112 



THE ILLINOIS FAKMEE. 



April 



f Early — Jenny Lind ; Baltimore Scarlet ; Burr's 

 ew Pine. 



Medium — Triomphe de Gaud ; Wilson's Albany; 

 British Queen ; Brighton Pine ; Cutter's Seedling ; 

 McAvoy's Superior ; Moyamensing ; Scott's Seed- 

 ling ; Yicomptesse Hericourt de Thury ; Due de 

 Brabant ; Golden Seeded ; Fillmore. 



Late — Tiollopc's Victoria; Kitley's Goliah; 

 Jfimrod ; Triomphe de Gaud. 



The Triomphe de Gaud I regard as best. It is 

 vigorous, heiilthy, long-stemmed, and abundant 

 bearer, with large berries, througli the season, 

 bright crimson, glossy ; fine flavored. 



I ship to Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, tc. 

 Eeceived fifty cents per quart for Triomphe de 

 Gaud in Xew York. Select good varieties, han- 

 dle them well, and you get good prices. It is no 

 matter how much the cultivation costs, provided 

 it will pay. I use boxes of one pint and one quart. 

 Pack the berries into these, and so handle them 

 but once. Pack these boxes in crates of twenty- 

 four quarts or fifty-four pints. 



RASPBERRIES. 



N. J. Colman, St. Louis. — Have ti-icd twenty va- 

 rieties here, very few succeed. The best for fami- 

 ly use is American Purple Cane. Too soft for mar- 

 ket. Have another variety, which may be the 

 Red Cane of Cincinnati, which ia firm enough for 

 m.arket. It is a red raspberry, and I call it Amer- 

 ican Red Cap. I preferred raspberries for market, 

 because the price is twice as great. 



Doolittle's Black Cap is earlier than the com- 

 mon, and a great improvement. Brinckley's Or- 

 ange is too tender. 5s'eed3 protection. 



I prepare ground by deep culture. Plant the 

 Cincinnati Red five by two ; Doolittle's Black Cap 

 and Purple cane seven by three. I prune in and 

 protect by trelis or wire — put up a post at end of 

 each row, drive a nail in the top of each post, and 

 stretch a wire from post to post. Believe in 

 mulching. Have known red raspberries to sell at 

 70 cents per quart. Catawissa succeeds well for 

 family use — ripens through September and Octo- 

 ber, until killed by fro?t, should be cut down to 

 the ground in spring. Belle de Fontenay grows 

 well and bears not so well. 



Knox — Small fruits are made to last much long- 

 er than they formerly did. Strawberries, rasp- 

 berries, blackberries and grapes last with me sev- 

 en months. Strawberries may be made to yield 

 immense crops. I plant 20,000 plants to the acre, 

 and ought to have one pint per plant, making ov- 

 er three hundred bushels per acre. I tliink they 

 can be made to produce it. Mr. Fuller says it has 

 proudueed four hundred. 



Raspberries I cultivate. Brinckle's Orange ; 

 nothing equals it. 



Frauconia — Large, firm and abundant bearear. 



Improved Black Capp — Hardy, incredibly pro- 

 lific, with more juice and less seed than common. 



These three varieties represent the three colors, 

 yellow, red and black. 



I have procured five French varieties, of which 

 have found two valuable. The first is the Hornet, 

 the largest raspberry I know ; red, and an abud- 

 ant bearer. The second is the Pilate, the same 

 color, not quite so large but bears carriage better. 



I think ever-bearing varieties of no account. 

 They are not so good, and there is not so much 

 demand for them. 



We should cultivate not what is good but what 



is best. Hornet and Pilate are not hardy. I pro- 

 tect by covering with earth. It will not cost $10 

 per acre. We don't use the trellis ; plant five by 

 two and a half; prepare the ground well, manure 

 well, cut in a good deal. Plant Doolittle six and 

 a half by three. Raspberries bear four or five 

 years; prune in spring. Strawberries are more 

 profitable than raspberries, but the two go well to- 

 gether. I employ two hundred hands picking 

 strawberries. Have employed men, women, boys 

 and girls. A smart boy at a half dollar a day is 

 the best. I don't have them picked by the box. 

 The first thing is to pick the berries well. A 

 smart boy will pick one hundred quarts a day, 

 some 75, and some 50. Blackberries are no more 

 profitable than raspberries. 



F. A. Quiuette, St. Louis. — I think from here 

 South the raspberry is not of much use. The sum- 

 mers are too long and the winters too soft. I would 

 use only some of the Black Caps. I cut them off 

 at four or five feet high with a sickle, and keep 

 them in the form of a hedge. In the South the 

 plant will bear a few berries, cast its leaves, gi'ow, 

 and so on, and in a few years die out. 



Hadley, Collinsville, 111. — Two neighbors of 

 mine have the Red Cane of Ohio, and have made 

 three hundred per acre at it. 



E. B. Colman, St. Louis. — Have Doolittle's Black 

 Cap. Cut back last spring. Bore enormously. 

 The only other raspberry I succeed well with is a 

 Red Antwerp from Cincinnati. 



Dr. Long, Alton, 111. — Have found Franconia 

 most profitable. Belle de Fontenoy succeds well 

 with us, and also Ohio Ever-bearing. 



Huggins, Woodburn, 111. — Ohio Everbearing ia 

 good for careless people. Like it best. The canes 

 that have survived the winter bear early; the 

 spring shoots in the fall. 



BLACKBERRIES. 



Knox — Cultivate three varieties. The Dorches- 

 ter is a good berry, valuable for its earliness and 

 sweetness. It is gone before the New Rochelle is 

 ripe. The Thornless is smaller, but beautiful and 

 sweet, variable however, in productiveness ; plant 

 10x5. 



Booth — Cultivate the Lawton or New Rochelle ; 

 have canes 15 feet high and 1|- inches in diameter. 

 From three rows, 100 feet long, I picked 15 bush- 

 els, worth $4 per bushel ; commenced picking the 

 4th of July and continued until the 15th of August; 

 no Summer pruning. 



N. J. Colman — One of our most profitable crops, 

 have somewhat less than half an acre of New Ro- 

 chelle ; sell the berries at 80 cents per gallon; prune 

 them in the Summer season, so as to keep them 

 four or five feet high and shorten in the lateral 

 branches ; plant rows 8 or 10 feet apart and plants 

 2 or 3 feet apart in the row ; let them grow into a 

 kind of hedge • have the best soil, rich and deep , 

 do not cultivate ; cut off suckers with hoes ; do not 

 mulch, but think well of it. Have not manured as 

 yet : put very little work (not two days in all) on 

 the whole patch the last year. 



Hadley — Have a dozen plants that bore last 

 year profusely. Topped them at five feet high the 

 Summer before, and shortened in the laterals in the 

 Spring. 



Mason — Planted two acres two years ago, part 

 of them in an orchard. In the orchard they were 

 three times as productive. Think growing a single 

 cane the best method. Regard cultivation of black- 



