270 Success with Small Fruits. 



Triomphe, in the order written. I plant both in fall and spring, but prefer fall 

 setting when it can be done early and you have good plants. 



" I used to strike plants in three-inch pots, but have abandoned that plan, and 

 instead, lay the runners as early as I can get them (from ist to 2oth July), and when 

 well rooted, set them out, with a ball of earth, from i5th to 2oth August. If the 

 season is at all moist, so that the young plants make good progress before the frosts 

 set in (about middle of October), I get a good crop (half a full crop) the following 

 summer. From plants set in the spring, I take no fruit. With this exception, fall 

 and spring settings are treated alike. As the cultivation is all done by hand, I have 

 found that planting in beds of three rows each combines the greatest advantages. 

 The rows are 15 inches apart, and the plants 18 inches apart in the row in the quin- 

 cunx form ; each bed is separated from the rest by a path 30 inches wide. I need not 

 say that the soil has been previously well enriched with compost, generally, and well- 

 decomposed manure. In fact, as I usually plant on soil from which a crop of pota- 

 toes has been removed, the ground has received two applications the year the plants 

 are set. As the Colonel Cheney is my favorite, in order to fertilize it, I plant alternate 

 beds of some good staminate variety, Charles Downing, Triomphe, or Wilson. The 

 cultivation of the young plants the first season consists in cutting off any runners that 

 may form, and keeping them clear of weeds. When well established, the beds are 

 top-dressed with an inch or two of old manure ; this feeds the plants, keeps the soil 

 about the roots moist, and acts as a mulch when the fruit sets, and yields the follow- 

 ing summer. The following spring and summer, nothing is done to these beds till 

 after fruiting, except to hoe out the weeds. After fruiting, a thorough weeding is 

 effected, and the runners are cut every three weeks : and before the frosts set in, the 

 beds are given a top-dressing of old manure. After the second crop of fruit is taken 

 off, they are weeded, and the runners are allowed to strike. The third spring, wood 

 ashes are applied ; and, after fruiting, the plants are turned under. No winter pro- 

 tection is given to the plants, unless you except the top-dressing of manures but 

 this is sometimes not applied till spring and I observe no appreciable difference 

 between the plants with and those without it. What I do observe is that an early 

 winter, and plenty of snow, kill fewer plants than a winter in which the snow-falls 

 have been delayed till after frosts and rains. 



" Strawberries begin to ripen with us about the 28th of June, and raspberries 

 about the i5th of July. With the above treatment, I have grown Wilsons and 

 Cheneys at the rate of 1 1 ,000 quarts, or 344 bushels, to the acre. 



" RASPBERRIES. 



" I prefer fall planting, which may be done as late as they can be put in. 

 I have set them the last day of October, without losing one. I plant them four 

 feet apart, but five would be better, and tie the canes, when grown, to stakes four 

 and a half feet high.* Sometimes I have laid them down, and sometimes have 

 tied up the young canes to the stakes in the fall, and I find but little difference. 

 They always bear, and are never winter-killed. 



"The following fall, of course; when planted, the canes are cut back, so as to be only six inches aboveground." 



