328 Our Farming. 



You have been told that currants, raspberries, etc., were all 

 in rows eight feet apart. For high culture, don't put currants 

 less than six feet apart in rows. I did. The man who sold me 

 the plants told me to put them three feet apart. I shall have 

 to take every other one out, to get finest fruit. My raspberries 

 and blackberries are three feet apart in the rows, and about right. 

 The rows being eight feet apart, they have a fair amount of feeding 

 ground. In setting out, I would plow out furrows (in well- 

 drained ground) and set all rather low, and only partly fill up 

 furrows at first, say two inches or so ; then as you cultivate and 

 hoe during the season gradually fill up to level. If you set deep 

 and fill all at once, the plants do not start as well. If you set 

 shallow, they blow over in a storm worse, and I think currants 

 do not send up new canes as well. I did not set quite right, and 

 could see later where I was wrong. We use no stakes or wires 

 or anything to hold up canes, but by pinching back make them 

 grow self-supporting. If now and then one bends over under its 

 weight of fruit, no harm is done, as it rests on the straw. 



I have estimated that the work we do on our fruit garden 

 in a year, outside of the strawberries, does -not cost us over $5. 

 Perhaps this is too low, but it doesn't cost much to put straw on, 

 pinch canes, cut out old ones and prune in the spring. We have 

 had as many as thirty-five bushels of raspberries and blackberries, 

 but this was exceptional. We usually have just about enough. 

 We want it so we can go out and pick from a peck to half 

 a bushel of some kind of berries any day during the season for 

 them. We could do that this year. Many can get wild rasp- 

 berries and blackberries; but they are not, as a rule, as large and 

 fine as cultivated ones. To be perfect they must hang on bushes 

 until they are dead ripe, blackberries in particular. Wild ones 

 here are usually picked by someone as soon as they are turned a 

 little in color. 



How long a patch will last without renewing, I do not know. 

 Ours show no signs of running out. If well cared for, I have 

 an idea they will do well for a long time. With us raspberries 

 come before the strawberries are gone, and blackberries follow the 

 raspberries as closely, so we can have small fruits every day from 

 our garden for nearly three months. We kept count one year, 

 and we had berries or currants every meal for eleven weeks. But 

 this was done partly by letting some blackberries hang on the 

 bushes where they were shaded by leaves, just as long as they 

 would. We have gone without fruit in such abundance ; did for 

 many years. Thought we could not afford it. We did not know 

 how cheaply it could be grown, if one went at it rightly. If 

 living our life over, the fruit garden would be started when we 

 bought the farm. We were mistaken and lost much that we 

 might have had to enjoy. I hope we may induce some young 

 people to start right. But not until they have thoroughly decided 

 to make a success of it. 



