SMALL FRUITS AND HOV HE GROWS THEM 
Scarcely a town in the country is supplied at 
all with large, luscious blackberries. 
Under the new system of establishing- the 
patch every cane is loaded with large, luscious 
berries of the most delicious flavor and gives a 
big crop every year because the ground is filled 
with a dense mass of roots making root pastur- 
age of every square inch of the soil for several 
feet around the plant, furnishing it an abun- 
dance of food to sustain it in bringing its great 
load of fruit to full maturity without exhaust- 
ing the plant. 
How it is done. Pursue the same method 
explained in breeding up strawberries. Find 
all the ideal canes bearing the finest fruit, and 
not over two years old. Early in the fall dig 
them up and cut roots in pieces about three 
inches long and pack in boxes of clean, coarse, 
sharp sand and place in a cold cellar regulated 
with ice so the thermometer will stand at 35 
degrees. An ordinary cellar will not do, for if 
allowed to get too warm the cuttings will com- 
mence to grow and all be spoiled. If allowed 
to freeze they will not callus and thus fail to 
emit sufficient roots. 
What is a callus? It is a law of nature 
that when a root is cut or injured the plant will 
repair the damage by sending out new roots, 
but no new root will start until a callus 
is formed. Certain wood cells and a gristle- 
like substance must form, and out of this callus 
the roots start. The process requires time and 
goes on at a low temperature and the longer 
the root is kept in this dormant condition the 
more calluses there will be. 
Roots prepared in October form calluses in 
great numbers before planting time the follow- 
ing May, when the cuttings are placed in 
nursery rows in rich, moist, sandy soil about 
three inches apart and one and a half deep. It 
is quite difficult to make them grow properly 
without irrigation. // the roots get dry they 
will fail. If buried too deep they damp off and 
die. Low spring or cold ground will not do. 
They must have frequent cultivation and not a 
weed allowed to grow among them. As soon 
as dormant in the fall, the plants are carefully 
taken up and roots trimmed to the proper 
length and again packed in coarse sharp sand 
so it is solid around every root and kept as in 
the first winter, when calluses form all along 
the sides and ends of roots so that when planted 
out where they are to fruit in the spring 
myriads of roots will start at one time and at 
the end of the season the ground will be full of 
fine feeding roots as above described. In keep- 
ing them in the callusing cellar it should be 
supplied with ice, for if perchance the cellar 
gets too warm the plants will grow and be 
lost. We are thus able to send them to custo- 
mers while dormant and early in the spring. 
The common way is, as in the case of .rasp- 
berries, to let a patch fruit as long as it will 
and then mow off the tops and let suckers come 
up from between the rows and the next season 
dig them up and start a new patch. Of course 
the weakness and exhaustion of the old patch 
is carried into the new. The roots on the plant 
are few and commence growing always from 
the end, and I have seen them extend several 
rods away, while near the canes the ground 
would not be occupied at all. The sap having 
to come through these long roots to the leaves 
for assimilation they are continuously sending 
up suckers which become a nuisance. 
Digging SHclier plants destroys a plantation 
very quickly and causes the sucker nuisance to 
increase. . . ^ 
In cutting the roots, depriving the plant ot 
its feeders when soon to be loaded with fruit, 
exhausts and renders it unfruitful. Treat all 
suckers as weeds and cut them off a little under 
the surface. 
The location should not be on low or marshy 
ground. High land is better. 
Hardiness of blackberries depends on get- 
ting a vigorous growth ear'y in the spring and 
maintaining it all summer. Many growers 
stop the cultivator before berry picking begins. 
The ground is packed by the feet of the pick- 
ers; the water passes out and the berries dry 
up; growth stops and buds form as if for win- 
ter. Later the fall rains come and these buds 
which should have formed late in the fall start 
to grow and do not mature before winter sets in, 
so it only requires a moderate freeze to kill 
these ' sappy " half-ripened canes. 
The enemy of blacltberry growing is the 
summer drouth. All this can be managed with 
entire success. As soon as the ground is dry 
enough in the spring start the Planet Jr. horse 
hoe, cultivate every five days unless it rains, 
but cultivate immediately after the rain or as 
soon as dry enough and always after every 
picking the same day. 
Keep a fine dust mulch on the ground all 
the time till the first of August and later if 
there is not art abundance of rain. The wood 
will ripen all right and as solid as an oak 
plank if you do not let growth stop during the 
great strain of maturing the crop. Never let 
the cultivator go deep enough to touch the roots 
but keep it going all summer. If any one tells 
you there is no need of so much cultivating 
and that a re-callused root cutting plant is not 
worth twenty times as much as a sucker plant, 
tell them for me thev know nothing about 
great crops of blackberries and how to grow 
them. Do not pick oftener than twice per 
week. The berries should have been black at 
least two days before picking, then they are 
very sweet. A green berry is very sour. Let 
them get fully ripe. 
VARIETIES OF BLACKBERRIES. 
We are able to furnish two-year blackberry 
plants, which are fully three times the size of 
ordinary root-cutting plants, and will produce 
the next year fully half of a large crop and sec- 
ond year be in full bearing. 
All the plants here offered are large root-cut- 
ting plants, re-callused, and under good treat- 
ment will produce double the fruit every year 
of those grown from common plants. The cal- 
lusing process is a great triumph in blackberry 
culture. 
The Western Triumph. On my farm at 
Ionia it has been the leading berry for nineteen 
years, and has never failed to yield a large and 
profitable crop. I have never given it winter 
protection, and have never known of a failure 
if properly cultivated. It is of good size, free 
from core and has a delicious flavor. Season 
early. One-year plants, 40c per doz., SI. 50 per 
100 and $9.00 per 1,000. Two-year transplants, 
very large and fine, SOc per doz., $2.00 per 100 
and $12.00 per 1,000. . 
Taylor Prolific. Follows the Western Tri- 
umph in season. It is regarded as very hardy. 
In quality it is probably the richest berry 
grown, having that sweet aromatic flavor pecu- 
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