September 30, 1S91.] 



Garden and Forest. 



467 



cut up save the seeds for planting. When these seeds have 

 grown, cions should be taken from the young seedlings and 

 placed upon old trees, so as to bring them into bearing at the 

 earliest possible period. It will be very interesting to com- 

 pare the results of such crossing. If the parent tree possessed 

 marked characters, we should expect to find these reproduced 

 in a modified way in the offsprings. 



Similar crosses may be effected between varieties of vines, 

 and it is still easier to secure early returns from the experi- 

 ments. Cherries, Plums, and even the ordinary small garden- 

 fruits may be experimented upon in the same way. If the 

 members of this society were to plan a series of experiments, 

 each man confining himself to a single one, within the next 

 ten years we should without doubt have some surprising 

 results. 



It is by the application of exactly these principles that the 

 breeders of animals have been able to reach the results with 

 which we are so well acquainted. It still seems to us in horti- 

 culture rather a theoretical thing when we talk of crossing and 

 breeding in order to produce new and desirable species, but 

 that which has proved of such great value in the animal king- 

 dom will in like manner prove of value in the vegetable 

 kingdom. 



The horticulturist of the .future, and of the near future, too, 

 will be a breeder of plants, and he will be able, by judicious 

 crossing, by intelligent working for a particular form, to con- 

 trol the results of his breeding. 



SUCCESS WITH SMALL FRUITS. 



Mr. J. H. Hale delivered an address on this subject. As a 

 first requisite he named a thorough preparation of the soil. 

 Such a recommendation seemed hardly necessary, but in a 

 great majority of cases fruit-growers fail for lack of attention 

 to this fundamental matter. Of course, in the virgin soil of 

 the prairies different treatment is needed from that required 

 in thin and worn lands in the eastern states, but there is the 

 same necessity of deep preparation and thorough drainage, 

 although there is less necessity for fertilizing, which is the 

 second requirement wherever the soil is not absolutely rich. 

 For small fruits, potash and phosphoric acid are the plant- 

 foods principally needed in Connecticut. Wood-ashes is the 

 most effective form in which potash can be used, but in the 

 south, where it can be obtained, the ashes from cotton-hulls is 

 better still. Two hundred bushels of ashes to the acre is not 

 too much, and to this a ton and a half of finely ground bone 

 may be added to supply the phosphoric acid. Ground bone had 

 proved the best form in which phosphates could be applied, 

 but South Carolina rock and other forms of phosphate should 

 be tried. As a rule, but little nitrogen is needed, since the 

 tendency of this is to make a growth of foliage. Of course, in 

 certain instances it is valuable, as, for example, while the Cuth- 

 bert and Golden Queen Raspberries will flourish under treat- 

 ment of potash and phosphates only, the Marlborough, in 

 the same field, would be improved by the addition of a trifle 

 of nitrogen, because it is a feeble grower, and needs strength- 

 ening. (In other districts nitrogenous manures have proved 

 essential to the highest success with small fruits.) 



It is a great mistake to grow the plants too thickly. It gen- 

 erally happens that from two to three times as many Raspber- 

 ries, for example, are planted to the acre as can be grown to 

 advantage. They should not be set closer than six feet apart 

 each way, and seven, or even eight feet apart, are better for 

 strong growers like the Cuthbert. Then the berries will be big, 

 bright and firm. Hedge-row culture and matted-row culture 

 is wrong, and the hill system is right almost always. Berries 

 grown in this way will be superior in size, texture and quality, 

 and will yield more quarts to the acre, and, besides, the culti- 

 vation will cost less when it is done thoroughly. 



Irrigation should be provided for Strawberries, where it is 

 at all possible. The grower cannot afford to take all prelimi- 

 nary care for thorough preparation and painstaking cultiva- 

 tion up to the time the plants bloom, and even up to the time 

 the green berries appear, and then lose all on account of the 

 failure of rain for a few weeks. At such a time the control of 

 a supplemental water-supply is invaluable. 



After the crop is grown the marketing demands much 

 thought and study. Fruit-growers often work too hard and 

 think too little. It pays to study fruits as they come into the 

 market and to mark the different styles in which they are offered. 

 Fruit which is nicely topped, but does not run uniformly 

 throughout the package, may sell well for a time, but in the 

 long run that grower is always sure of a market who has his 

 best fruit at the bottom, and who is willing to stamp his name 

 and post-office address on each package, so that the people 

 who buy his fruit will know whom to address when they want 



more of just the same sort. As an instance of success Mr. 

