HOW I GOT STARTED IN SMALL FRUIT. 



'HEN I first thought of en- 

 gaging in fruit culture as 

 an occupation for recrea- 

 tion as well as revenue, I 

 decided that the small fruits were what 

 I should first plant, that I might receive 

 some income as quickly as possible, as 

 they were quicker to come into bearing 

 than the stone fruits. 



I wished to learn all I possibly could 

 concerning the methods of fruit grow- 

 ing, and I knew that the surest and most 

 effective way was to begin at the bottom 

 and work up. So I purchased a few 

 plants of most of the small fruits and 

 began propagating the plants. 



The way I got started in currants and 

 gooseberries was to purchase a few 

 hundred two-year old bushes of the most 

 reliable varieties of a responsible nur- 

 seryman and set them in November, 

 before the ground became frozen. 



The soil where I set them was made 

 as rich as possible with rotten barnyard 

 manure. The ground was plowed deep 

 and fined well. The plants were set 

 six feet each way that I could cultivate 

 both ways with a horse ; the plants were 

 kept clean all summer, and by fall I had 

 a fine growth of new wood. 



In the last of September I took what 

 cuttings there were on the five hundred 

 bushes and found I had nearly 3000 of 

 them. These I heeled in, with tops 

 down, for a few days that the cuts might 

 callus. 



The ground where I was to set my 

 cuttings was prepared similar to the way 



I prepared the ground the fall before, 

 and made richer, if such a thing was 

 possible, the ground was furrowed out 

 into rows three feet apart and 7 or Scinches 

 deep. I stuck the cuttings along the 

 rows at an angle of about 45 degrees 

 and si.x inches apart, leaving about an 

 inch or two to protrude above ground 

 when the trenches were filled. The soil 

 was tramped down solid about the 

 shoots and left mounded up slightly 

 that no water would stand about them. 



When freezing weather came, I cov- 

 ered the ground with rotted manure, to 

 protect the cuttings from heaving. As 

 soon as spring came I started the culti- 

 vator and did not allow a weed to live 

 the whole summer, and by fall I had a 

 fine lot of year-old plants. These would 

 have cost me over $50, had I purchased 

 them from a nursery, while as it was, 

 they cost me less than $10. 



With the other small fruits, I did the 

 same, buy a few, and from them propa- 

 gate my own plants. The knowledge I 

 have learned while performing this work, 

 has more than compensated me for the 

 extra time it took to grow the plants 

 into bearing. I can say that I did not 

 go at it entirely ignorant of the best 

 methods, for 1 first spent considerable 

 money for books and journals which 

 treated fully upon this occupation, and 

 am still reading all I can get hold of 

 which will give me any new ideas. 



B. A. Wood. 

 Ka/amazoo Co., Mich. 



