SMALL FRUITS A^TD HOW HE GROWS THEM 
A Glass of Berries Pliotofrraphed, exact size.* 
The Marshall. 
The Bismark. 
whole strength of the plant and develops at the 
expense of all the rest, hence the berries in the 
box are so uneven in size they do not present 
an attractive appearance. 
Growers have generally fruited their beds 
two or three years and then used the runners 
to start a new bed. The old standard sorts 
have been largely run out by this method of 
cultivation. 
A few tnore careful growers have taken 
from plants set the previous year but generally 
from " titnian plants " or the last formed along 
the edge of the full matted row, but not hav- 
ing enough they resort to the old bed to com- 
plete the number required, and next year 
taking from the new beds indiscriminately 
produces a mongrel mass. 
Where beds are allowed to fruit two or 
three years the ground is covered with inferior 
berries too small to pick. These are culti- 
*The illustrations are photo-engrraved from the original 
berries, expressly for this work. 
vated in and the seeds grow. They 
resemble the parent plant but are very 
inferior, coming as they do from the 
poorest berries. 
These mongrel seedlings usually inake 
runners in great profusion and soon 
crowd out the genuine plants. Nursery- 
men have contributed to the production 
of mongrel plants by making plant grow- 
ing a side issue and maintaining "stock 
beds " for several years, often selecting 
the low or muckland for the purpose, 
because plants form rapidly on such soil. 
A TEST. 
Take a Pedigree Plant and set by the 
side of a common mongrel plant, and 
give both high culture. Notice that the 
Pedigree Plant throws out strong run- 
ners and its crowns form rapidly, while 
the mongrel plant will throw its whole 
strength into making a profusion of run- 
ners, and in the fall the mother plant 
will have very few or no extra crowns 
and the runners will have few double 
crowns. The following season the differ- 
ence in the berries will be very marked, 
both in size and quality of fruit. 
This experiment we have tried time 
and again, with the same results. The 
vigor of the plants set makes the differ- 
ence between big crops with large profits 
and little crops and no profits. 
CONDITIONS OF SUCCESS. 
We may now condense 
what has been said in 
previous pages into the 
following propositions: 
I. Like begets like 
in plants as well as an- 
imals, and a scrub can- 
not beget a thorough- 
bred. 
II. A runner from a 
scrub plant makes a 
new scrub plant, and 
a runner taken from a 
thoroughbred plant possesses the good 
quality of its parent 
III. After a plant has once produced a 
heavy crop of berries its fruiting vigor is so 
impaired that plants should 
never be taken from it to 
start a new bed. 
IV. Unrestricted pollen 
bearing produces impotency 
and the seed-bearing stamina 
of the plant governs the de- 
velopment of fruit. 
V. The low price at which 
our Pedigree Plants can be 
obtained does not justify the 
plants. A scrub plant cannot respond to lib- 
eral culture because it has no power to do so. 
VI. The difference between a big crop of 
high priced berries and a small crop of low 
priced berries is often decided by the vigor of 
plants alone. 
VII. Success comes from love of fruit grow- 
ing and making money out of it. 
GROW YOUR OWN PLANTS. 
The propagating bed is the fruit growers' 
gold mine. Select high ground, loamy soil, 
make it moderately rich and set plants four 
BoinxG Down. 
Wild Berry. 
use of scrub 
