330 Succession of Small Fruits. 



SUCCESSION OF SMALL FRUITS. 



Much has been written on the value and use of fruit as food; but still it 

 is evident that only a small proportion of our people practically understand 

 the subject. How few we find, even among families possessing what are 

 called good gardens, who enjoy any thing like a constant supply of fruits 

 for the table throughout the entire season of warm weather ! The conse- 

 quence is, in most cases, the children are indulged quite freely in the use 

 of strawberries, cherries, or whatever fruit may chance to be abundant for 

 a time, and then deprived of it entirely, for weeks, perhaps, in hot weather, 

 and supplied abundantly again when another kind comes into season; but, 

 of course, the health of a family is more likely to be injured than benefited 

 by such use of fruit. 



Having been engaged in fruit-growing, more or less, for the past ten 

 years, with a goodly number of thrifty "olive-plants" in my domestic nurse- 

 ry, I can testify, from happy experience, to the healthfulness and economic 

 advantage of the constant use of fruit as a part of the daily food for the 

 family during the summer and autumn months ; and, for the benefit of the 

 inexperienced who have not the advantage of orchards, I will give a few 

 hints on the means of securing a succession of what are called sipull fruits, 

 in distinction from those grown on trees. 



Strawberries, of course, come first in order. With a little care in select- 

 ing varieties, and skill in their cultivation, a supply of this most wholesome 

 and desirable fruit may be had, in ordinary seasons, for full four weeks, or 

 the entire month of June, in Ohio. Among the early varieties of straw- 

 berries, there is not much difference between several of the well-known sorts. 

 The Metcalf Seedling is one of the best I have tried. The handsomest 

 and best for medium and late is the Jucunda, or " 700 " of Mr. Knox ; 

 though I have seen on his grounds fine berries a few days later, called 

 Kitley's Goliath. 



Raspberries occupy the month of July. They begin to ripen before straw- 

 berries are quite done, and continue till currants and blackberries come in. 

 This fruit is quite popular with most families, and is better for preserving 

 than strawberries ; but we do not consider it as valuable or wholesome as 



