January, 1918 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



195 



ample supplies for the 

 ordinary sized family. 

 Red and white cur- 

 rant varieties are 

 much alike in flavor, 

 but the black ones 

 are as different as 

 could be imagined. 

 So here for a start 

 are three distinct 

 kinds of easily grown 

 fruits that require but 

 little space. 



A dozen to a score 

 of blackberry plants 

 will give enough fruit 

 for eating fresh, can- 

 ned, or made into 

 jam. If there is 

 space for double the 

 number of plants add 

 the Iceberg, a so- 

 called "white" vari- 

 ety that for home use 

 is interesting and un- 

 usual. Raspberries 

 are much more im- 

 portant, however, so 

 a dozen or a score 

 plants of the red kind 

 will give a fair supply 

 and an equal number 

 of black ones will add 

 both variety and dif- 

 ference of flavor. 

 There are purple and 

 yellow kinds also; but 

 these mostly resemble 

 the red ones in flavor. 

 The purple ones are 

 not as attractive look- 

 ing as the reds, but 

 are specially good for 

 making jam and can- 

 ned berries. The 

 yellow ones are a 

 novelty to many peo- 

 ple because they are 

 rarely seen in the 

 stores. 



Strawberries— 50 to 

 100 plants each, of an 

 early, a midseason, 

 and a late variety- 

 will yield an ample supply of fruit for three 

 weeks or a month before the raspberries start. 

 They start the season in the home garden just 

 about the time the appetite is becoming cloyed 

 with rhubarb; and they start a procession of 

 fruits which, by choosing the right varieties, one 

 may keep moving from June until January or 

 even later, the berries continuing till October 

 thus overlapping the grapes which start to 

 ripen in early September. Thus a suburban 

 lot can be made to meet the needs of the 

 family appetite for fresh fruit for six or 

 even eight months and also supply the home 

 table with canned fruit, jams, jellies and 

 preserves without having any of its space al- 

 lotted to tree fruits of any kind. 



Quick Returns from Judicious Plantings 



I^HAT old rhyme "He who plants pears 

 *■ plants for his heirs" must have been 

 written when people knew very little about 

 home fruit growing and is largely responsible 

 for the belief that one must wait for years 

 before he can gather fruit from his plantation. 

 While certain varieties and certain methods 

 require a great deal of time, there are pre- 

 cocious varieties and short cuts that are 



Why you should not 

 prune a currant in spring. 

 It has flower buds to the 

 very tip 



specially to be commended to the owners of 

 small areas. Many people who don't plant 

 fruit trees at all would probably do so if they 

 knew that they can positively gather a crop 

 within two or three years of the time they set 

 out the nursery stock and every year after. 

 That's better returns than you can get from 

 sowing seed of biennial herbaceous flowers! 

 Some fruit can even be gathered the same season ! 

 Yes, plants of certain varieties (or which have 

 been treated by the nurserymen in certain 

 ways) may be set this spring with the assur- 

 ance that they will start to bear in the summer 

 — the summer of 1918. 



TTNGUARDED theory? Not at all! Look 

 *"^ at some actual facts: 



Last summer I gathered raspberries, cur- 

 rants and gooseberries in my Long Island 

 backyard from plants which until four months 

 previous had been growing in Western New 

 York, and strawberries from plants which until 

 three months before had been growing in 

 southern Maryland! The soil (save the 

 mark!) was anything but favorable, because 

 the builders of the house had spread the sub- 

 soil from the cellar excavation all over the 

 surface, and when I took possession of the 

 place there was only a sparse and scrawny 

 growth of weeds upon it. But that's another 

 story. 



"How did we do it?" We didn't do it at all; 

 we claim no credit. In the case of the straw- 

 berries — Progressive and Superb — the fruit 

 was due to the variety; in the cases of the 

 bush fruits it was due to the nurseryman. 

 The two strawberry varieties would have 

 borne a few fruits in June had we allowed 

 them to do so, but we wanted fruit later in the 

 season so strengthened the plants by removing 

 the blossom buds, as soon as they appeared, 

 up to the middle of July. Thus we got straw- 

 berries from August until October, when frost 

 spoiled the fruit. The raspberry, currant 

 and gooseberry plants had been transplanted 

 in the nursery so they had specially strong 

 root systems and were thus ready to bear fruit 

 the first season. To be sure, these plants 

 cost about 50 per cent, more than one year 



plants; but what family gardener would hesi- 

 tate to pay even double for plants which will 

 enable him to save a full year in getting fruit, 

 especially when the superior, transplanted 

 plants cost only 50 cents to $1.00 a dozen? 

 With proper care such plants will increase in 

 productivity for the next two years reaching 

 a steady and high annual yield and keeping 

 it up for ten or fifteen years. 



Early Bearing Tree Fruits 



T X7"HAT fruit trees will give earliest re- 

 y» turns? Before answering that ques- 

 tion it seems necessary to state the funda- 

 mental principle that, with two exceptions, 

 fruit trees should not be older than two 

 years when bought from the nurseryman. 













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Fruit trees trained as dwarfs to a trellis may be used in 

 very formal schemes 



One of these exceptions is the peach which 

 should never be older than one-year when 

 purchased. The other is that trees which 

 have been specially prepared in the nursery 

 by root pruning, etc., may be three or four 

 years old; trees of these ages not so treated are 

 sure to prove disappointing. In some cases 

 they may bear a few fruits the same year as 

 they are planted in the orchard but usually not 

 until the next season. It is better for general 

 planting, however, to rely upon two-year trees, 

 better still to choose one year specimens if 



Last year's berry cane will throw put lateral shoots which bear flowers and fruit. Remember this when tempted to trim 

 up in spring. Only cut out canes that have fruited 



