326 Our Farming. 



per acre in a good year. This very thorough tillage gave us a 

 great growth the first season. The next spring we covered the 

 whole surface of ground deeply, a foot or more, with straw, and 

 for several years we have added straw every spring and done no 

 cultivating whatever. The heavy mulching keeps weeds down 

 mostly. Any that stray up through are cut off with hoe. Cur- 

 rants, raspberries, red and black, and blackberries are all treated 

 in same way. It would not do for grapes, probably. We have 

 found it the least trouble, and we get berries enough. Whether 

 we have as many as could be got by cultivation, I am not certain ; 

 but it is plenty and little work that we are after. Mice have not 

 troubled us. New straw is always added in the spring. By win- 

 ter the old is well decayed. We have several varieties of currants, 

 but the old red Dutch is sweetest and best for eating. The Shaffer 

 raspberry has done well for us. It is practically a red raspberry 

 (purple) and does not sucker. Of the true reds, the Turner (early) 

 and Cuthbert (late) have done best. The latter yield best. The 

 Palmer, Hillborn and Gregg blackcaps do well for early, medium 

 and late. All our blackberries do well and are quite good if left 

 on bushes to get very ripe. The Taylor is, perhaps, rather the 

 sweetest. 



Our treatment of currants was to cut back the new growth 

 about half, late in the fall, for first two or three years, and in 

 after years cut out some of the oldest wood each fall, letting new 

 canes take its place. So far we have picked the currant worms 

 by hand just as they were hatching. They are found on the lower 

 leaves and near centre of plant. With a little prompt attention 

 one can prevent their getting all over the bushes. We pick off 

 the leaf with eggs on it just hatching. We must have had some 

 six bushels of fine currants this year. They have cost us almost 

 nothing since first year. 



We pinch off top of new blackberry canes when about two 

 feet high. If there are more than four canes in a hill break them 

 over. In the fall cut out and burn the old bearing wood. In the 

 spring, just as leaves begin to start a little, cut back the rows of 

 canes so as to make a nice hedge of them. Pinching makes them 

 grow bushy, and then we cut off sides and tops of bushes a little. 

 Blackcap raspberries are treated about the same. Red raspberries 

 the same, only they are not pinched back. We pinch the Shaffer. 

 We use a pair of grape shears to trim with. To make a tool to 

 cut out the old wood, I took a large flat file to the shop and got 

 them to draw out and curve around one end into a hook about two 

 inches across. This was made thin on inside and tempered and 

 ground. Then two holes were made in file so I could fasten it to 

 a wooden handle four or five feet long with screws. With this I 

 can cut out old canes and not get scratched. The suckers among 

 the red raspberries and blackberries are kept cut down with a hoe 

 the same as though they were so many weeds. We have kept the 

 plants right in the original hills, not letting them grow into a thicket. 



