SMALL FRUITS, 295 
canes,as they do no harm and help catch the drifting snow. Red raspber- 
ries will succeed in almost any location, but I sometimes think that the 
best place for them is out in the open field,where they will drift nearly full 
of snow, about the first snow that falls. I give the Turner first place on the 
list for home use, and for late raspberries I would recommend the Cuth- 
bert, though I sometimes think the Brandywine should have that place 
of honor. j 
The Dwarf Juneberry is perfectly hardy and should have a place in 
every home garden; it nicely fills in the gap between strawberry and 
raspberry. 
All the standard varieties of red currants do well here. They are per- 
fectly hardy, and for best results should be set in very rich soil, in rows 
about six feet apart, and about five feet apart in the row; the old wood 
should be pruned out; where cultivation is kept up, we have but little 
trouble with the currant worm. 
The gooseberry also does fairly well with us, and every garden should 
have a few hills at least. 
The grape is rarely fouud in the garden in thissection. Itdemands 
greater care in the way of winter protection than any of the fruits above 
enumerated, but with a little care every farmer and every lot owner in 
southwestern Minnesota can have an abundance of grapes in their season 
and far cheaper than he can buy them. Grape vines should be set, if pos. 
sible, near the south side of a windbreak, where the vines will be deeply 
covered in winter by the drifted snow. It is useless to plant the vine in 
any other than a protected locality. Cover the vine in the fall with 
coarse manure, uncover in late spring, and tie to the trellis. The various 
systems of pruning have but little application to our needs, the main thing 
here being winter protection. When the vine gets so large that it isdifficult 
to give it sufficient winter protection, then cut out the largest canes. The 
science of pruning is a bugbear that deters many of our farmers from 
planting the vine. The Janesville and Concord, early and late, are the 
two varieties that anyone can hardly fail to succeed with. 
Here we have a succession of fresh fruits from early in June until late 
in the fall, and every land owner can have them with certainty and with 
but little trouble—and why not have them? In the journey of life, why go 
by the way of the desert when the other road abounds in fruits of various 
kinds, more especially with small fruits. 
MY EXPERIENCE IN RAISING BLACKBERRIES. 
S. CUTLER, EXCELSIOR. 
I commenced about eight years ago with fifty Snyder blackberry plants, 
and have been experimenting with blackberries of different sorts ever 
since. J now have one acre in bearing. 
During these eight years I have learned a good deal about the blackberry. 
The first thing is to get a good variety to start with. Do not take any 
kind of a bush that you may chance to spy in some fence corner and set it 
out with the expectation of making a success with blackberries, for you 
