72 
April, 1m>0. 
and this will permit of their being worked 
by a horse. In the kitchen garden they 
may be put much closer and will probably 
be worked by hand. Common sense should 
dictate what is best in this as in many other 
garden operations. Thousands of straw- 
berry plants are lost annually from careless- 
ness in planting, a result that may readily 
be prevented. Moist, still days are tbe best 
for this work, days that are dry and windy 
the worst. Nothing takes the vitality from 
a plant or tree of any sort more quickly and 
completely than to lie around with its roots 
exposed to drying winds; fibrous roots soon 
become dead and wiry. It is better to car- 
ry the plants in a pail, well moistened with 
water, than to have them dropped ahead. 
Equally important is it that the soil be 
made firm around the plant — so firm that 
that one can hardly pull out the plant. Set 
the plant with its crown even with the sur- 
face of the soil, neither below or above it. 
* * 
* 
Red raspberries in field culture, are plant- 
ed in rows five feet apart and three feet in 
the rows. For the home garden, however, 
they may be set three feet distance each 
plants may 
represents a 
dormant 
plant (A), 
and a plant 
(B) that has 
star ted to 
grow, later 
in the season 
showing the 
young shoot 
(which is to 
form the 
bearing 
cane) both before and after it has been brok- 
en — which is almost sure to happen in hand- 
ling the plants late in the season, and it is 
for this reason that both raspberries and 
blackberries should be planted v hen dor- 
mant, early in the Spring or in the Au- 
tumn. The horizontal line across the plant 
(A) indicates about the depth at which it 
should be set and the oblique line above it 
shows where the old cane should be cut, 
to about five or six inches above ground. 
V 
Cap varieties require more room and may 
convenien t- 
ly be planted 
seven by 
four feet for 
field culture 
and four feet 
apart each 
way in the 
garden. Caps 
do not suck- 
er, but are 
propagated fig. 356 
by bending down tbe ends of the canes 
which root at the tip. Fig.356 shows a plant 
of this class, with the bearing cane of the 
next year. This also is very brittle when it 
has started and the plants should be handled 
gently. Cap raspberries will succeed on 
much lighter soil than is essential to the 
suckering or upright growing varieties and 
it need not be so rich. 
*** 
Blackberries will succeed on sandy or grav- 
elly soil better than any of the other small- 
fruits and when not too poor, such soil will 
produce the best crops. On heavy, rich 
soil the growth of cane is too rank, and they 
are less hardy. A warm, light soil will 
bring blackberries of the best quality. 
Root-cutting Plants. Fig. 371. 
Plant in the field in rows seven f e it apart 
and four feet apart in the rows; in the gar- 
den they may be set five feet by four. 
These distances are for the stronger grow- 
ing kinds, varieties of less robust growth 
may be put at less distances. Growers 
now-a-days seldom plant other than root- 
cutting plants when they can be obtained. 
These are grown from pieces of roots and 
make a fine plant 
with plenty of fib- 
rous and lateral 
roots, worth fully 
double the ordi- 
nary sucker plants. 
We illustrate in 
Figs. 371 and 377 
plants of both 
sorts, AA repre- 
senting a first class 
plant of each class and BB an ordinary one. 
V 
Currants and gooseberries are essential to 
the well-ordered home garden and they 
produce an abundance of fine fruit with 
comparatively little care. So greatly is this 
liberal characteristic abused that they are 
often consigned to fence rows and other ob- 
scure places where they struggle feebly 
among grass and weeds under total neglect. 
Rich, moist soil and clean culture are the 
conditions they demand and tr these they 
respond liberally. A good mulching with 
coarse material applied after the spring 
rains, will be gratefully accepted by them. 
For the gooseberry especially this is essen- 
tial, and when planted in partial shade on a 
Northern exposure it is less liable to mil- 
dew. We have found rotted cow manure 
an exceedingly valuable mulch for the 
gooseberry and even a layer of stones may 
be used to keep the soil moist and cool. The 
bushes also should be kept open by pruning 
so as to admit light and air freely, aiming 
to secure a regular supply of young bearing 
wood. Plants of currants and gooseberries 
should be set four feet by three and the 
tops cut back. Both currants and goose- 
way, and in that case two 
be put in the hill. Fig. 350 
Sucker Plants. Fig. 377. 
berries are gross feeders and will profitably 
absorb plenty of manure. 
Shunter’* Gem, 
Fruit growers have been striving to pro- 
duce varieties of fruit that should possess 
all the good qualities of the classes to which 
they belong. It has often been said that if 
we could get a strawberry that was as pro- 
ductive as the Crescent, as vigorous and 
large as the Sharpless and equal to Prince 
of Berries orHenderson in quality, we should 
have the ideal berry. If the ideal strawber- 
ry is to be a general purpose berry we might 
as well give up looking for it. We are no 
more likely tofind it than we are to find the 
general purpose cow or horse. 
Fruit growing is becoming so specialized 
that we need varieties that are particularly 
strong in some special characteristic, no 
matter if they are weak in others. The grower 
for the distant market must place shipping 
qualities at the head of the special character- 
istics that he desires. The grower for home 
market cares more for size and beauty, 
while both require prolificacy, and neither 
concerns himself very much about quality. 
The amateur and grower for home use place 
quality first and give no special attention to 
other characteristics. 
Shuster’s Gem comes under the head of 
highly specialized varieties. It has the size 
and vigor of Sharpies? and productive- 
ness of Crescent. It is not equal in firmness 
and quality to many others, but it is so heal- 
thy, vigorous, prolific, and presents such 
a fine appearance that the grower for near 
market will find it very profitable, and possi- 
bly it will prove to be a good shipper, but as 
to that I cannot say, not having tested it in 
that particular. We had the Shuster, Bu- 
bach and Crescent growing alongside, and 
some of the students who wished to see what 
they could do in the way of fast picking 
choose the three varieties named on which 
to test their speed. They had all the varie- 
ties on the grounds from which to select 
and of course they chose those where they 
could find the most berries. 
This was at the height of the season and 
the three varieties yielded about alike, but 
in the early and latter part of the season 
both Shuster and Crescent outyielded the 
Bubach. The Shuster is much like the Cre- 
scent in being both early and late. I should 
not speak thus confidently concerning the 
Shuster if it were not for the fact that we 
have a row several rods in length, and in a 
part of the grounds not the best adapted to 
the strawberry. Another fact gives me con- 
fidenceinthe Shuster, viz: it has such pro- 
nounced characteristics that it can hardly 
fail to adapt itself to almost any soil and 
treatment. It will not need petting of any 
kind. No use to ask whether it prefers sandy 
or clay soil. It will grow just where it 
is planted if any variety will. If it possessed 
quality and firmness equal to some other va- 
rieties it might be called a general purpose 
variety, but as stated at the outset, we may 
as well give up looking for that kind of a 
berry. — W. J, Green, Ohio Experimental 
Station, 