 Hale cited the case of a man who was careful to select and 

 grade every basket of his strawberries, and in the bottom of 

 each basket he placed a card bearing his name, the name of 

 his farm, with the date and the hour of the day in which the 

 fruit was picked added in stencil, and after all this, in big type, 

 was the legend, " This fruit will cost five cents more a basket 

 than the market price." 



The eye of a buyer must first be pleased, and the value of 

 an attractive style of placing fruit on the market cannot be 

 overstated. A strawberry grower in western Massachusetts 

 found that it paid to put a rosebud on the top of each basket 

 in the crate, for these decorated packages would sell when no 

 other ones were wanted. The most certain way of securing 

 a market for fruit is to establish a reputation. A grower must 

 make his name have a positive value. He must persist in 

 careful selection and uniform packing until buyers know that 

 his berries are certainly of the first quality and can always be 

 relied on. A name which stands for all that is best in the 

 possibilities of fruit-culture will always sell the fruit upon 

 which it is found. 



After all, the home is the best market for American fruit- 

 growers. The average American family uses too little fruit. 

 Farmers, and even orchardists, rarely have enough small fruit. 

 They say it does not pay to raise berries and they can buy all 

 they want. Really they buy a few now and then instead of 

 having an abundant supply every day. Half a bushel of fruit 

 the year through can be profitably disposed of by the average 

 family every day. Every one with half an acre of ground to 

 devote to the purpose can have enough small fruit for home 

 use. This does not mean a few berries in a corner of a garden, 

 but a full line of the standard varieties of all kinds of small 

 fruits planted in long rows, so that they can be cultivated by 

 horse-power, yielding an assured abundance for the table, 

 for canning, etc. Last year a Connecticut farmer kept account 

 of the fruit which he supplied to his family from half an acre 

 of ground. He watched the markets and charged his family 

 with the price of all they consumed, and it amounted to $365, 

 or more than $700 per acre. This was the actual money value 

 of what the consumed fruit would have cost, but the account 

 makes no mention of the pleasure and zest which the product 

 brought to the table in that household, nor of the beauty of the 

 garden, which was an ever-changing picture for the enjoyment 

 of its owner and his family, nor of the advantages from the 

 healthful out-door habits it encouraged, nor of the delights of 

 tasting new fruits, or the hundred other subtle ways in which 

 a garden ministers to mental and physical health. 



NEW AND PROMISING SMALL FRUITS. 



The paper of Mr. J. T. Lovett on this subject covered all 

 kinds of small fruits, but we only have space for the following : 



But little of interest is to be found among new varieties 

 of the Currant. Fay's Prolific is a success with me, and I 

 hear none but good reports of it from any quarter. North 

 Star gives promise of being a valuable variety, especially for 

 the market-grower. Black Champion is an improvement upon 

 the old Black Naples ; the berries are larger and produced in 

 greater abundance. I am told it is of better quality, but to me 

 all the black currants are repulsive, in odor and flavor. The 

 Crandall has some merit for culinary purposes. It is of strong 

 growth, exempt from the attacks of insects and disease and 

 very prolific ; but the fruit is too harsh and austere to be ac- 

 ceptable as a dessert-fruit. The berries are exceedingly large, 

 almost equaling in size the Delaware grape, and are decidedly 

 attractive. The claim that a good jelly can be made from it 

 is founded on fact, as I can bear witness. 



The Industry Gooseberry has not proved as successful with 

 me as it has in many other places. In Monroe County, New 

 York, and upon the Hudson River, it is giving the greatest 

 satisfaction. I also saw it fruiting in perfection in Atlantic 

 County, New Jersey, the past season. Although the best of 

 the foreign varieties I have yet tasted, it loses its leaves pre- 

 maturely and fails to ripen its fruit. 



The dwarf Juneberries have given considerable satisfaction 

 at the east. The chief complaint has been that the plants do 

 not yield heavily enough, and that the berries and foliage arc 

 attacked by a fungus. The variety known as Success is an 

 improvement upon the type in point of size of fruit, quality 

 and productiveness, and has suffered less from the attacks of 

 fungus than the common dwarf variety. It has suffered also 

 to a slight extent. I find the Juneberry much better for canning, 

 pies, etc., than as a dessert-fruit. In its natural slate it lacks 

 flavor, but when cooked it is quite acceptable. 



Eleagnus longipes is an interesting fruit. Did it ripen in late 

 autumn instead of July its value would be greatly enhanced. 



