CRANBERRY AND CURRANT 



487 



Fifth, there is in addition the application of the principle that 

 good large fruit is the product of a plant which is not carrying too 

 much bearing wood ; that is, is not endeavoring to perfect too much 

 fruit at the same time. For this reason, as well as for convenience, 

 it is desirable not to allow a plant to retain all the cane it grows, 

 but to shorten it or to remove the laterals or part of them or to 

 shorten the laterals or in any other way to require the plant to 

 direct its energy to the better development of fewer fruits. 



Sixth, growers are, of course, influenced by different consider- 

 ations. Amateur growers delighting in running vines on fences 

 or trellises would not prune as would a commercial grower, who 

 can not have canes running all over his fields. The amateur can 

 pinch a main shoot and send the laterals up the arms of a fan- 

 shaped trellis if he likes and make an object of rare garden beauty, 

 and he can reduce the excess of bearing wood by cutting away the 

 parts of the laterals which run beyond his arms or extra ones be 

 yond those he can carry on his trellis. From the point of view oi 

 the plant, he does the same thing that the commercial grower 

 does when he comes along with his scythe or sickle and cuts away 

 indiscriminately all the growth which goes beyond the space where 

 it is convenient for him to have the fruit. 



Seventh, do not be too particular about exact methods to imi- 

 tate; try rather to discern principles which may be served by 

 many different methods. ' 



THE CRANBERRY 



Though attention has been given to experiments with the 

 growth of the Cranberry in California for many years, it has not 

 been demonstrated that the culture is successful or profitable. Cran- 

 berries have been produced, and the fruit shown at fairs, but 

 beyond this nothing has yet been accomplished. It would seem 

 to be a fair conclusion that even in the most moist regions our sum- 

 mer air is too dry to suit the plant. 



THE CURRANT 



The Currant reaches perfection in size and quality in parts of 

 California adapted to its growth, but its area is comparatively 

 small. The plant does not thrive in the dry, heated air of the inte- 

 rior either at the north or south. It does well near the coast, 

 especially in the upper half of the State, and is grown for market 

 chiefly, on lands adjacent to the bay of San Francisco. The com- 

 paratively cool and moist air of the ocean favors it, but even here 

 the sunburn, which is the bane of its existence in the interior val- 



