186 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTCK"ST. 



a root ; and retaining only the young 

 vigorous wood. It would be well to 

 test this method on some of our bleak 

 ])rairies, not only with Russian varie- 

 ties, but with some of our own hardiest 

 kinds. — J. M. M., in Green's Fruit- 

 Grower. 



Sf^VDER BLACKBRRY-ITS PRODUC- 

 TIVENESS IN IOWA. 



I have one plantation 1 by 11 rods 

 square; this patch containing 110 

 square rods was put out in the spring 

 of 1877, on land that had been in culti- 

 vation with crops of various kinds, about 

 thirty years, soil clay loam, bleak north- 

 west exposure. A part of the plot had 

 previously been set to apple trees twenty 

 feet each way, and wlien setting the 

 blackberries one row was set on line of 

 rows of trees, and two rows between, 

 making rows of blackberi-ies six feet 

 eight inches, and plants four feet in the 

 rows, but sprouts coming up having I 

 been left to grow up in the rows mak- | 

 ing a perfect mat and now forming a j 

 complete hedge row, except where the ! 

 apj)le trees stand, nineteen of which j 

 now large are still growing in the | 

 plantation without any perceptible in- 

 jury to the blackberries except the 

 sp ice they occupy. 



The plantation was cultivated and 

 hoed three seasons, since then nothing 

 has been done to it except to cut off 

 weeds and sprouts between rows, and 

 cut back and prune fruiting canes annu- 

 ally. No mulch or fertilizer of any 

 kind has been used. The surplus 

 sprouts between rows have all been 

 taken up each fall or spring and plants 

 sold or used in making other planta- 

 tions, and no evil results from such 

 practice has followed, which seems to 

 be conclusive evidence that digging 

 surplus plants from bearing plantations 

 does not injure the plantation as has 

 b'een claimed. 



I give thi ; brief sketch of the patch 

 and its tre tment, that your readers 

 may have some idea how the large crop 

 of Snyders that I have to report was 

 produced. 



This plantation has produced a pay- 

 ing crop of fruit since '78, its first fruit- 

 ing year, and was the past season in 

 full bearing, judging from the amount 

 of fruit produced, which was 5,643 

 boxes. Yet, as incredible as it may 

 appear, there was actually picked 

 and sold this season from the patch 

 containing 110 square rods over 176 

 bushels of berries which would be at 

 the rate of 256^ bushels in round num- 

 bers per acre. My other and younger 

 plantations, not yet in full bearing, 

 produced equally as well in proportion. 

 Of course we would not expect to obtain 

 as large a crop every season, for not- 

 withstanding the Snyder is called an 

 iron-clad and will stand more abuse 

 than any other blackberry of which I 

 have any knowledge, yet it does some 

 severe winters get injured and fails the 

 following season to produce a full crop. 

 But during the eight years I have 

 known and observed its behaviour, it 

 has not in this locality failed to pro- 

 duce a paying crop each and every year, 

 and with few exceptions enormous 

 crops. Therefore my observations and 

 experience with this noble berry leads 

 to the conclusion that in vigour and 

 beauty of bush, uniformly line size and 

 splendid quality of its berries, extreme 

 hardiness and marvelous productiveness 

 it stands without a rival among black- 

 berries, especially in the north-western 

 States, where all, or nearly all other 

 varieties are unreliable and unsatisfac- 

 tory. — S. K., in the Fruit Recorder. 



Clinton Co., Iowa. 



Imported Sparrows. — Secretary Gar- 

 field says one pair of our insectivorous 

 birds are worth more to the fruit-grower 

 than all the imported sparrows. 



