35 



the plants are weakened from ravages of insects or of dis- 

 eases. The degree of immaturity of wood, no matter from 

 what cause, is usually correllated with the severity of win- 

 ter injury. The blooming time of strawberries is an import- 

 ant factor in some localities, as late spring frosts may take 

 heavy toll as shown by mute, blackened faces. 



Small-Fruits sametimes suffer from hot weather as well 

 as from cold. Strawberries and gooseberries especially are 

 susceptible to sunscald when the fruit is exposed to high 

 temperatures in the full blaze of the sun, the red raspberry 

 showing the scald to a lesser extent, and then usually only 

 when accompanied by showery weather. 



RAINFALL. — This is the second natural factor essen- 

 tial to success with Small-Fruits. The plants may suffer too 

 much water or as is more often the case especially at fruit- 

 ing time, heavy losses may occur through shrinkage of the 

 crop as the ripening season develops. Long, continued, cold, 

 wet weather, as well as heavy winds at blossoming time 

 interfere with the proper pollination of the blossoms, with 

 a resulting decrease in yield ; and an excess of moisture just 

 as the fruits are ready for harvest takes heavy toll of the 

 fruit both on the bushes and as it is harvested and marketed, 

 as was the case in New York State the past season with 

 strawberries and raspberries. Thousands of quarts of fruit 

 moulded on the plants and thousands more were consigned 

 to the dump on arrival at destination or arrived in such a 

 mussy condition as to scarcely pay for harvesting and mar- 

 keting. 



SOILS. — Leaving now the question of climate with its 

 twin subjects of temperature and rainfall, we come now to a 

 consideration of soil for Small-Fruits. Is there a soil best 

 adapted to each of the fruits under discussion and if so, 

 what are the soil qualities that make it best adapted to one 

 fruit and not to another and how may we determine what 

 soil is best adapted to the strawberry, the raspberry the 

 blackberry, the currant or the gooseberry? Fortunately, 

 most of these fruits do well on a wide range of soils provid- 



