OUE BUKLINGTON FEUIT STATION 



BEST CURRANTS FOR PROFITS — BLACKBER- 

 RIES DISCARDED — HOW TO PRUNE THEM 



IT was the 8th of August when we visited 

 Mr. A. W. Peart, our experimenter at 

 Freeman. We found him very busy 

 harvesting a heavy crop of oats, and yet he 

 had time to talk about fruit and tell us some 

 of the results of his experimental work. 

 How Mr. Peart can combine agriculture and 

 fruit growing on such a large scale is some- 

 what surprising, for he has a very large farm 

 which he conducts in first-class manner, and 

 yet has large commercial orchards of apples, 

 pears, plums and cherries and small fruits. 

 His power to grapple with such conditions 

 is largely due to his university training, for 

 Mr. Peart's case is a clear evidence of the 

 value of education to a farmer in his power 

 to grapple with the problems and work them 

 to a successful issue. " I have two boys," 

 said he, "aged thirteen and fifteen, and I am 

 bringing them up to work. To succeed in 

 a profession or on a farm one must learn pre- 

 serving application to the thing in hand, and 

 whether they work with their brains at school 

 or with their hands on my farm, I consider 

 this habit the first characteristic to be de- 

 veloped. I am making the boys a little 

 money allowance of late and find that this 

 is an encouragement to them." 



THE BEST RED CURRAxNT 



One thing every fruit grower wants to 

 know and that is, what will pay the best, so 

 we asked Mr. Peart for his experience with 

 the many varieties of currants in his experi- 

 mental plot: 



" The Wilder still leads; it is the largest, 

 best in quality and most productive. It is 

 one I would plant commercially in preference 

 to any other. This year it dropped a por- 

 tion of its foliage, but probably this was due 



to the wet weather ; still it was not half as 

 bad in this respect as Cherry and Fay. We 

 had always given Cherry the first place and 

 Fay the next on account of the fine size of 

 the berry, but Wilder is also large and so 

 much more productive that we are willing to 

 yield first place to it. Pomona is very prom- 

 ising indeed, but it so much resembles Wil- 

 der that it is a question if there is really any 

 difference. Perhaps another season's trial 

 at our Burlington station will settle this 

 question." 



THE MOST PRODUCTIVE BLACK CURRANT 



There are so many people who grow dis- 

 couraged with black currants that we in- 

 quired particularly of Mr. Peart whether 

 there was any variety better than Naples or 

 Lees : " There are three varieties which I 

 think are superior," said he, " Collins Pro- 

 lific, Saunders and Black Victoria, though I 

 would hardly throw out Naples ; for on heavy 

 rich clay or gravelly loam it is productive and 

 profitable. The bush of Collins is wonder- 

 fully vigorous and the most productive of all. 

 Lees and Champion I would reject entirely." 



SOILS FOR FRUIT 



The secret of success with black currants 

 and indeed with all fruits seems to be the 

 selection of suitable soil, and many fruits 

 that go to wood on rich sandy loam are 

 most productive on heavier soil. The cherry 

 with Mr. Peart succeeds best on high gravel- 

 ly loam, well drained, and his results on 

 such soil seem almost as marked as those 

 obtained about Winona on clay loam. 



BLACKBERRIES FOR PROFIT 



Now, since Mr. Peart has all varieties of 

 blackberries under test, we were especially 



