance is coming 

 into prominence because of its strong canes and large 

 fruit. All of these everbearing sorts are greatly im- 

 proved by a little irrigation during the hot, dry, Summer 

 months. 



Grapes .^nd Log.\nberries 



Trained to the fence around the garden what could be 

 more fitting and also more economical than a few grape 

 vines. Most of us know grapes only from the "Concords" 

 we buy on market, whicli are greatly inferior to some of 

 the better varieties we may grow at home, such as the 

 Worden, a large blue variety ; Caco, an exceptionally good 

 and new red, large and fine flavored ; Diamond and 

 Niagara are both fine white grapes. I do not believe 

 any fruit is so relished when taken directly from the vine 

 as the grape, and I will assure you they will taste doubly 

 good to those of you who can pluck a bunch frcjm a 

 vine you yourself have planted and cared for. If you 

 are forttmate enough to live in the tropical climate of the 

 Pacific Coast you may enjoy the Loganberry of which 

 so much has been said during the past few years, and the 

 Himalaya berry, the finest of all bush fruits, as one 

 grower claims. I do not believe that either of these has 

 been grown successfully out of doors in the ]\Iiddle West 

 or in the East. 



Blueberries 



The U. S. Dept. of Agriculture is' improving the blue- 

 berry with such success that it will only be a matter of a 

 short time until we can have plants from these choice 

 new varieties for our gardens. The extra large berries 

 of almost melting sweetness are a very marked improve- 

 ment over the common wild sorts. 



Tree Fruits 



Let us not overlook the tree fruits. It takes a little 

 longer to grow this class but the reward is much greater. 

 Tlie apple is king of all fruits and we are learning more 

 and more of its value in our every day diet. With just 

 a little care we can grow them just as fine as our Western 

 boxed apples, and who would not be proud to own a half 

 dozen or more of these trees that were loaded with per- 

 fect fruit, the result of our efforts at just odd times? 

 Xow there are the cherries, peaches, ])lunis. jicars. quinces, 

 apricots and many others. We hardly know the value and 

 fascination of these fruits until we have grown them 

 ourselves, solved the sometimes ])er[)lexing problems they 

 have presented to us, combatted all of their enemies and 

 then see these faithful trees start bearing and more than 

 sur])ass our greatest exjiectations. There is perhaps no 

 other fruit whose quality is lowered to such a great de- 

 gree by its commercial handling as is the peach. In the 

 first ])lace, the commercial varieties grown must be of 

 firm flesh to stand u|) imdcr trans])ortation without undue 

 injury, and it li.-qipens tiiat most of these particular va- 

 rieties are far from being our finest flavored [leacbes. 

 l-^econdly, they nuist be picked when still imm;iture to 

 l)revent them from becoming o\ i r lipc before being sold 

 to tlie consumer, and thus .giving them a flat lifeless taste. 

 In liiir gardens we may jilant the sweeter, juicier varieties 

 and ,-iliow them to soften to mellow riiK-ness before jiick- 

 ing and thus get one lumdred jier cent of the flavor. 

 (CoiilUinrd on pai;c 124) 



