PART SIXTH: SMALL FRUITS. 
CHAPTER 2CeXIII,. 
BERRIES AND CURRANTS. 
In suitable soiis and situations, and with proper care and 
cultivation, the small fruits sustain the general reputation of 
California by the size and quality of the product, and by the 
long-continued and abundant fruiting of the plants. Probably 
nowhere else in the world do small fruits better repay generous 
treatment than in this State, and probably nowhere do they suf- 
fer more from neglect. There are parts of the State, of course, 
where some small fruits, left to their own resources, thrive and 
bear abundantiy, but, speaking of the State as a whole, the price 
of success is intelligent devotion on the part of the grower. 
There are localities in California which favor almost contin- 
uous growth and fruiting of some of the small fruits, and it is no 
fiction to say that in such a place one may have raspberries and 
strawberries upon his table every month of the year. Such sit- 
uations are the thermal belts, which are practically frostless, 
and, by securing favoring moisture conditions in the soil and 
proper varieties of the fruits, the existing teniperature conditions 
will produce the results indicated. Though this be the case, 
the profitable growth of small fruits is not, of course, restricted 
to such situations, but the largest commercial enterprises are 
carried on in places where the summer-crop rule prevails, but 
the bearing season is much longer than in the eastern States. 
Small fruits for family use may be grown on all fertile soils, 
and therefore they should be produced on every farm. Grow- 
ing for market on a large scale involves considerations of suit- 
ability of soil and climate, ease of cultivation, water supply, and 
facilities for transportation, which will probably occur to any 
one who gives the matter the thought and personal observation 
of existing small fruit farms, which such an important com- 
mercial venture should command. 
Preparation of soil for small fruits should be most thorough 
and careful. Even more generous work than that commended 
in Chapter X for trees and vines should be done. It is the more 
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