Suggestive Experiences. 263 



thoroughly. I give blackberries the same mode of culture, setting them three feet 

 by eight. No winter protection is needed. In ordinary seasons, there are a few 

 strawberries all winter long. Strawberries and blackberries are very productive, 

 and enormous in size, but currants, gooseberries and red raspberries do not succeed 

 in this region, the long and intensely hot and dry season being unfavorable. 



JOHN PALMER." 



"NEW CASTLE, Cal. 



" The President Wilder is the finest flavored berry we have ever tasted, and it 

 is the most attractive in color of all. The Jucunda does not do well on our light 

 soil. The Monarch is splendid. We grow raspberries quite extensively, our 

 climate and location being better adapted to them, perhaps, than any other part of 

 California. The earliest berry with us is the Red Antwerp (probably the English). 

 It is a week earlier than the Franconia. The Herstine is a fine berry every way, 

 except as regards firmness. The cap varieties are inferior in flavor here. 



C. M. SILVA & SON." 



From other sources I learn that the Triomphe de Gand and Seth 

 Boyden are among the chief favorites in California. 



Mr. Felix Gillet, Nevada City, Cal., author of an excellent little 

 treatise on the culture of the strawberry in his region, says : " The row 

 and hill system is certainly the best of all, especially to raise large, fine 

 fruit. The rows should be two feet apart, or thirty-six inches if irrigating 

 by running water in each row as it is done in California. The plants 

 should be set, the large growing sorts two feet from each other in the 

 row, the smaller ones from twelve to eighteen inches." 



"AUSTIN, Texas. 



" I put in water-works, and it is the best investment I ever made. I supply 

 Austin with vegetables the whole year round. It was very dry last year, but I 

 loaded three wagons with vegetables every day. We watered twenty acres regu- 

 larly, and will water thirty this year. I am making a large reservoir on a hill, which 

 will be supplied from a large well through a six-inch pipe. I use Knowles's steam 

 pump, 30 horse-power, capable of pumping 750,000 gallons daily. Of strawberries, 

 the Kentucky Seedling can stand the most heat and drought. Crescent Seedling 

 looks .well here, also the Forest Rose. Raspberries, currants and gooseberries 

 cannot be raised. We plant strawberries one foot apart in the row, and the rows 

 are three feet apart. We mulch early in spring, and cultivate by horse-power after 

 the bearing season is over. I regard cow manure, leaf mold, and bone flour as 

 the best fertilizers. I consider fall, October or November, as the best time for 

 planting. 



WILLIAM RADAM." 



