264 Success with Small Fruits. 



" PALESTINE, Texas. 



" The Charles Downing, Seth Boyden, and President Wilder have done well. 

 The Charles Downing has flourished as though native and to the manner born. 

 The Kentucky has done remarkably well; the Wilson not so well. Raspberries, 

 on the whole, have done well, but currants and gooseberries will not survive. The 

 strawberries have done better than I hoped. I have always looked upon the 

 strawberry as a semi-aquatic plant, and this view has been strengthened by an 

 account of a wonderful crop produced in this region by abundant and systematic 

 watering. The great difficulty against which we have to contend is the prolonged 

 summer, when, for weeks, the thermometer ranges from 90 to 95 in the shade. 

 To this must be added spells of dry weather, lasting sometimes for six or eight con- 

 secutive weeks in July, August, and September. 



D. S. H. SMITH." 



"NEW ORLEANS, La. 



" Experienced cultivators prepare for strawberries by thorough plowing and 

 subsoiling. We cultivate by subsoil plow, cultivator and hoe, with no stones to impede 

 our work. The bearing season lasts about 90 days. I have had two full crops in 

 the same season. The best time to plant is : ist, in August; 2d, in December. The 

 Wilson and Charles Downing do well. The black-cap raspberries succeed; the 

 red raspberries are thus far a failure. Blackberries do very well. 



D. M. WIGGINS, 

 Agricultural Editor N. O. Times. 1 " 



Mr. H. W. Lamb, of Colorado Springs, writes me that strawberries 

 and the hardy red raspberries do well in his section. They regard sheep 

 manure as one of the best fertilizers. 



Dr. Samuel Hape, of Atlanta, Ga., writes: 



" In reply to your favor, I would say that strawberries and blackberries do 

 splendidly here, raspberries moderately and currants and gooseberries as exceptions; 

 grapes finely. 



" Our soils are mostly loam, with some sand, and a clay subso* 1 Bottom lands 

 have the usual deposits of muck and partially decomposed vegetable matter. The 

 damp, rich soil, of course, suits strawberries and blackberries ; though the latter 

 grow wild to such perfection, and in such abundance, as to do away with cultivation 

 almost entirely. The red raspberry does not succeed very well as a rule. While 

 damp, under-drained soil and sandy loam are best for strawberries, the dry 

 uplands have almost invariably produced well. As to fertilizers, well-decomposed 

 stable manure and bone meal have done the best with us. 



" No winter protection is needed. The fall, with us, is the best season to trans- 

 plant strawberries, by all odds ; as soon as the September rains set in. 



DR. SAMUEL HAPE." 



