A LITTLE PLACE IN THE COUNTRY. 



Ninth Paper. 



SMALL FRUIT CULTURE. 



N THESE papers last autumn we 

 made some suggestions regarding 

 the planting of small fruits. No 

 imperative rule can be laid down 

 as to the proportion of the area 

 which should be devoted to such 

 a purpose in a country place, but, in general, we 

 should say "rather more than less." In some 

 respects small fruit culture will have advantages 

 over the kindred occupation of the vegetable gar- 

 den. It does not require so much labor, or labor 

 extending over so long a period, and the work 

 is generally ligTiter, and hence, better adapted to 

 our wants. In former papers we have given hints 

 regarding planting the different fruits, and have 

 laid out — on paper — experimental plots of each in 

 order that we might become familiar with the 

 modus operandi. There is more to be learned by 

 the actual handling and planting of a hundred 

 plants than by reading about planting ten thou- 

 sand. So if our hints were followed last autumn, 

 we shall now know how to go at this work, and 

 how much of it we can safely lay out. In the 

 spring time there is so much to be done that work 

 is very apt to begin to crowd us before we are 

 fairly into it. Especially will this be true if we do 

 not perfectly understand the amount of labor that 

 will be required for carrying out our plans. This 

 is one of the things I know from experience, and 

 consequently I know it thoroughly. It is easy to 

 plan more work than we can possibly accomplish, 

 even upon the smallest of country places. 



Knowing, then, the amount of labor and time 

 that will be required, and having had opportunity 

 during the winter to perfect our plans as to the dis- 

 position of our available ground, we should com- 

 mence as early as possible this month and carry the 

 work of fruit-planting directly to a finish. If even 

 so little as two acres are to be planted we must get 

 at it in good season, or the work will intrench upon 

 the time which should be given to the vegetable 

 garden. 



The first point necessary for rapid and successful 

 work will be that the soil should be in good me- 

 chanical condition. It is slow work trying to set 

 strawberry plants in lurnpy earth, and the plants 

 might have a hard time trying to survive in it, if 



opportune rains should not come, and even the 

 heavier and coarser rootlets of the currant and the 

 raspberry cannot begin pumping life into the plant 

 with much vigor unless fine, moist earth is close 

 about them. Even in April the sun and wind will 

 dry off the surface of freshly worked soil very 

 rapidly, and if we have clay land, a few hours ex- 

 posure will make the surface like a mass of small 

 pebbles, a condition very trying both to the hands 

 and the temper. The best way is to have but a 

 small portion of the land worked at once, and have 

 the work on this completed a little after the middle 

 of the day. Then with as many hands as are 

 available, set out the plants upon this portion dur- 

 ing the latter part of the afternoon, and the early 

 evening. If the planting is not all completed then, 

 it will be found in the morning that the night's 

 dews have freshened up the remainder of the plot 

 so that it may be easily worked. It may take a 

 little longer to complete the work in this manner 

 than if the ground were all made ready at once ; 

 but if that had been done and any delay then oc- 

 curred from not having the plants ready, or through 

 lack of sufficient help, or owing to the interference 

 of a storm, the final result would not be so good. 

 It is not our purpose here to give long technical in- 

 structions either in the work of planting or cultivat- 

 ing. For that, each beginner will consult the shelves 

 of his own well-selected horticultural library. But 

 there are a few common-sense rules that even if 

 found there will bear repeating here. 



First. Do not leave plants of any sort exposed to 

 the withering influences of wind and sun. It is the 

 fine roots, the delicate spongioles, that are of the 

 greatest importance to a plant at any stage of its 

 growth ; but particularly so at the beginning of its 

 new (transplanted) career. These are the only 

 roots that can take the requisite food from the 

 soil, and if these are destroyed no recuperation of 

 the plant can take place until new spongioles are 

 formed upon the larger roots. Thus one may un- 

 derstand how the loss of these will necessarily re- 

 tard the plant from starting into new growth. 



An object-lesson, however, is of vastly more 

 value than anything that can be said on paper. 

 To see just how this operates, take a half dozen 

 good strawberry plants, such as have long, fibrous, 



