CRANBERRY AND CURRANT 419 



the winter hang the vines to the wires by means of short pieces of wire, 

 which will last three or four years, after which they may be cut with 

 pliers and the old vines taken out. Hang them instead of twisting around 

 the wire, for they are vicious vines to handle, and a mess of twisted vines 

 harbors insects and disease and rotting c me growth. The past season's 

 new canes, thus hung up, will continue to grow in length until you pinch 

 off the tips. The roots should not be closer than 12 to 16 feet apart each 

 way, and not over half a dozen canes should be left on each. 



The following summer these canes will throw out fruit spurs which will 

 bear 30 to 75 berries each, the tip berries ripening first along in July. 

 These spurs will be less than a foot apart and project outward from the 

 trellis so that picking is easy. But the vines will also throw out laterals 

 among the fruit spurs, and these laterals will grow several feet in the sea- 

 son. Those nearest the base will be longest, but all would be serious 

 hindrances for pickers; so just before the first picking, cut off all the 

 laterals close to the main vines. This will not interfere with fruiting 

 next season, and it will leave the berries where the pickers need scarcely 

 touch a vine. If the laterals were fastened to the wires or wound around 

 them, they would take strength needed by the ripening berries and choke 

 off the fruit spurs, besides being in the way. 



In the summer there will be new runners from the roots, and two of 

 these should be saved and directed one each way along the ground under 

 the wires by means of little stakes, for the first season. Keep the rest 

 cut off at the root. Repeating this year after year will renew the wood 

 continuously as it gets too old to bear well, which is after the fourth or 

 fifth year. 



The roots will send up new plants between the rows and these will be 

 good for transplanting. Whether used or not, they should be rigidly 

 grubbed out every winter. 



THE CRANBERRY 



Though attention has been given to experiments with the growth 

 of the cranberry in California for many years, it has not been 

 demonstrated that the culture is successful or profitable. Cran- 

 berries have been produced, and the fruit shown at fairs, but beyond 

 this nothing has been accomplished. It would seem to be a fair 

 conclusion that even in the most moist regions our summer air is 

 too dry to suit the plant. There seems, however, no incentive to 

 grow cranberries in California. The Oregon product from a few 

 plantations near the mouth of the Columbia river seems to be all 

 that we need to put up a fight with the fruit from Wisconsin and 

 Cape Cod. 



THE CURRANT 



The currant reaches perfection in size and quality in parts of 

 California adapted to its growth, but its area is comparatively small. 

 The plant does not thrive in the dry, heated air of the interior either 

 at the north or south. It does well near the coast, especially in the 

 upper half of the State, and is grown for market chiefly, on lands 

 adjacent to the Bay of San Francisco. The comparatively cool and 

 moist air of the ocean favors it, but even here the sunburn, which 

 is the bane of its existence in the interior valleys, occasionally in- 

 jures the fruit. Away from the coast, currants are grown to a 

 limited extent along the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, near 

 their confluence, but not in the hot valleys whence they flow. On 



