FRUIT CULTURE 123 



The next picture will show the individual plant in the blossoming 

 season. There is a space around the plant, and you can get a much 

 better color on the fruit if the sun is allowed to strike the fruit on 

 all sides. 



Here is an individual plant in fruit, on the hill system, showing 

 the abundance of fruit borne. The leaves are partially cut away 

 so that the fruit is more exposed than it would be in the natural 

 condition of the bed. This particular plant happens to be the 

 Parsons Beauty. The last picture showed the same plant in blos- 

 som. 



Here is a hill along the edge of the same bed, or one of the beds. 

 This happens to be a variety called New York, a rather coarse 

 berry, but at the same time it is a very productive berry, but not 

 of as high quality as some of our other varieties. As you see, the 

 large berry in the middle happens to be a corrugated berry, and 

 these corrugated berries are not of the highest quality. 



Here is a picture taken from the middle of one of these beds, 

 showing the abundance of the fruit in the middle of it. Here is a 

 bed, a matted row bed, under the old conditions. Of course, most 

 of our strawberries for the market are grown under these condi- 

 tions. This shows the mulching put on to protect the fruit from 

 sand or mud during rain. The strawberry is one of the best plants 

 that we have here in developing orchards or other fruit plantations. 



Here is an orchard in Massachusetts that has been developed 

 greatly by planting strawberries. This shows the strawberries of 

 the lower side, the upper part of the orchard having been planted 

 previously and allowed to go into grass. That is one of the great 

 advantages of our small fruits, they lend themselves better than 

 anything else to the development of the trees where they are 

 planted. The gooseberrj^ and the blackberry can be planted 

 between the orchard trees, and they bring in some revenue while 

 the trees are coming into bearing. The small fruits can be planted 

 among the small trees, and thus the whole ground is utilized. 



Here are gooseberries planted in between pears, getting the best 

 results from the ground while the trees are coming into bearing. 

 Currants can be used in the same way, also blackberries and rasp- 

 berries. In the gooseberries and currants we have a great many 

 failures, which I think is probably from the fact that we do not 

 thin out the wood enough. 



