SMALL FRUITS: 



THEIR PROPAGATION AND CULTIVATION. 



As the practices and opinions of fruit-growers differ so widely, 

 anything that may be written on the subject is likely to be 

 severely criticised, and the criticisms in many instances will 

 undoubtedly be just and pertinent. My aim will be simply to 

 make the process of growing small fruits, both for the market 

 and family use, so plain and practical that the novice will need 

 no other guide. 



I shall not occupy the limited space allotted me with direc- 

 tions for cultivating the barberry or the huckleberry, but confine 

 myself mainly to those species and varieties usually found 

 under cultivation. I shall make no attempt to write up the his- 

 tory of our small fruits, regarding it of no importance whether 

 Plin} T , Virgil, or Ovid spent their leisure hours in the berry 

 " patch," or even knew anything at all about the best varieties. 



I began the cultivation of the strawberry more than thirty 

 years ago, at a time when the Hovey's Seedling, Boston Pine, 

 Hooker, Virginia Scarlet, and Cutter's Seedling were the lead- 

 ing varieties, all of which, except the Hovey, have disappeared 

 from the lists of varieties cultivated or named. In size, beauty, 

 productiveness, and quality, some of these were at that time 

 thought wonderful ; and though most of them are not now to 

 be named in comparison with the best sorts of to-day, yet they 

 were so much superior to the wild berries gathered in boyhood, 

 that they made an impression upon the mind never to be effaced. 

 Since that time I have never lost my interest in this and the 

 other small fruits, but have had under cultivation at times some 



