SMALL FRL'IT CULTURE. 609 



or mulched through the summer. These remarks apply cquallj' 

 to the blackberry and raspberry. 



The most common method of pruning aud training, is none 

 at all ; but a more profitable method is to cut out all dead wood, 

 all wood that has borne for two or three years, and all shoots 

 and suckers that crowd the growth. Six large, vigorous shoots 

 will produce more and larger fruit than double that number of 

 weak and slender ones. The Black Currant is trained as an 

 upright with an open head. The gooseberry is also sometimes 

 trained in this manner ; it is accomplished by rubbing off the 

 lower buds on the stem. The most successful varieties of the 

 currant are, the Beseret, American Blach^ Buist^s, Cherry, Buna's 

 While, Bed Butch, Victoria, White Orape, White Butch, and White 

 Florence. The Cluster, Mountain Seedling, Bowning, and ir<>icgh- 

 ton^s Seedling are the only varieties of the gooseberiy proved to 

 be worthy of cultivation. [See Colored Plate) 



The Craxberry has of late assumed so much importance, 

 and its cultivation is so little understood, that we shall give 

 more full directions for it. 



LocATiox. The borders of ponds, marshts, and the sea- 

 shore have proved the best suited to the growth of the cran- 

 berry. In fact ninety-nine one-hundredths of all the cranber- 

 ries grown in the country are in such locations. There are 

 thousands upon thousands of acres of low, wet, swampy, and 

 sandy lands, in all sections of the country, utterly worthless for 

 general cultivation, that are admirably suited to the cianberry; 

 and when we remember that they yield from one hundred to 

 four hundred bushels per acre, and sell for from two dollars to 

 six dollars per bushel, it is no wonder that ..any owners of such 

 worthless tracts are putting in cranberries. 



Soil. The best soil, if soil it can be called, is heach sand; 

 uext to this is common satid, and then j^cat and sand, which is the 



