THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



109 



138. How your strawberry bed should look a year 

 from planting. Keep the rows narrow by uprooting 

 all straggling runners. Have a clean soft mulch of 

 straw to Keep the berries clean and prevent the 

 soil-moisture from escaping. Why eat sand ? 



Usually it will not be necessary to stake or 

 trellis the brambles the first season. 



If vou desire to increase your planting of 

 raspberries another year, "tip" some of 

 your plants. When the canes bend down, 

 and long, whitish ends appear, cover these 

 firmly in the ground three or four inches 



139. Haverland — one of the best all-around 

 strawberries for the home garden. Often grows an 

 inch and three-quarters long 



140. A pot-grown strawberry. Plant these in July 

 or August and you will get a fair amount of good 

 fruit the very next spring, thus saving a year. They 

 cost about ten cents each 



deep. In the spring the tips will have rooted 

 and can be cut off and transplanted. 



PREPARATIONS FOR WINTER 



In the fall, the small fruit garden of the 

 Northern States must be tucked in snugly 

 for the winter. After the ground has frozen, 

 not before, make the strawberries comfort- 

 able with a heavy mulch of manure and 

 straw. Strawy stable manure is preferable, 

 if it does not contain many weed seeds, which 

 will make trouble later. Get rotted manure, 

 if possible, as the weed seeds in it are likely 

 to have been killed. Dress the top of the 

 strawberry bed liberally with manure, cover- 

 ing the space between the rows as well as the 

 plants themselves. Then put on an extra 

 quilt of clean straw — the cleaner the better. 

 If straw is not handy, use hay or leaves; 

 sometimes cornstalks are used, but this is 

 usually not a good practice as they frequently 

 smother the plants. Two to four inches 

 of this material, when packed, will keep the 

 plants from winter injury, the amount de- 

 pending upon the location of the garden. 



The raspberries and blackberries require 

 no special care at this time, except in those 

 Northern States where the canes are likely 

 to be winter killed. In the home garden 

 this danger can be avoided with a little 

 trouble. Dig out a few shovelfuls of earth 

 from all along one side of the row and have 

 another person push over the tops of the 

 canes with a fork. Then cover the tips with 

 sufficient earth to hold them down during 

 the winter. The bent canes will not be as 

 liable to winter injury as the canes which 

 stand upright. In very severe climates the 

 canes may be covered completely with soil. 



Fall is a good time to put several generous 

 forkfuls of manure around each currant, 

 gooseberry, raspberry and blackberry bush. 

 All small fruits are hearty eaters and their 

 special weakness in the way of victuals is 

 rotted manure. This manure should be 

 worked well into the soil the following 

 spring. 



Usually it is best not to prune the berries 

 until early spring, when danger of winter 

 injury is past. When the raspberries and 

 blackberries begin bearing, the second year, 

 the fruiting canes will be cut off after the 

 berries have been picked; but all other 

 pruning, except the pinching of young shoots, 

 is best delayed till spring. 



The currants and gooseberries should 

 begin to give you considerable satisfaction 

 at the table the third year after planting; the 

 raspberries and blackberries ought to make 

 your mouth water frequently the second year, 

 and be the envy of your neighbors the third 

 year; the strawberries, if you give them a 

 chance, will marvelously increase the num- 

 ber of your callers during June and July 

 of the second year, and make your oldest boy 

 want to be a fruit grower. As to the care 

 of the small fruit garden in after years, which 

 cannot be discussed in this article, it is all 

 simple to the man who really wants to grow 

 his own berries, and is not averse to getting 

 his hands into the soil occasionally. Small 

 fruits are pre-eminently adapted for the 

 millions of home gardeners, because they are 



141. Orange rust — an 

 incurable disease of 

 blackberries. If taking 

 suckers from a neighbor, 

 throw away all plants 

 with yellow spots on the 

 under side of the leaves 



142. Gooseberry mil- 

 dew attacks English vari- 

 eties more than Ameri- 

 can. Dust the leaves 

 with sulphur or spray 

 with potassium sulphide 

 in water 



easier to grow than tree fruits, and bring 

 quick returns. The man who has only 

 a small lot on which to satisfy his gar- 

 dening instincts must decide how he can 

 use his space to the best advantage. If 

 the tree fruits are planted so close that 

 they jostle each other, disappointment is 

 almost sure to follow. This is not say- 

 ing that it will not pay to try some of 

 the tree fruits if there is room for them. 

 But the majority of people had better 

 give most of their ground to vegetables and 

 small fruits. In the small home garden, 

 a certain number of dollars, and a certain 

 amount of industry and skill, will usually 

 bring far larger returns when invested in 

 small fruits than in tree fruits. If you 

 have a bit of land about the house which 

 ought to be earning something, try a small 

 fruit garden. There is some profit and a 

 world of pleasure in it if you love to see 

 plants grow as well as I do. 



' N 



143. A raspberry plant diseased with root gall. 

 Never set out a plant with a gall on it. The whole 

 row may become affected and there is no cure for 

 the disease 



