BERRY CULTURE FROM EXPERIENCE. 295 



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for strawberries, will apply here as well. I have no choice between 

 fall and spring setting of plants, having practiced both quite ex- 

 tensively with equal success. 



In starting a plantation of new varieties I have to take what I can 

 get, but I would not, if I knew it, deal with a man that would take 

 my money and give me plants from a plantation which he had 

 planted the year before. Perhaps there are none such. Horticul- 

 turists, as a rule, are inclined to be honest, which may account for 

 so many of them being prohibitionists. 



I practice starting in a small way and as soon as possible grow a 

 block of plants from which to obtain stock to my liking, for I am 

 positive that good crops of fruit and good plants for setting a plan- 

 tation, which you intend shall endure and be a source of profit for a 

 term of years, cannot be grown from the same root the same season. 



While the "continuous row" system has its advocates, my experi- 

 ence has found not a single thing in its favor, and I most emphati- 

 cally favor the hill system. 



I set plants, two in a hill, in rows both ways, four feet by seven. 

 This method allows a larger percentage of cultivation to be done 

 by horse power than any other method, and most certainly facili- 

 tates the labor of laying down for winter. Cultivate both ways with 

 a fine tooth cultivator, and with a hoe or garden rake loosen the soil 

 around the plants. There is, in fact, no road to clean culture of 

 small fruit without a great deal of hand hoeing and weeding sooner 

 or later. I leave only enough suckers for the fruiting canes the next 

 season and treat all others as weeds. Cut them off just below the 

 surface. I make it a point to have all other work well in hand, so 

 that I can drop everything when there is an indication of a final 

 freeze-up, and lay the bushes down and cover them completely with 

 earth except the tips, which subsequent treatment shows will need 

 no protection. 



The next spring as soon as frost is out of the ground— although I 

 have left them all till the middle of May— I carefully lift the bushes 

 and cut back from one-third to one-half the past season's growth 

 (this applies more particularly to bushes two years old or more), re- 

 moving all weak canes and broken branches. Tie each hill loosely 

 to a stake set firmly in the ground about three and one-half feet 

 high. I cultivate as soon as condition of soil will admit, leveling 

 and thoroughly pulverizing the soil over the whole surface, using 

 the hoe or rake as before. The raspberry will stand more abuse 

 than anything I know of and will also more readily respond to good 

 treatment. 



I started into small fruit culture some years ago, having for my 

 motto, "What is worth doing at all, is worth my best effort," and 

 have always been well repaid for thorough culture, especially of 

 the raspberry. Frequent cultivation means a conservation of moist- 

 ure, so necessary to tide the plants over a drouth while in fruit, cau- 

 ses early, vigorous growth and, with judicious pruning, almost in- 

 variably insures large berries and lots of them, which can be picked 

 cheaper, sell more rapidly and bring more satisfactory results. 

 Some seasons the difference of one-quarter of a cent a box for pick- 



