320 SUCCESS WITH SMALL FRUITS. 



Palestine, Texas. 

 The Charles Downing, Seth Boyden, and President Wilder 

 have done well. The Charles Downing has flourished as though 

 native and to the manner born. The Kentucky has done remark- 

 ably well; the Wilson not so well. Raspberries, on the whole, 

 have done well, but currants and gooseberries will not survive. 

 The strawberries have done better than I hoped. I have al- 

 ways looked upon the strawberry as a semi-aquatic plant, and 

 this view has been strengthened by an account of a wonderful 

 crop produced in this region by abundant and systematic water- 

 ing. The great difficulty against which we have to contend is 

 the prolonged summer, when, for weeks, the thermometer ranges 

 from 90° to 95° in the shade. To this must be added spells of 

 dry weather, lasting sometimes for six or eight consecutive weeks 

 in July, August, and September. 



D. S. H. Smith. 



New Orleans, La. 

 Experienced cultivators prepare for strawberries by thorough 

 plowing and subsoiling. We cultivate by subsoil plow, cultiva- 

 tor, and hoe, with no stones to impede our work. The bearing 

 season lasts about 90 days. I have had two full crops in the 

 same season. The best time to plant is, ist, in August; 2d, 

 in December. The Wilson and Charles Downing do well. The 

 black-cap raspberries succeed ; the red raspberries are thus far 

 a failure. Blackberries do very well. 



D. M. Wiggins, 



Agricultural editor, " N. O. Times." 



Mr. H. W. Lamb, of Colorado Springs, writes me that 

 strawberries and the hardy red raspberries do well in his 

 section. They regard sheep manure as one of the best 

 fertilizers. Dr. Samuel Hape, of Atlanta, Ga., writes : — 



In reply to your favor, I would say that strawberries and 

 blackberries do splendidly here, raspberries moderately, and cur- 

 rants and gooseberries as exceptions ; grapes finely. 



Our soils are mostly loam, with some sand, and a clay sub- 

 soil. Bottom lands have the usual deposits of muck and parr 



