528 



SOME FINE EARLY APPLES IN MY GARDEN. 



after spring cultivating, shade the ground. I tie my 

 canes to a wire, fastened to stakes, set 20 feet apart. 

 Having made sure of the bushes being kept well in 

 place, I cut them oif at six feet from the ground. This 

 insures a shaded soil. The advantage is not small 

 while picking, for we are quite well shaded ourselves. 

 This plan refers, of course, to red raspberries. Blacks 

 I tie to stakes, or cut short and leave them to them- 

 selves. But if you expect a raspberry stool to last 

 many years, you must not cut it in summer. I can grow 

 blacks for five years without renewal on a rational sys- 

 tem, but close cutting spoils them in two or three years. 



The varieties now of most value are, of reds : (i) 

 Cuthbert for main crop. It is a wonderful berry, and 

 in growth is superb. The fruit is always large and 

 always abundant, even under neglect. It can easily be 

 made to average as large as robins' eggs. Some neat 

 baskets look like Bubach strawberries. In flavor it is 

 not quite the best, but is very good. (2) For very early, 

 one might plant a few of Thompsons', but it is not market- 

 able except it is very early. (3) For a superfine flavor, 

 plant a few Turner, if you are willing to take special 

 care of them. Unfortunately, it easily runs wild and 

 fruitless. (4) Shaffer's Colossal has a monstrous 

 berry in size, is an immense cropper and excellent in 

 quality. Be sure to try them canned. The flavor is 

 best. {5) Golden Queen is a fine yellow, grows well, 

 and bears admirably. It is much like Cuthbert. As a 

 family berry, it is excellent. 



I do not see what more could be wanted than these 

 for family use. Perhaps a market list would be : 

 Turner or Marlboro, Shaffer, Cuthbert. The last must 

 always be held to cover main crop. It has color, 



solidity, size, prolific bearing and fair flavor. The 

 main points required are size and color. But the 

 Cuthbert cans well. It looks well after being placed in 

 the cans. Housewives demand such a fruit. Shaffer 

 sells less readily. It is, however, well to have a few 

 rows of other sorts besides Cuthbert. 



It is curious how much ignorance rules in fruit buy- 

 ing. Color is really a bad test. White currants are 

 refused by nearly all buyers, but they are much the 

 finer for eating, and they make a beautiful red jelly. 

 Cuthbert is not the best red raspberry for a cultivated 

 patch — Clarke, Turner and Pride of Hudson are far 

 better — but its color is just right. 



Of black raspberries, I believe the best early is 

 Palmer and the best late Gregg. Good for succession 

 are Palmer, Ada, Hilborn and Gregg. Earheart is a 

 fairly good berry and has the advantage of giving con- 

 tinuous crops For family use, a very good early sort 

 is Davison's Thornless, owing to its lack of thorns, good 

 flavor and fair size. Black raspberries sometimes glut 

 the market, and should be grown extensively only as a 

 crop for evaporation and export. 



Any one can manage a raspberry row in his garden, 

 and every family should have one. The three family 

 fruits after apples are currants, cherries and raspber- 

 ries. I allow seedlings to come up about my vineyard 

 and so get new roots. 



For a given space of ground in small fruits I get most 

 money from blackberries ; next, from raspberries. The 

 blackberry, however, is not always a sure crop, even 

 with Snyder, Taylor and Agawam. Besides, the ad- 

 vantage is with the raspberry for ease of culture. 



Oneida Co., N. Y. E. P. Powell. 



SOME FINE EARLY APPLES IN MY GARDEN. 



ARLY apples are not grown to 

 the extent they should be per- 

 haps, or would be, if all fruit 

 growers really knew how many 

 valuable sorts were at their 

 disposal. Without much in- 

 vestigation, and content to do 

 pretty much as his father did, 

 or his neighbors do, the average grower or farmer, 

 when he plants and orchard, orders only the Sweet 

 Bough and Early Harvest, or Astrachan for his 

 early sorts. Neither of these are inclined to bear 

 early or prove very productive at first ; nor is the 

 fruit fair and fine while the trees are young. Thus 

 the grower is not filled with rose-colored impressions, 

 and he is apt to regret that he did not plant more 

 late and less early apples. It is also true that the 

 demand for early apples in the markets is much 

 more limited than for the winter sorts. Ripe fruit 

 in July and August is usually in great variety and 



supply ; luscious berries flood the market, pears and 

 peaches begin their plenteous reign. Like all these, 

 the early apple is also perishable and cannot well 

 be held for price. But notwithstanding all this and 

 more, which I fully anticipate and grant, there is 

 still a most important place in the galaxy of summer 

 fruits which nothing but a good early apple can fill. 

 If this were not so we should not have the fruit. Sati. 

 ated with the berry tribe, saturated with Georgia 

 melon juice, and disgusted, shall I say, with the 

 flavorless though attractive California fruits, how 

 pleasant and delightful it is to turn to a delicious, 

 tender, melting, juicy, sub acid and beautiful July 

 apple ! So quickly grown ; why it seems only a few 

 short weeks ago that the trees were pink with blos- 

 soms, and but a few days ago that we sprayed the 

 young fruit against the attacks of insects, and now 

 here are the apples, ripe and mellow, dropping in 

 our hands, or on the ground, if we are so careless as 

 to permit it, for they were not made to linger upon 



