208 THE NEW HORTICULTURE. 



ing (see cut, page 206), which, by the way, should be nailed 

 fast on one side, and the other tacked to long one-inch cur- 

 tain-rods, and fixed so as to lap and roll back in all ordinary 

 weather, could be removed the last of March and packed 

 away for the next season, and the plank likewise, and both 

 would answer for a long time. 



If northern growers can afford expensive houses, and 

 steam heating to grow cucumbers, lettuce, etc., by the acre, 

 surely it will pay to spend the small amount of money re- 

 quired here to grow a much more valuable product like the 

 strawberry, and put it on the market during the winter 

 months. 



BLACKBERRIES. Like the strawberry, the dewberry and 

 blackberry are perfectly at home around the Gulf coasts, and 

 in fact all over the South, though many varieties of the latter 

 are so subject to rust that it pays best to confine ourselves 

 entirely to varieties like the Dallas. The Mayes or Austin 

 Hybrid dewberry and Early Trinity blackberry are new and 

 very promising varieties, that are well worthy of a trial. As 

 these berries are all rank growers, and sucker very badly in 

 our long, warm summers, it is all-important to give plenty of 

 room between the rows, to permit the free use of the plow. 

 Eight feet between the rows is none too much. As soon as 

 the fruit is gone, the old canes should be cut out at once, or 

 by winter they will become so tangled with the new growth 

 that their removal is very difficult and troublesome. A good 

 dressing of bone meal or phosphate will greatly improve the 

 size of the berries. 



The raspberry, gooseberry and currant find the far South 

 too warm for their perfect development, and these fruits are 

 of no value there, though some of the black-cap raspberries 

 are cultivated to a limited extent in the upper portions of 

 Texas. 



I omitted to note above that the strawberry beds should 

 run north and south, to allow all the plants to have at least 

 half a day of sun. 



