SMALL FRUITS AND HOW HE GROWS THEM 
The crust forms over this excluding air from the 
roots and soil and the water draws up to the sur- 
face so the roots are dried out and injured. If the 
top of the ground is dry the runners will not send 
down their roots but continue to live on the 
mother plant, forming several plants on the same 
runner which blows around in the wind and does 
not take root until the fall rains come, and then it 
has no time to make and perfect its fruit buds and 
roots and so the next season cannot bring its 
berries to full size and maturity. 
If the ground is rich the plants will mat so 
thickly that sun light is excluded from the lower 
foliage and the crowns. Fruit buds which will not 
form in dense shade will be lacking. Many of the 
berries are too small to pick, and rot on the vines 
and sap the vitality of the plant, thus preventing 
the better berries from growing to full size. 
I urge all niy customers who want to make a 
reputation for growing fine, large, even sized, 
beautiful berries to adopt the first two methods. 
FALL SETTING OF PLANTS. 
We wish it distinctly understood that we will 
not furnish plants for summer and fall setting at 
any price. People have sent here for plants in 
the fall giving them no time to establish them- 
selves and form fruit buds and roots. In the spring 
blossoms start at once taxing the resources of the 
plant to exhaustion because of lack of rootage, and 
the berries secured so deplete the vitality of the 
plant that only a moderate crop can be secured the 
following year, thus injuring my reputation as a 
breeder of thoroughbred plants. 
The Value of Pedigree Plants is in the potency 
of their pollen and general ability to develop 
fruit and I must insist that they shall have a fair 
chance to demonstrate their good qualities; for this 
reason we have decided to furnish plants only for 
spring setting. 
SETTING PLANTS. 
The great point is to have all the roots straight 
and separated from each other and imbedded in 
soft mellow earth so that new feeding roots can 
start out in every direction without any hindrance 
and thus secure a vigorous growth at once. 
The spade is quite generally used, but in the 
"hands of a careless man it is about the most villan- 
ous tool ever used for the purpose. The first ob- 
jection is that when forced into the ground, 
moved back and foith and sideways it makes a 
glazed surface and when closed by the foot in the 
ordinary way incases the roots in a veritable 
The Wrong Way 
A "Rat Home" 
C Bottom of hole not 
cloaeil.) 
pocket and if dry weather follows the glazed sur- 
face will dry out and no feeding root can pene- 
trate it. Dig a plant up a week afterwards and 
find the little white rootlets tracing up and down 
Cyclone 
the old root to find a crack in this "plastered 
wall" through which it can penetrate to the mel- 
low soil just beyond. No good growth can be 
had under such circumstances. If the ground 
be moderately loamy or clay the weight of a man 
will not close the bottom of the cavity. 
Too Deep 
Too Shallow 
Set a plant and step on it in the usual way and 
then dig down by the side of it and see 
how many "rat homes" you will find with roots 
hanging in the free open air. You will be sur- 
prised to find that often more than half are ex- 
posed. Another objection is that the lower ends 
of roots are buried too deep. The rotits of a plant 
spread out in all directions and coming near the 
surface feel the warmth of the sun and send out 
feeders nuich sooner. Notice the natural tendency 
in roots to run near the surface when taking them 
up in propagating bed. 
Use the spade this way. Let a man go ahead of 
the setter, force the spade straight down two- 
thirds the length of the blade, then draw the han- 
dle towards him about ten inches, force one inch 
deeper, push from him far enough to make the 
earth stay and withdraw the spade, thus leaving 
the opening so the bottom is easily closed. Quick- 
ly insert the hand rub off the glazed surface and 
take a few roots from one side of the plant, hold- 
ing crown in left hand, deftly drag the roots side- 
ways into the opening and when all spread out 
evenly and center of crown just even with surface 
of ground quickly fill the cavity, piling the earth 
so that when stepped on it will be perfectly level 
around the plant. 
17 
