VARIOUS SPECIES OF FRUITS 



187 



Fig. 123. Native Sand or "Dwarf" Cherry 



Plants of the original 

 species have been grown 

 more or less in other 

 parts of the country, but 

 have not made much 

 headway where other 

 Cherries can be grown 

 because they are less 

 abundant producers and 

 the fruit is neither as large 

 nor of as good quality as 

 even the small, sour Cher- 

 ries. Where Cherries fail, 

 however, where space is 

 at a premium or where 

 a distinct flavor is desired, 

 the Sand Cherry (Fig. 123) 

 may be planted. It will 

 succeed in any well- 

 drained, light soil, with practically no attention except the removal 

 of old failing stems. 



STRAWBERRY 



Perhaps no quotation attributed to Henry Ward Beecher is so 

 popular with fruit lovers as "The Lord might have made a better 

 fruit than the Strawberry, but he certainly never did." I have 

 yet to meet or hear of the man or woman who, after enjoying an 

 ample dish of luscious, home-grown, really ripe Strawberries, liberally 

 dusted with powdered sugar and drowned beyond resuscitation with 

 thick cream, would enter into a theological discussion of this question! 

 Howbeit, I have ingloriously disputed a somewhat different phase of 

 the subject with a Raspberry "rooter." (See page 180.) 



Apart from what Beecher might call its "betterness," the Straw- 

 berry has its own particular appeal to the home fruit grower. Like 

 the Raspberry and the Blackberry, it reaches its highest quality when it 

 ripens fully before being gathered a condition it can never be allowed 

 to reach when grown for the market; like the Currant and the Goose- 

 berry, it is easy to grow with ordinary good care and in a wide range 

 of country; but more than these, it requires the smallest amount of 

 space in which to grow. There may not be room for standard or 

 dwarf trees or even for Blackberries, Raspberries, Currants or Goose- 

 berries, but everyone who has even no more than a few square yards 



