Small Fruits for the Home Garden— By Peter s. whitcomb 



HOW TO GROW BIG, LUSCIOUS BERRIES OF THE BEST KINDS FOR HOME USE— BERRIES 

 THAT WILL BE THE ENVY OF YOUR NEIGHBORS AND THE DESPAIR OF THE GROCER 



New 

 York 



Photographs from the Horticultural Department of Cornell University 



SMALL fruits are the joy of the amateur 

 gardener. They are as easy to grow as 

 vegetables, they take little space, and they 

 give quick results. The man who has only 

 a city or suburban lot can hardly afford to 

 give any of his valuable space to the culture 



131. Pale Red Gooseberry. An American variety 

 which is a special favorite in the home garden. 

 American gooseberries are as easy to grow as cur- 

 rants. Good ones should be an inch long 



of tree fruits. Moreover, tree fruits do not 

 come into bearing until three to ten years 

 from planting. The home-maker can get 

 results the second and third years with small 

 fruits. If there is room for tree fruits, he 

 can plant some of the small fruits, prefer- 

 ably strawberries and raspberries, between 

 the rows of trees; but this practice is not to 

 be recommended except when it is absolutely 

 necessary on account of limited space. The 

 majority of people who have a little land 

 back of the house which can be planted 

 immediately choke it up with fruit trees, 

 planted ten feet apart, and then grow vege- 

 tables between the trees. Nine times out 

 of ten, it would have been better to have 

 left out the tree fruits altogether, for they 

 rarely do themselves justice when cramped 

 in this way. A row or two of currants, 

 raspberries, and a bed of strawberries, will 

 usually give far more satisfaction than the 

 three or four trees which the same area of 

 ground could support. A bearing plum 

 tree ought to have not less than a circle of 

 soil sixteen feet across. On this same circle 

 of soil can be grown to perfection ten currant 

 bushes, or twelve gooseberry bushes, or a 

 row of raspberries or blackberries twenty- 

 eight feet long, or enough strawberries to fill 

 the saucers of all the family for many an 

 evening meal. 



PREPARING THE SOIL 



Do not be deterred from having a small 

 fruit garden because your soil is not just 

 what the books recommended. A lot of 

 nonsense has been written and passed along 

 concerning the critical tastes about the soil 

 they grow in, of different fruits and vege- 



tables. Fruits do have preferences, but they 

 are not nearly so particular in this respect 

 as some persons would try to make us believe. 

 They have a comfortable way of adapting 

 themselves to almost any kind of soil, pro- 

 vided it is not very rocky, nor very shallow, 

 nor very wet. If you do not have satisfactory 

 results with small fruits, it is much more 

 likely to be your fault than the fault of the 

 soil. 



Whatever may be the character of your 

 soil at first, you can usually make it con- 

 genial to small fruits by careful treatment. 

 If the land is wet, drain it. A trench four 

 or five feet deep, filled with stones for two 

 feet, then covered with flat stones, and the 

 dirt filled in, will answer. Tile drains are 

 better. The soil ought to be full of manure. 

 Small fruits are mostly water — sweetened 

 water, that is all. Those strawberries we 

 are trying to grow are over 95 per cent, 

 water. A liberal dressing of manure not 

 only enriches the soil, but it also helps it to 

 hold more water. Therefore, before plow- 

 ing, put on a heavy dressing of manure, 

 two to four inches deep. Well-rotted stable 

 manure is preferable. Plow deep. On very 

 small areas, the manure may be spaded 

 under, but make this "trenching" deep. In 

 most cases, no other fertilizer will be needed, 

 but sometimes a liberal sprinkling of lime 

 and of ashes is beneficial. Unleached wood 

 ashes (not coal ashes), make an excellent 

 fertilizer to go with the manure, either before 

 planting or thereafter. Having plowed or 

 spaded the ground, work it up well with a 

 harrow or iron rake, until it is mellow and 

 free from lumps. 



CHOOSING THE VARIETIES 



132. Fay currant — a standard sort which suc- 

 ceeds almost everywhere. How do these bunches 

 compare with the miserable little clusters of half- 

 crushed berries that you buy at the grocer's ? 

 (Reduced from berries one-half inch long) 



106 



When you come to the point of choosing 

 varieties — go slow. Do not make your de- 

 cisions from the nurseryman's catalogue, or 

 the agent's advice. Seek out neighbors who 

 have grown small fruits successfully for 

 several years. Their advice is worth a 

 great deal to you, and it is usually freely 

 given — contact with the soil and Nature's 

 bounty usually makes a man generous in 

 this respect, though he be an Old Scrooge, 

 otherwise. 



Select the varieties which have done best 

 in your neighborhood, and which answer 

 your purpose. Avoid novelties; cling to 

 the standards. Remember that varieties 

 for the home garden should be of high quality ; 

 and that, if possible, they should ripen at 

 different seasons, giving a succession of fruit. 

 The selection of varieties is such a local 

 question, on account of marked variations 

 in soil, climate, and other factors, that it is 

 altogether unwise to recommend certain sorts 

 for general planting everywhere. There are, 

 however, a few of the standard varieties 

 which are generally considered to be more 

 cosmopolitan than others. These the home 

 fruit grower should know about; some of 

 them he may find to be successful in his 

 neighborhood. Among these may be men- 

 tioned, Haverland, Parker Earle, Marshall, 

 Gandy, Bubach, Clyde and Glen Mary 

 strawberries; Cuthbert, Marlboro, Gregg, 

 Early Ohio, and Palmer raspberries; Early 

 Harvest, Snyder, Agawam, and Rathbun 

 blackberries; Cherry, Fay, White Dutch, 

 and White Grape currants; Downing, Pale 

 Red, Pearl and Industry gooseberries; and 

 the Lucretia dewberry. These are only a 

 few of the standard sorts, which seem to do 

 well under a greater variety of conditions 

 than most sorts. In choosing varieties, be 

 guided by the experience in your neighbor- 

 hood, not by my advice or the advice of any 

 other outsider. 



ORDERING THE PLANTS 



Order your plants now if you are to plant 

 this spring. Order early and plant early. 

 Late planting often causes small fruits to 

 die or to make a poor start. Deal with a 

 nurseryman whom you know, or who has 

 been recommended to you by a satisfied cus- 

 tomer. One of the most satisfactory things 

 about the home berry garden is that the plants 

 cost so little in proportion to the pleasure 

 and profit they bring. In fact, most of the 

 plants can usually be secured from a neigh- 

 bor, without cost. The neighbor who is not 

 glad to let you dig a few strawberry plants 

 from his bed, a few suckers from his rows 

 of blackberries and red raspberries, and a 

 few tips from his black raspberries ought to 

 be ostracised. If you are not planning to 

 plant until next year, even the currant and 



