BUSH FRUIT PRODUCTION 



berries. Such berries lack flavor and are un- 

 duly seedy, having their full complement of 

 seeds and lacking only the fully developed 

 pulp around them. Drouthy soils must there- 

 fore be avoided. 



Wet, undrained soils on the other hand in- 

 duce winter injury. Growth on such soils is 

 beyond control and to plant blackberries in 

 such land is to court disaster. The blackberry 

 plant is tenacious of life and will continue to 

 live in most unfavorable situations, but for 

 the purposes of the fruit grower extreme soil 

 types must be avoided. 



A strong, deep loam, moist but well drained, 

 is to be desired. As suggested before, plenty 

 of organic matter in the soil will go a long 

 way toward correcting faults in the original 

 texture of the soil, and it deserves special at- 

 tention (see page 15). 



It is difficult to build up a soil after the 

 plants are set. It is therefore well to incorpor- 

 ate plenty of organic material with the soil 

 before planting. It also saves much labor and 

 disappointment later if the land is freed of per- 

 nicious grasses and weeds. It is almost, if 

 not quite, impossible to rid a plantation of 

 such aggressive pests as quack grass, and 

 usually it is easiest and best to start a new; 



68 



